I am an inversion addict! I admit it. I understand and am
committed to living in the awareness that yoga is more than a physical practice.
For the most part, I endeavour to find balance between yang and yin in my
practice and life, but some days life just happens, and I skip parts of my practice.
However, it is rare for me to skip going upside down at least once during the
day.
Why? What are the benefits? I could give you the generic
list that can be easily found through Google. Instead, I’ll tell you my inversion
journey and story. So, . . . . . here it is!
Beginnings are super exciting yet can also be
paralyzingly scary. I get it! My mind loves to get involved (a bit too involved) before I even begin something. I want the excitement of something new, and the
benefits that I envision RIGHT NOW! But, I get bogged down in the
perceived details, the unfamiliar and the unknown, which sometimes prevents me from starting. This can happen when wanting to start a
yoga practice. Having been approached for advice by a few people on how to get
started with yoga, I've broken this beginning into three manageable steps.
As I take time to honour the beginning of this new year, I reflect on my word for 2018 to let it sink in. I gave up new year's resolutions long ago and instead choose a word to shape my year to come. In the beginning, I actively chose the words to reflect what I wanted to create. These last couple of years, the words have simply come to me, and I trust that I'm intuitively setting myself up for a state of mind, way of being, attitude, etc. that for whatever reason I will be needing that year.
This year has been a year that has asked me
to step up. The last few years have been about a journey to come back to myself
and discover, possibly for the first time since I was a child, who I truly am. I
love learning, I love to explore, and I am most comfortable (for the most part)
in the background. But, something about this year told me that it was time to
come forward, time to share and time to be seen. Maybe every year I am called
to do different tasks and just never heard them before. Or maybe I have heard
the calls in the past, but what was being asked just felt too scary at the
time. For whatever reason, this year I heard the definite call and despite the
fear, I have had the strength to follow through.
There have been three things in the last
few years that have made a huge difference in my life and my journey – yoga,
breath work, and gratitude. I have now had the opportunity to share all three
of these things and pass along the knowledge that was given and passed down to
me. I have been honoured to witness the growth of our teacher trainees as I
help to guide them deeper into the magical practice of yoga. I had the
opportunity to share the power of breath work to educators at the Southeastern
Alberta Teacher’s Convention. Finally, last night I shared the influence that
gratitude has had on my life.All of
these things have challenged me, scared me and pushed me far outside of my
comfort zone. Thank you to all of you who have been present for one or more of
these offerings and thank you for giving me this space to share and be seen. If
there is anything I can help you with in your journey or any more information
you would like, do not hesitate to reach out ❤️
Yoga You4ia teacher trainers Roxanne & Salli
What yoga teachers do when they're not teaching at the studio . . . . . . have fun with yoga in other places!
With just over a month until our teacher
training at Yoga You4ia begins, I thought I would answer the question . . . . .
Why take a yoga teacher training? I
could give you all of the generic, general answers, but if you’re reading this,
then I know that you have access to the internet and it’s easy for our friend
Google to help you find those answers. Instead, I thought I’d share what motivated ME to do yoga teacher trainings.
The crown chakra was the focus for this week's classes. This energetic centre is very much about finding your perfection, finding your truth, and finding your connection within and with yourself. My ongoing journey has very much been about coming back to a connection with myself. I will forever be grateful and indebted to my teacher David Goulet and my training at Pyramid Yoga. This is where it truly began for me and where it was emphasized that there is no guru greater than the guru within. David was there to give us the information, show us the techniques and have us experience what had worked for him, but if we discovered, through experience, that it wasn't right for us . . . . it wasn't our way . . . then we needed to let it go. It was one of the first times I experienced a teacher and teaching that didn't expect me to blindly follow their way and their system. I was taught and continue to follow the idea that things need to be experienced before I can determine if it is right for me or not.
Ajna, or the third eye chakra, was the energy centre that we worked with in classes this week. As you can see from the symbol for this centre, there are two sides. In our dualistic world, there are often two sides to everything we experience - night & day, cold & hot, woman & man, two sides to a story. We concentrated on the dualistic nature of the body and mind. The left side of the body is controlled by the right hemisphere of the brain which is the imaginative, creative, intuitive, feeling side. On the opposite extreme is the right side of the body controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain which is the logical, analytical, fact based, thinking side. Two very different ways of perceiving and experiencing the world, but both sides are equally valuable and equally needed.
