What Drives a Tantric Life?

When I travel anywhere, but especially India, my obstacles of the mind are reframed.  When I am in my little life of work, family, self-care, and day-to-day living, I think that my self-created reality is real.  In some ways it makes me feel comforted, in control, responsible, to think that my lists, responsibilities and obligations are the most important things.  It affirms my role when I think that my little world would cease to spin if I wasn't directing it.  In that space, it's easy to call the impulses of my soul frivolous, and push them off to some unknown future time when things are better suited for it.  But then I leave that reality (even if for just a short period of time), and it becomes radically evident that the small life I strive to manage isn't even a fraction of what is real and true.  

This "world" is a dynamic, complex universe of interconnections, intersections, and intuitions.  It's a tapestry that is woven, unraveled, and rewoven with every breath.  It is the most uncertain, mysterious thing that there is, and that is terrifying.  Yet, when I choose to surrender to the mystery, to follow my heart and soul's deepest yearnings, somehow that becomes a path of waymarking all its own.  I no longer live my life for my dependencies, and instead I open to receive a life of interconnection, synchronicities, and possibilities that don't require my direct knowing or logical understanding--one that doesn't demand I have it all worked out in my head or that I must prove or justify the deep knowing in order to respond to it. This is a life that centralizes faith in mystery, magic, and above all else, a force that is bigger and more intelligent than anything I alone can orchestrate.

At the end of my Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, at 42 years old, I got my first tattoo. 

It is a stanza from an Antonio Machado poem that walked with me for 2 months and it says this:

Caminante, no hay camino.

Se hace camino al andar.

Al andar se hace camino.

It means, 

Waymaker, there is no way.

You make the way by walking.

By walking you make the way. 

In my life, there was every reason not to go.  Finances, family, responsibilities, schedules, you name it.  My little life was all encompassing.  My father had just passed, my mom needed me, my kids needed me, my intimate relationship was falling apart, my business had been on hiatus for 6 months. There was no way I could leave. People needed me, I needed to be here, to stay, to endure and put myself aside for everyone else.  And my soul knew my little life was choking the ability to live out of me.  So despite all of the reasons not to, I left, and I walked.  And in the leaving, and walking, I remembered the full scope of what it means to be ALIVE.  In the going, I returned to myself.  I won't lie.  It created hardship, change, and challenge, but it also created space, evolution, and liberation.  Not just for me, but also for the people in my life. It brought what is true and real and most important back to the center, and two years later, I am still receiving the blessings from that choice.

I feel so grateful that decades of this practice and dedicated Tantric living has taught me that when my body, heart and soul say "YES," I must abide.  I no longer let my mind take the wheel (most of the time at least), and instead I surrender (Ishvara Pranidhana) to the guidance that is bigger than me. I trust it fully to guide my feet, to make my path as I walk.  Once the YES comes, I trust that the journey has already begun, and that it is about me, but it is also SO MUCH BIGGER THAN ME, and that is how it is meant to be.  Not me authoring my way, but me receiving the way that is offered. Some may call this reckless, but I call it HOLY. 

Goddess Pilgrmage to India 2025

November and December have been intense in my life, how about you?  

I completed the work and graduated from a Master's Program, bought a house and moved my family into a multigenerational home (my 83 year old mom, me, my 18 year old daughter, 2 dogs and 1 cat). I got pneumonia, then a pleurisy, then a severe reaction to the steroids, whew.  

I had to stop a 40 day Sadhana at day 38 because I was too sick to do the practice. I couldn't hike or walk due to breathlessness, and I couldn't do pranayama or meditate to calm my nervous system.  Even asana wasn't accessible. It was a walk through some scary territory which demanded that I surrender to the reality of what was happening, and let go of expectations I had for myself.  What a powerful practice that was.  In many ways it brought me closer to the Goddess than I have ever been, as there were moments where I wasn't sure I would make it through to the other side.  I am happy to say that I am finally feeling mostly human again, and able to look forward to the coming year of practice and preparation to lay all of my experiences and feelings down at the feet of the Goddess in her home, the temple spaces that contain her fullest Shakti.

This is the journey of the Goddess.  One that is full of twists and turns, one that is unexpected and uncontrollable, one that has no way to predict what lies ahead, but moves forward anyway from a place of knowing that what is right will carve its own path, and it is our work to receive the guidance and walk.  Our pilgrimage is destined to be a true journey of the unexpected in the land where the impossible always breaks upon the horizon of the possible. As Andrew Harvey says, "India is our mad mother, and we come to her to be made sane."  Our trip is a purposeful pilgrimage to the motherland of Tantra where we will be visiting the Temples of some of the most POWERFUL GODDESSES of the Shakta Tantra tradition, and embarking on a truly devotional and heart opening journey together.

Here are the most important details and links:

1. Dates are official: January 18-31, 2025

2. Price is set: $3500 for the 2 Week Itinerary: Registration is $575 which is applied to your trip balance.  Click HERE to register NOW.

3. Here is a MAP of our destinations.

4. Here is a list of Trip Details and Temples we will visit (with links when available).

5. Our friend Nitya Beaulieu will be offering support to schedule Ayurvedic Pancha Karma Add-Ons to begin at the completion of our trip (February 1, 2025) for more information, contact her directly: nitya.om@gmail.com  

To prepare you for this journey, Swathy and I are offering 6 classes to provide history, mythology, culture and practice support.

Class 1: January 20 11 AM EST

Purpose & Practice of Pilgrimage

Class 2: March 3 11 AM EST

Mythology of the goddesses 1

Class 3: May 5 Time TBD

Mythology of the goddesses 2

Class 4: July 21 Time TBD

Mythology of the gods

Class 5: September 15 Time TBD

Temple Etiquette + White Saviorism + How to be a culturally aware traveler.

Class 6: November 9 Time TBD

Initiation into Chamundeshwari Advanced Practice + Tripura Sundari (these practices will prepare you for the practice we will do together on the journey, and you will be highly encouraged to do at least a 10 day sadhana prior to our journey).

The cost of this series of classes is included in your trip registration!  All classes will be recorded and emailed to registrants who cannot attend in person. 

Our trip is 1/2 full, and I have spoken to many of you who are interested.   If you are hearing the call, I encourage you not to wait to register.  Registration will close on February 15, 2024 due to the complexity of reserving accomodations in India.  This is not a retreat, so in true pilgrimage fashion, we will be traveling to multiple locations on our journey. All reservations will be arranged in person in India by Swathy in Spring 2024. Last minute registrations will not be available for this trip.

If you have questions, curiosities, or desires and want to talk more about it, please feel free to reach out to me or Swathy (swathymadhukar77@gmail.com). If this pilgrimage is calling you, we hope you will put your trust in the Goddess to lead the way, and take the next steps.

Many blessings and deep pranams,

Kelly & Swathy

Navratri 2023

Since moving away from teaching Yoga asana and philosophy formally, my practice has transformed into one of deep and abiding devotion. All of the philosophical tenants and hypotheses that I taught and practiced for years have found there way into experiential practice with powerful outcomes. Rather than learning about the Goddess, and am doing the work to discover my own personal embodiment of her, as her, as me. There’s so much more to say about this massive shift and evolution of my practice, and I’m sure as time passes, I will craft the words to share. But, for now, I’d rather show you, and invite you into the experience for yourself.

In alignment with this desire, I invite you to join Swathy Madhukar and myself in a 10-day Navratri Sadhana to celebrate the Goddess Holiday of Navratri, the most significant Hindu and Tantric Goddess festival of the year. Swathy and I will be offering this practice through Vira Bhava Yoga (thanks, Leanne), and would love for you to join us. You can register HERE or by clicking the button below. Swathy and I also joined forces in the latest episode of the Yoga of Resilience podcast to talk about the power of devotion. I hope you will take the time to give it a listen wherever you find your podcasts.

Still Here, but Differently

Hey Yogi Friends,

It’s been a minute.  And in that minute my life has changed so much that sometimes I don’t even recognize myself.  I sold Vira Bhava Yoga to the wonderful, inspiring, and visionary, Leanne Horvath at the end of December, and have been overjoyed with the transition and fresh approach that Leanne is bringing to the company!  Lot’s of people ask me if I miss it, and the honest answer is no.  I am still living in and by the principles and values that Vira Bhava Yoga was built on and continues to cultivate.  I am still deeply connected to my practices, though that has changed and altered alongside my life path, and I am still inspired to share and serve what I have learned and continue to learn.  I am loving connecting with Leanne, and staying engaged with VBY from the sidelines, and I just became an VBY Ambassador!!

What does this big life transformation look like?  Well, I have been pursuing a graduate degree in Conflict Management and Resolution (the closest thing I could find to Yogic principles in the “real” (i.e. non-Yoga) world, and have 3 semesters left before I graduate.  My hope is to weave together the deep internal philosophies of Tantra and Yoga with the real and measurable external world struggle to turn our spaces of friction and dissonance into opportunities to grow, learn, and love more deeply. Also, I am now the Community Development Coordinator at an Asheville based nonprofit called Thrive, which does Collective Impact work as well as direct service programs in the affordable housing space. Lastly, I am doing work as  Yoga Therapist in a private practice, which has been a deeply fulfilling and impactful way to translate these esoteric tools into real support for people in need.

So, in case you were wondering, that’s what I’ve been up to.  The big news to share with YOU is that I received official news from the publisher that the book will be hitting the cyber shelves on APRIL 6th!!  It feels hard to believe! I am excited to share this labor of love with you.  The idea of the book came to me in a meditation the November before COVID, then the entire outline descended the following March in the first weeks of COVID.  I spend all of 2020 writing and walking in the woods and wondering what would become of the world as we knew it.  I was fortunate to have a small publisher interested in the book even before it was written, and now after my own trials and challenges, my own circuitous path of resilience, it’s finally here!  And, I want to share it with you.  So, for the first offering of the Yoga of Resilience book and practice club, I want to do it LIVE with you!  Let’s explore the chapters and practices together, let’s talk about what Resilience really means in our individual lives, and how Yoga supports our experience of it, let’s sit in a circle . 

So, I’m still here, but differently.  I am still practicing, still sharing, still learning.  I’m still falling down, getting humbled, finding moments of inspiration.  I’m still growing.  Not growing up, but growing in.  Into myself, into my dharma, into my relationship with the world and with you.  If you feel inspired to journey through the next chapter with me, join me in April.  And, keep tuning into the Yoga of Resilience podcast, and check out our monthly FREE Yoga of Resilience series in collaboration with Vira Bhava Yoga, which will begin again soon!

Many blessings,

Kelly

Yoga & Resilience Beyond Self-Improvement

So many students of Yoga and Tantra that I have worked with over the years ask the same question.  When does this work?  When does my life get easier?  When do I change into the person I want to be?

There is a myth in the Yoga “industry” that at the completion of a Yoga training (or even after a class or two) our lives will magically improve. When we come to Yoga to “be a better person,” we are engaging with a dangerous motivation. We start to invest in a false ideal that we will stop being who we are when we are doing Yoga.   So many hope that Yoga will make us more than human, that it will take away our heartbreaks, our stresses, our frustrations, our anxieties and overwhelm.  That it will change our bodies to look like an IG influencer, and it will take away our reactivity, our frustration, our disappointment.  Damn, that’s a lot to expect.  When we find that after months of training and practice, we are still the same person, we are often disappointed and angry, or silently ashamed that we aren’t doing it right. 

First, it is important to note that if we are truly practicing Yoga, it doesn’t make us more than human, it makes us more of the human we are. The point of Yoga is to “yoke” us to our lives, lives that from a Tantric point of view are gifts from the Divine Source, not burdens to carry. The practices of Yoga are designed to help us get clear about all of the things we are NOT, so that we can more fully be what we are.  This is different from what so many of us seek from our Yoga practices. We come to our mats hoping to transcend or escape our worldly mess, and find a way to float above our difficulties (I’ve written about this a ton, check out my library of rants).  If we are really practicing Yoga, it is allowing us to turn toward these difficulties, this “mess,” seek ourselves in it, then decide (Viveka in Sanskrit) how to respond from the source of our being.

Secondly, because this is the way Yoga works, it can’t be transformational if it is explored as a practice of convenience.  It must be embarked upon as a discipline. Yoga has always been a discipline, a call to be devoted to the path of learning and self discovery (not self improvement).  

Yoga practice doesn’t happen “when you have the time,”  and it isn’t a luxury.  Quite the opposite, actually. Yoga is something you commit to, regardless of the distractions and difficulty of life. If you are a true practitioner of Yoga, you are NEVER too busy to practice. 

When we make Yoga synonymous with Resilience, then we recognize that it is a detriment to wait until the dust settles to engage.  Just like resilience is a way we engage with and respond to hardship, Yoga is a way we engage with and respond to life. When we are practicing, we are not removing ourselves from our challenges, our obstacles, or our joys, instead, we are choosing to fully engage with them.  We bring our conscious awareness to all the bits, and then we move from the deep core of knowing inside.  This skillset is one that is cultivated in every experience, not just on Thursdays at 6:00.  

If you are wanting Yoga to improve your world or if you are wanting to be more resilient in your life, then it might be time to change the perspective of your practice. The word discipline comes from the Latin meaning "instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge," and its root is the word disciple, which means "pupil, student, follower.”  Yoga was never meant to serve you, it was meant to be served by You.  And the result of that service is an expansive life, more capacity, more possibility. If you are practicing Yoga as it is meant to be practiced, you are in service to it.  

Vira Bhava Yoga, AUGUST 16, 2022

Prayer

photo by jrmakesart.com

I woke this morning with a prayer on my lips…may I be a good conductor. A good conduit of energy from planet to vast expanse, and from beyond to imminent. May I be a good conductor of the past into the present, and the present into the future, and all present time into before and besides. May I be a good conductor of relationship in all forms, a good conductor of language and purpose. May I release force, and allow the conduction of the bigger story to flow as a current through me, and may I respond appropriately. May I be a circuit of the mystery, a bridge for what is bigger than my tiny individual self to move across and pass through. May I remember that I am an instrument and not strive to be the song, and to honor the power that plays its music as me in both resonance and dissonance. May I learn to receive, allow, follow, and respond with actions that are in service to the entire symphony of creation. May I be a good conductor of both memory and hope.

Slowly I am learning how to wake with poems and prayers on my tongue. Remembering how to greet each new day as possibility regardless of the weight that it bears. Slowly I am learning to trust the current that is always flowing through me, as me, for the duration of time that I am exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide. This rememberance becoming the sparks of faith that ignite my days with wonder, regardless of circumstance.

At this moment, I sit in the morning light, which shines into this room from both North and South, and all I can see through the windows are limbs, branches, and trunks. I hear birdsong, so clear and crisp that it transports me to crystalline moments of my past with details, but unquestionably clear sound. Childhood mornings of dawning day, cool and brisk, bare limbs, dormant grasses and birdsong. The quiet of a camp at the base of a purple mountain, just beyond voices, shouts, and laughter of dozens of children and the tensions and frustrations of grown-ups navigating their illusions. Walking in the dew moist grass in the shadow of old blue hills lost in the harmony of birdsong. Morning winter Southern Appalachian birdsong, rising above the traffic and noise of the world, forgetting for a moment that it was ever different than it has always been. Tiny songbirds, knowing, singing the world into a day. These creatures who haven’t forgotten the how’s and why’s of aliveness. Delicate beings singing the song of our longing back to us, undeterred by our dramas, our wants, our demands of unstoppable progress and destruction.

There is a language of no words, yet it holds the most potent call. The communication that speaks past into present and invites wonder and hope and rememberance into our days. That which conducts the symphony of the mystery into our ears and through our cells. That rattles our bones with its persistence. It’s an invitation that will not allow for articulation, that can only be felt, heard, and sensed. It’s a calling, maybe even a poem.

Death of Possibility

Why are so many people bound to perfection as a prerequisite for optimism? Why do we have to have guarantees of successful outcomes to be hopeful? Why does pessimism, doubt, and fear make us feel safer than the terrain of unknown potential? Is it because being wrong makes us feel like fools, or because being right is more respectable than being hopeful? Are we more driven by patterns of defeat than opportunity? All of these questions are spinning in my mind in the days after the 2020 election. Now that the possibility of change seems so close, so many who fought for and desired it are jumping ship into the dark and treacherous waters of doubt and fear.

Why? Because shit is still hard. The outcome of the election didn’t magically make things easy and right. But hard doesn’t have to equate with awful, unless that is the expectation we hold. Caution is often the most direct path to the feeling of certainty (otherwise known as the active avoidance of uncertainty). Holding ourselves at arms length away from possibility keeps us safe from disappointment, and it’s a game of ego twister that says nothing is ever more than we perceive it to be, and if it is, our inability to perceive it equates with danger. I don’t concur.

EVERYTHING is always more than we perceive it to be. When we center our own perception (or that of our groups of likeness), we forget the myriad possibilities that exist outside of our direct experience or perception. We make our story everyone’s story. And c’mon now, we know better than that. Regardless, we cling like cleavers to our fears and doubts as the actions needed to feel safe or “aware.” So it makes me wonder, how is fear of service to the whole (that which is beyond our individual perception)? Fear allows us to take control of our choices, it tightens us up around our survival, it encourages us to warn (or illicit fear) in others, it inspires us to fight against injustice, it keeps us small and confined, and often firmly planted on the sidelines, coaching without ever playing the game, or it calls us to rise into the unknown and follow without question the pulse of our heart.

Interestingly, there is an immense amount of power in fear, and learning to access that power and have agency over its use is a high level of skillfulness. It requires a great deal of responsibility and the willingness to take risks without any trustworthy outcome, behaviors that ultimately create lasting and meaningful change. Fear can shut us down, keep us small, fill us with doubt, cause us to hide and protect, or it can be a driver, a source of momentum, a propellent into risk.

Abaya Mudra translates into the seal of “never not afraid,” according to scholar and teacher Douglas Brooks, though it is colloquially translated as fearlessness. But maybe those concepts aren’t as far apart as we think. Fearlessness might be never not afraid and act anyway. If we dare to stretch the lens beyond our personal perspective, we can imagine that we are just a part of a much bigger, much longer story. Our part is important, but it doesn’t start or end the story. We are characters in the story of the soil, the ocean, the trees, the wars, the strife, the liberation, but the balance of it all might not actually depend on us. Death is the only certainty, and I don’t say that lightly. It’s the singular truth. It’s the primary teaching of most mystical traditions. When we stop living like our limited lifespan is important, then we become more attuned to a bigger picture, and less attached to our own security as definitive. We become willing to rise and meet the call of our time, we daringly turn toward the traumas of our history, we become more willing to take a daring leap into the unknown. We aren’t reckless, we are honest. We stop trying to preserve OUR lives and start trying to preserve LIFE.

This shift in perspective results in a lot of getting knocked down. It doesn’t insure that our attempts at risk or engagement will succeed. Matter of fact, there is probably way more being wrong than being right on this path. But, perhaps it’s being wrong for the right reasons. What do you believe in beyond all doubt and question? If it is that you will die, and that everyone you love (or hate) will also die, then you are liberated from the bondage of staying alive. The story of LIFE is so much bigger than us (or them.) This chapter isn’t as important OR as unimportant as you might think.

The Sri Sundarya Lahari (an arguably Tantric text written by the Advaita Vedantic convert, Shankara) states that “the world is an endless ocean of ambrosia, and the body is an island.” The whole story is a romance, and how you read that romance is up to your unique positioning in the midst of things, but your positioning doesn’t change the “truth.” Even if your experience of life is one of hardship and difficulty, that doesn’t rewrite the story of the ocean and the island. But, it does give us agency over how we are as an island in a story that stretches beyond time. Another premise stated in the text is “that EVERYTHING is simply waves rising and falling, neither inauspicious nor meaningful.” It is all experience, and we attribute meaning to our experience to orient ourselves in the vast ocean of existence. Humans make meaning, that is what makes us human, but it doesn’t make the meaning true. So how would you live differently if meaning were art making rather than reality defining?

Lastly, disappointment is a powerful teacher, maybe the most powerful teacher. The feeling of disappointment is so powerful, that it has become a cardinal direction on the inner compass of so many informing us about all of our choices, decisions, and feelings and often overshadowing any possibility of difference or potential for change. It keeps us on our island and tells us not to dare and venture out into the ocean. Disappointment has become the ultimate weigh point for meaning, one which we judge all experiences against. Disappointment weights the scales of change in the direction of well defined dichotomies of good or bad, right or wrong. It robs the opportunity for change to be its own reward, and demands that if things can’t improve from the change, they shouldn’t change at all. It’s an almost absurd thought when held in kind with the nature of that which is bigger than our own self importance. The world will perpetually change, inevitably and infinitely. Our demands on that change help us to feel more important in the story than we really are. Our requirements give us meaning, whether or not they align with the force of nature or not.

Is hope a risk because outcomes are uncertain? Is optimism flawed because the change that occurs might not be positive? Does our story have to end well? What happens when our meaning making becomes play rather than life or death? What happens when we allow ourselves to celebrate change without the demands of our conditions? I don’t know. But, maybe we will discover a new way to be, an uncertain existence free of the requirements of our perception. Think about it. What if humanity could change…what on earth would we do then?

Anarchism: The Chaos at the Beginning of the World

By Lisa Fazio Reposted with Permission

Anarchism or anarchy is a widely misunderstood and falsely defined word in contemporary language, politics, and in general social discourse. It is often wrongly construed with negative connotations or completely disregarded as an invalid system, or no system at all, of social arrangement. Often when we hear mainstream talk of anarchy it is with disgust or sarcasm. I’ve heard people say things like “we need government or there would be anarchy!” The word anarchy, in this context, is intended to elicit scenes in our mind of mass destruction, violence, and mayhem where it’s “every man for himself” (capitalism much?). Anarchy, from this guise, is where looters, vandals, and criminals run amok and unrestrained.

Anarchy is often associated with the word chaos. Chaos is yet another misunderstood term that has somehow come to imply a lack of evolution and creativity when, in fact, it is the very source of both.

In Greek mythology Chaos is the void from which all creation emerges with all of it’s unpredictable, disorderly, and untamed potency to generate and reconceive the world. It is also the empty abyss, and ultimately the contact zone of divine union, between heaven and Earth that occured when they first separated. Chaos is the bridge between worlds. And out of Chaos came Gaia, the mother of the world.

Chaos is the basic condition of creation.

This idea is expressed in the phrase “conscious chaos” which has been exemplified by the birth of anarcho-punk in the UK and Europe.

The hard, edgy, and chaotic sounds spilling from the music represented a form of liberation that was desperately needed, while the lyrics roared against the establishment and aimed at deadening conformity and the music industry’s increasingly corporatized and cookie-cutter production value¹

Similarly, the movements of hip-hop and gansta rap have basically created an emergent revolutionary culture in the midst of the United States where economic and social oppression have hit the hardest.

While not explicitly anarchist, hip-hop took on an identity that mirrored authentic anarchist philosophy. Its anti-authoritarian nature was far from nihilistic, but rather survivalist; born in response to centuries of racial subjugation, economic strangulation, and violent oppression at the hands of domestic police forces. Hip-hop’s birthplace, the Bronx (NYC), characterized its development².

In this sense, chaos is absolutely imperative to generate the momentum necessary to disrupt this type of inter-generational state imposed inertia and provide a channel for the repressed creative brilliance and “dignified rage”³ of humanity.

I believe that the definition of anarchy as well as our concept that chaos is not an imperative process in a healthy culture, has embedded in our collective consciousness, at least in part, as a design of our capitalist, centralized, top-down dominant culture. Our Western economic/political treatise has long since demonized any visionary, innovative, and creative alternatives that would halt the steamroller of our competitive market (that interestingly seeks and lobbies for the least possible government involvement), material accumulation, and patriarchal ethos that relies on centralized plutocratic institutions to sustain itself.

If we look at the etymology of the word anarchy we see it has changed greatly over time starting from the root an- “without” + arkhos “leader,” literally meaning “without a leader.” This is where everyone says “What? People need leaders!” And this is where our understanding of the word “leader” and our idea of leadership comes in. How we define words matters and a single word can have many meanings of which do change as time and culture proceeds as well as when they are empirically and repeatedly enacted in different scenarios.

Leadership and leaders can certainly be helpful and necessary when organizing social systems and, in the process, certain individuals will naturally take the lead on projects, groups, or councils. Leaders emerge without question but not without context, and absolutely within cultural conditions and systems that regulate, for better or worse, the way that power is distributed amongst community members. Having someone step up to lead is not the same as having an authoritarian, supreme, or ultimate leader or governing body.

If we look up the definition of the word “lead” we see that it is both a verb and a noun. As a noun it means, “the first or foremost place; position in advance of others,” and as a verb it means “to conduct by holding and guiding.”

Anarchism as a system “without a leader” means without someone in advance, first, or foremost of others. This does not mean that there aren’t those that are willing to conduct, hold, or guide in service to the community. As well as those willing to take on stirring the pot, calling things out, and basically initiating the chaotic potential of social change.

In this sense, anarchy is essentially a social system that is without unjust hierarchies that place one person’s or group’s needs or agenda above others. It is not necessarily without leadership, however, and those that may step up in service to others as guides and facilitators, in effect, take a larger responsibility for certain aspects of civil life. This paradoxically positions leaders at the foundation of society as service providers that create the container for the generative and emergent creativity of others. If we wanted to illustrate this type of leadership in a hierarchical system leaders would, in fact, be on the bottom of the pyramid holding others up.

Considering all of the above, as well as the past and contemporary work, both experiential and philosophical, of modern anarchists, anarchism is:

A socio-political organizing method whereby individuals, communities, and institutions are sovereign, agential, cooperatively managed, and organized based on self-governing and self-regulatory principles emerging from free associations in a stateless society. The state and any type of authoritarian rule is made irrelevant as anarchism mimics natural, rhizomatic systems that are innately designed to facilitate the egalitarian, self-organized distribution of power and resources as well as the appropriate conscious world building chaos that is needed to adapt to life on a living breathing changing planet. Unjust hierarchies and other oppressive systems that occur are checked, dismantled, and replaced.

Noam Chomsky, visionary writer, linguist, and philosopher, describes it brilliantly:

“Primarily, [anarchism] is a tendency that is suspicious and skeptical of domination, authority, and hierarchy. It seeks structures of hierarchy and domination in human life over the whole range, extending from, say, patriarchal families to, say, imperial systems, and it asks whether those systems are justified. Their authority is not self-justifying. They have to give a reason for it, a justification. And if they can’t justify that authority and power and control, which is the usual case, then the authority ought to be dismantled and replaced by something more free and just. And, as I understand it, anarchy is just that tendency. It takes different forms at different times.”

Based on my own direct experience with nature as well as my training and education in natural and environmental systems, I have found wild nature to be one of the most vivid expressions of anarchism we have. Nature is a complex ecological and social system that is profoundly collective, self-organized, and self- regulated. Of course, we do find just hierarchies in nature based on my observation as well as my lifelong study (both academic and informal) of the psychology of aggression and non-violence in mammals.

Anyone who has spent enough time with horses knows that there is a social hierarchy in their herd system. The lead mare of the herd holds the greatest responsibility for others, conducts a state of high neurophysiological vigilance, and displays keen sensory reception in her efforts to react to and signal imminent threats to others. As part of this system, the head mare is granted first choice of available food sources. She will express her dominance if necessary by whinnying, nipping, or even pushing others out of the way.

When I was raising horses at our farm, if we threw out a bail of hay or called the horses in for buckets of grain, the leader always started eating first in line, after that there would be a regular order of who was next and so on. This is justified because her nutritional needs must be optimally met if she is to sustain the level of attentiveness necessary to hold her position and, ultimately in a wild setting, keep others from being killed. In essence this hierarchy is self-organized, self-regulated, and profoundly collective as long as there is no extreme lack of resources.

There are numerous examples of non-hierarchical operating systems in nature and, if you’ve followed any of my previous work, you’ve heard me talk about the self-organized, fractal, and decentralized system of rhizomes. I’ve written more about this HERE but, basically, rhizomatic systems work by running lateral and connected underground stems in weblike pattern through the soil network. This web weaves itself with the other systems and patterns beneath the surface, as well as above in the stems, leaves, blossoms, and fruits, by exchanging information and nutrients with other roots, the mycelia, and soil microbes.

“Rhizomes, therefore, are heterogeneous and can create multiplicities, or many different roots, that are sovereign but still in contact and communication with all other parts of the system. This is in contrast to, for instance, a tree, which has a central origin or trunk from which all of its roots and branches emerge.”

And although tree roots, as well as many other plants, grow from a centralized tap root or trunk, they are still enmeshed in a symbiotic relationship with the rhizomatic networks both above and below. Yes, above as well; the atomic exchange of organic chemicals that organize fractally combining and recombining in creative and emergent intra-action⁴ with ecological conditions in the air is an above ground network of exchange. Also, pollination is a collective, self-organized method of perpetuating life by fertilizing the seeds of future generations. Afterall, no one is out there yelling at the bees and butterflies to get to work!

The whole of the Earth as an organism, or what some have called Gaia, is a miraculously synergistic self-regulating system from which all of our lives have emerged.

It’s important to add that Anarchism is not an idealistic, utopian, or unattainable vision of society and neither is nature. In a world of light and matter shadows always exist. Chaos exists. Any just social system will include full spectrum of universal forces. Neither is anarchism a fundamentalist philosophy with a set of formulas or fixed rules. If we are truly cultivating the self-organizing agency of the collective then other systems, including those that haven’t been imagined yet, will emerge and be able to function within it as long as they are just.

Anarchism, although still experientially defining itself, is a social- political system that is not itself chaos or disorganized but that which allows chaos and disorganization to naturally occur so that change and movement can develop organically. Rules and leadership may emerge as well, but justly, if they are established in a system designed to dismantle oppression, tyranny, and fascist rule and replace them with more mutually adaptive means of living well.

Not only can anarchism be observed in nature but there have been many examples in human societies. A discussion of these examples is beyond the scope here but are easy to research. From Neolithic European civilization the work of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas explores the world of Old Europe before the Indo-European/dominator culture invasions. For more contemporary models, one of the most famous is the Spanish Revolution of 1936. These are just two of the many examples throughout human history that have shown us that there are other ways of being and operating social structures.

Resources and footnotes

[1] Juxtaposing Anarchy: From Chaos to Cause

[2] Ibid.

[3] Dignified rage is a term coined by Zapatista Subcommander Marcos in the speech he gave in the town of in the town of La Realidad on May 25, 2014: https://www.akpress.org/the-zapatistas-dignified-rage.html

[4] The theory of “intra-action” was developed by American feminist theorist and physicist Karen Barad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0SnstJoEec

More on:

The Spanish Revolution: https://libcom.org/history/1936-1939-the-spanish-civil-war-and-revolution

Marija Gimbutas: http://www.marijagimbutas.com

WRITTEN BY

Lisa Fazio

Plant healing artist, folk herbalist, writer, mother. therootcircle.com

Irreverence

Irreverence

I put myself on my alter today because

it’s time to stop apologizing for my power

it’s time to stop minimizing my strength, my beauty, my intelligence.

I put myself on my altar today because

it’s time to honor and respect all that I am

it’s time to remember I am more than I think.

I put myself on my alter today

so that I can revere the qualities of my own expression

so that I can celebrate the tenderness of my own heart

so that I can value my own gifts.

I put myself on my altar today because 

I practice in the Tantric way.

To worship the Goddess, you must become the Goddess.

I put myself on my altar today because

it’s time to own my shame

it’s time to sit beside the infinite expressions of beauty and courage

as one of them not an error or a mistake.

I will never know everything

I will never be perfect

I will always be broken and full of fault

But today, I can be enough to be holy.

I counted my face among the divine because

It’s time.

We all have so much self critique, shame, embarrassment, so much anger, grief, and rage.  We all harbor such harsh ideas about ourselves, and strive to remedy our imperfection.  I KNOW this space so well.  We feel that if we can “get it right” we will be worthy of love, respect, value. And, we worry if we aren’t careful we will lose our humility, become conceited, selfish, oppressive and misdirected. This is a love poem to myself, a way to gather all of the broken and imperfect parts of me into a space that is worthy of reverence.  Every single one of us is a miracle AND a mess. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. What would change if we came to call it all sacred? If we gave it all the respect of time, listening, breath, and willingness?  I don’t know that much would change, but something might.  So, I am going to start close in (@davidjwhyte), with myself.  With all of my tendencies to feel never enough, never worthy, never perfect, and one by one, I will bow my head in respect to the sweetness beneath all of the shit.  I hope you will join me.

An Open Letter To Yoga Alliance about the Future of Yoga

Dear Yoga Alliance,

I have been a card carrying member of Yoga Alliance since 2003 (YA ID 12336). I have paid thousands of dollars worth of dues, registered as a school in 2011, and have supported the efforts of setting a bar for Yoga teachers and schools for years.  I have encouraged hundreds graduates to register (and pay dues) with Yoga Alliance, and I have worked hard to follow and exceed the requirements that have been set forth for decades. After a some thought, I now question how my continued membership with YA is in integrity with the values from which I teach Yoga and have built my business. As the world is changing, hundreds of Yoga business are feeling the impact, the system that Yoga Alliance has implemented feels grossly misaligned with the values of Yoga that I, and my business, strive to uphold. Because of my long-standing membership, I felt it respectful to express the reasons why I no longer trust or support your organization.

Here are the experiences and reflections I have about the Yoga Alliance organization.  Take from them what you will.

1. Yoga Alliance doesn’t support Yoga, Yoga Alliance supports asana and industry.

2. Yoga Alliance doesn’t support Yoga teachers, small studios, or trainings. The organization is in favor of the industry elite and creates challenges and increasing hardship for the neighborhood studios who are actively and truly trying to support their communities.

3. Yoga Alliance has adopted a model of systemic oppression for struggling Yogis. Rules, regulations, policing, and policies are not systems of support.  They are processes of elimination. 

4. Yoga Alliance is contributing to the commoditization of Yoga.  Requiring so much of studios, teachers, and trainings in an attempt to legitimize the Yoga as a profession has robbed it of its actual intention. Yoga is a practice designed to Unify the disparate nature of human-kind, not create a foundation from which to exclude. 

5. Yoga Alliance offers no return on investment.  For all of the dollars and work that registrants invest, YA offers surprisingly little in return.  In my 17 years of YA membership and 9 years as a registered school, I have only reached out for support twice and received nothing besides empty platitudes and referrals to other organizations. 

6. Yoga Alliance doesn’t honor what’s actually happening in our communities. The organization strongly needs to diversify its understanding of small yoga studios, small trainings, and grassroots teaching.  If the goal is to support the Yogis, YA should strive to be aware of what Yogis actually need. YA has become an elite organization that does not hear the voices of the yoga teachers struggling to pay their bills, the little studios trying to stay afloat or small trainings desiring to share Yoga and yogic values in their communities.

7. YA has become another elitist broken system in a culture of elitist broken systems.  If regulations, requirements, and fees put small studios, trainings, and teachers out of business, the system needs to be reviewed immediately.

I invite Yoga Alliance to review the systems of support and move toward organizational integrity in these ways: 

1. Train board, staff, and administration on the deeper teachings of Yoga that extend beyond Anatomy and Physiology and physical performance of Asana. Be practitioners not policers.

2. Make Yoga Philosophy paramount, not an afterthought.

3. Educate the organization about dysfunctional systems and actively work not to become one.

4. Broaden the scope of care and consideration rather than policing.

5. Be a representation of Yoga in its definitive translation of joining together and not another contributor to the commoditization of the industry as competition, division and separation. 

6. Be on the side of YOGIs. Support studio owners, trainers and teachers, and practitioners who are daring to stay true to Yoga.  Don’t just take our money in exchange for a registry mark. Be engaged on the ground level with what happening, changing, and working and not working. 

7. Be allowing rather than restricting. Strive to learn more Yoga and create space for the expression to be expanded in other ways

8. Contribute to Yogis of all shapes, sizes, and colors and economic levels/backgrounds.  Make Yoga accessible, not another expression of Privilege and Elitism. 

9. Decolonize Yoga by example.  Begin by Decolonizing your Organization. Refuse to become another system of oppression.

10. Learn ways to support values and integrity without undermining other’s voices and approaches.

11. Give registered Yoga teachers and schools something for their loyalty and investment.  Eliminate the empty offerings to shore up the systems of commoditization, and provide meaningful and impactful offerings based in solidarity and reciprocity.

I remain observant. I sincerely desire that Yoga Alliance re-evaluate and review their work in the Yoga Industry. I remain hopeful that the organization will re-direct their efforts away from the consumer model of Yoga, and toward true support of Yogis, Yoga teachers, and Yoga business owners. The industry has been devastated by the shifting global economy, and I hope that YA uses this time to review their integrity and review the organizational value system to meet the needs of the Yoga Industry in real time.

Sincerely,

Kelly

Update: As of September 15, 2020 I have submitted two emails and several (4) follow up requests to Yoga Alliance requesting answers to questions I have about the future prior to renewing my membership. Currently, I have not received a follow up response to my second inquiry. See emails and responses below:

From: Kelly Golden [kelly@virabhavayoga.com]
Sent: 9/4/2020 11:29 AM
To: info@yogaalliance.org
Subject: Attention: Danielle Hayes

This email was sent from outside your organization.

Dear Ms. Hayes, I have several questions prior to renewing my Yoga Alliance registrations (equating to $565). First, does Yoga Alliance have a long term plan to adapt to the changing times and market?  It is difficult to feel good about renewing my registrations when YA does not seem to have any definitive ideas about the future of teaching and registrations.    Secondly, is YA aware of the massive impact COVID has had on the industry and how the entire industry is itself adapting beyond YA's standards? I work with Yoga teachers and studios for a living, and the overwhelming feedback I've received is that teachers are making more money teaching online than they ever did in a studio setting (this is personally true for me), in addition, moving trainings exclusively online has reduced overhead costs allowing training costs to be significantly reduced and trainings to become more accessible to populations who otherwise would not have been able to afford an in studio YTT.  Many studios have closed their doors completely, and others who have not, are finding the distancing requirements difficult to work with while simultaneously meeting their bottom line.  I know that I will struggle to pay rent to a studio (in which to facilitate trainings) with only a maximum of 7-10 in person students. Does Yoga Alliance have a plan to support the industry growth prompted by the Pandemic, or is its plan to return to its original standards for in person training? Lastly, I would like a brief review of the benefits of registering my school (200 and 300 hour trainings) with YA in these times. Over the past three years, I have been doing a cost/benefit analysis of my YA yearly investment, and I am having difficulty understanding exactly what I am paying for, and how it is of benefit to my business and the Yogis with whom I work.  Please clarify. Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.  As soon as I hear back for YA, I will move to renew my school and teacher registrations. Sincerely,Kelly Golden E-RYT 500YA Member since 2007

YA Support <info@yogaalliance.org>

Wed, Sep 9, 3:51 PM (8 days ago)

to kelly@virabhavayoga.com

Hi, Kelly!

Thank you for contacting Yoga Alliance. I hope this email finds you well.

Thank you for your detailed feedback.

Yoga Alliance recently released new standards for the RYS 200 based on a years-long Standards Review Process, the results of which you can view here. We are also in the process of finalizing new standards for the RYS 300 and 500.

COVID was definitely unforeseen for us all. Yoga Alliance is planning on releasing an announcement about training and online guidelines for the remainder of the pandemic in the next few months. We want to ensure that the guidelines are widely applicable across local COVID rules, uphold our standards of high-quality training, and can be a robust set of requirements for the duration of the pandemic. We are doing our best to get the guidelines out as soon as possible, and I thank you for the patience you've shown us. We welcome your ongoing feedback and any suggestions you may have for online training.

We are doing our best to support the community financially and otherwise during the pandemic. The Yoga Alliance Foundation is now planning for a second phase of assistance in response to COVID-19, focusing on the intersection of economic recovery and yoga service. We will continue to accept donations, which will be used to support as many eligible Relief Fund applicants as possible, and then to expand the impact of our next phase of assistance.

Furthermore, at YourYA.org we have launched a Financial Information page to provide you information from a variety of sources on what financial resources exist as you face these known and unknown challenges surrounding your profession as a yoga school or studio owner and/or as a yoga trainer or teacher. 

Registration with Yoga Alliance provides a globally recognized credential in the fields of yoga teaching and training yoga teachers. You can learn more about the value of our registry mark in our Yoga Alliance video.

Some studios and schools may require their employees to be registered with Yoga Alliance in order to teach at their business. To become registered, teachers need to complete an RYS program.

Hope this helps. If there’s anything else I can assist you with, please let me know. Take care!

In service,
Claire Hu
Bilingual Membership Support Representative - Mandarin
????????-??
info@yogaalliance.org
(888) 921-9642

Kelly Golden <kelly@virabhavayoga.com>

Wed, Sep 9, 4:28 PM (8 days ago)

to YA

Hi Claire, I am well aware of much of the information you have shared with me, as YA posts these same information on the website and also delivers them to my inbox via email. 
The information you provided does NOT adequately answer the questions asked.  Would it be possible for them to be reviewed and responded to by someone who is versed in the specifics of registering a school, and how YA plans to meet the changing market?  Are there plans to evolve the YA school registration to provide registration for Online only schools in the future? Or is the plan simply to wait until things "return to normal" and not adapt YA requirements otherwise?  I am not aligned with the "return to normal" model, so I am having difficulty feeling confident in renewing for another year, with constantly changing and poorly communicated expectations for me as a school.  My primary job is NOT to meet YA's uncertain and changing criteria, but rather to train and support Yoga Teachers. I do not wish to be adapting and shifting due to constantly changing and unpredictable responses from YA. I have plenty of suggestions, but would want to make sure I am giving them to the correct persons, and receiving feedback through the appropriate channels. Establishments requiring Yoga Teachers to be registered in order for them to be employed by a Yoga Studio is not, in my opinion, a benefit of registering my school, especially since so many of these studios are closing due to financial hardship. I would like to know what benefits there are to the schools themselves. Please respond to these questions with greater detail. In light of the fact that the YA representative could not adequately answer the questions I have about my membership, I request an extension on my membership until these questions can be addressed.  I am not comfortable investing in another year with an organization that cannot communicate more clearly about the use and outcome of my investment. I hope to hear from you promptly. Sincerely, Kelly Golden

The Myth of Modern Yoga

Reprinted from Rebelle Society with permission

Yoga is not what you think.  It is not what the modern world has turned it into in the last 75 years or more.  No matter how much you believe that “Yoga” is what you do on your mat, the stretching, the playlists, the alignment, the posturing, the clothing, the sublime pursuit of light and love, the all pervading peace, it’s just not true, at least not completely.  What most people in the West today call yoga is at best a partial truth, a fraction of truth made into the whole. I am interested in expanding the vision, so please bear with me as the information I offer and the questions I ask might make you feel uncomfortable. 

>>> Trigger Warning:  Just because you (or someone else) believe something, that doesn’t make it true. This article might challenge what you think you know or what other “authorities” have told you.<<<

What you do in a “yoga” class and a “yoga” studio is pseudo-spiritual physical fitness. No more, no less. The reasons some Yogis struggle to practice at home during a pandemic aren’t because you need your classes and your community to practice, it’s because classes or not, YOU HAVE NEVER PRACTICED YOGA.

Now, I know this statement is harsh, and many will leap to defend all of the ways that classes and community make us feel more connected, more at peace, more calm, more healthy, more happy when we practice “yoga,” and my friends (who by now are probably my enemies) these “reasons” by their very nature are the PROOF that you are not and nor have ever practiced Yoga.

I have spent many exhaustive years trying to explain this. Even though NONE of the ancient texts of Yoga map anything remotely related to our modern definition, people still believe that this ideal of absolute peace, harmony and unity is Yoga.  Even though not a single text I have read about Yoga or its related mythology EVER states implicitly or explicitly that Yoga makes the world better, more peaceful, more loving, people believe that is the goal.  Even though EVERY yogic text I’ve ever read outlines challenge, extreme discomfort, difficulty, and often death and destruction and provides instructions for working with and in these situations rather than subverting or transcending them, people truly believe that “Yoga” will make us feel better. 

I lead “Yoga” trainings in which I attempt to explore the actual teachings of Yoga, and it often leads to extreme backlash, refusal, rejection, and even hatred. When students learn that we aren’t going to be covering everything in sticky sweet syrup of positivity, that there will be no scripted classes, curated playlists, and perfected postures, they are disappointed. Understandably so. There isn’t a studio around that doesn’t value, if not require, these skills. When my students see the amount of time we spend on philosophy, processing, and self-study, they are frustrated and disappointed.  When they are challenged to think critically, and not simply learn the rules to follow, they are unmoored. When they are called to question their beliefs, they are angered. And, those that are excited about all of that often think that all of these pursuits will serve to shore up their love and light transcendent spiritual by-passing bullshit, and find themselves thoroughly annoyed when that pattern is laid bare.

Thanks to our dominant consumerist culture which teaches that the customer is always right, and acquiring makes you feel good, “Yoga” has become something else to consume.  But, it’s just not true.  Yoga is not nor has ever been what most modern day “Yogis” think it is, and no amount of argument to the contrary will change that.  No amount of validation of personal progress, transcendence, love or light will make Yoga what it is being sold to be. Consumers want to feel right, good, comfortable.  If we buy a product that brings attention to our faults, our shortcomings, our imperfections, we will return it because it doesn’t work, it didn’t give us what we wanted, it didn’t make us feel good. Yoga is NOT designed to make you feel good, to make you feel comfortable, to support your never ending quest for success. It might not feel like the perfect fit, or make us look gorgeous, it might just make us feel like shit and make us feel horrible sometimes.  Yoga is often the opposite of a feel good practice, it asks us to become acutely aware of ALL of ourselves.  All of the pieces and parts that we try so hard not to see, all of the uncomfortable, ugly, and abhorrent qualities of ourselves. It gathers all the sins and crimes (true or unjustly labeled) to be seen, to be counted, to be included.  That is Yoga, the mess of self brought into the light of awareness, and our work is to join with it, to yoke to it as true, and then learn how to live with it, how to love not in spite of but because of it all.  Yoga teaches us compassion, true compassion, first for ourselves, then for the world.

Real compassion kicks butt and takes names, and it is not pleasant on certain days. If you are not ready for this fire, then find a new-age, sweetness-and-light, soft speaking, perpetually smiling teacher, and learn to relabel your ego with spiritual-sounding terms. But stay away from those who practice real compassion, because they will fry your ass, my friend.  ~Ken Wilber

So what is Yoga really if it’s not the poses, the flows, the music?  Let’s start with some vocabulary. The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj” which means to yoke or join. By the very nature of Yoga, we enter into and with that from which we feel separate or divided, we don’t escape or deny it. The postures we perform in “Yoga” are actually called asana, a word which does NOT mean pose or posture, but actually means seat.  In other words, to perform Yoga Asana, you take a seat in or with what you feel separated from. Another familiar word in the “Yoga” world is “vinyasa,” a word which does not translate as flow or the joining of movement and breath, but actually means “to place with intention, purpose, or wisdom.” If you practice “Hatha Yoga,” so are you and every other person that gets on a “Yoga” mat regardless of what style of “Yoga” they are practicing.  Hatha Yoga is simply a category of Yoga that delineates the physical practice from the REST OF YOGA (which is NOT the physical practice of Asana). Hatha yoga includes ANY style of Yoga that engages in physical practice, meditation, and breathing.  One more definition for the purpose of modern Yoga: Pranayama does not mean breathing, it means the restraint of the life force energy, a.k.a. Prana.  It is often mis-interpreted and mis-understood like in the practices of Ujjayi and Kappalabhati which aren’t pranayama practices at all, but rather they are prana shuddi practices meant to cleanse and build prana rather than restrain it. 

If our “Yoga” teachers, trainings, and/or studios aren’t teaching us this, then we might not be practicing Yoga. Feel free to disagree, but please have a foundation of disagreement based on something other than personal offense, or “but that’s what my teachers told me.”  The teachings and practices of Yoga teach us self accountability, so if my words, my style, my provocations feel offensive, wrong, or too critical, then I encourage you to use “Yoga” to explore WHY rather than immediately judge or dismiss.  Does your “Yoga” help you to do that?  We are taught that to be right is the ultimate achievement, and if my explanations or opinions are challenging your ideas of “rightness,” that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.  Breathe that in before you fire back opposing opinions as judgement (right vs. wrong) rather than critique.

Back to Yoga.  Yoga as a practice is the exploration and inquisition of self.  Here’s where it might start to feel vaguely familiar.  Yes, that exploration can include but is not limited to the physical, exploring all of the ways our bodies are holding patterns of behavior, trauma, or emotion. This physical exploration can also include the recognition of our disembodiment, the vacancy and disconnection we have with our form.  Yoga relentlessly applies the skills of inquiry to the mind, including emotion, but is not psychology, on the contrary, it is a way to penetrate our identification with our identities.  Psychologizing is NOT Yoga.  Yoga examines the subtleties of our existence as seen through the multiple lenses, including energy, the elements, the mind, and mythology. Yoga is a practice of attunement, assimilation and integration bringing together opposing forces into a coherent whole to be explored and dismantled all over again. It hones the tools of concentration and focus. With practice it helps us build the skills of staying present in every situation, even and especially the uncomfortable ones, and helps us to probe every experience for what is true rather than fall asleep in our beliefs, our morality, our judgements. Yoga, the practice and the experience of it, provides us the agency to be self responsible and self accountable in every situation in which we find ourselves. It is an invitation to continually re-orient our attention, and to make discerning choices about how we respond. When lived, Yoga feels like trust, when practiced it feels like fire. 

So, I ask you now, are you practicing Yoga? Are you relentlessly questioning yourself, your beliefs, your reactions and experiences (especially the ones in which you are “right”)? Are you willingly and courageously stepping into the discomfort, fear, and pain of the situations you encounter? Are you committed to searching for beauty among the mess, jewels among the rubble, joy in the sadness, trust in the fear, expansion in the constriction without avoiding or denying any of it? Are you taking responsibility for your contribution in every situation? If the answer is YES, then you are a Yogi, in the truest form.  However, if you find that your practice of “Yoga” looks more like a way to escape the discomfort of your life rather than meet it, if you find that you need the music to distract you, the heat and movement to “get you out of your mind,” if you need your “Yoga” to get back to “normal,” to shore up your rightness, to be better than everyone else, then you might NOT be practicing “Yoga,” and that’s ok.  It’s a place to start. 

Yoga invites us to start where we are.  To bring the questions, the choices, and challenges into a space where we can become inquisitive.  This is a place ripe with the opportunity to learn, to grow, to evolve.  Yoga allows us to bring everything with us, and work with what we’ve got.

Just like all great myths, it’s the shiny story of heroes and demons that draw us in, but when we strip away the details, the phantasmagorical accounts, the epic battles, the defeats and the victories, we find, as scholar/practitioner Douglas Brooks says, that “we are every character in the story.” WE are the multitudinous expression of the whole.  The good and the bad coexist within us.  The comfort and the discomfort are both expressions of truth. Myths draw us in and give us an encoded map for exploring our inner terrain.  So if the myth we have been committed to Modern Myth of Yoga as a way to escape, perfect, or transcend your life, this is the open invitation to re-evaluate the map.  To look more deeply, to be more curious, to think more critically, to question what you’ve been told, to interrogate ourselves; feelings, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, judgments, and finally practice Yoga.

Asana Is An Invitation To Arrive

There is nothing comfortable about life. Pain and suffering follow us around wherever we go. Even when we get everything we want, there is somehow an underlying hunger for something more, something easier or better. This is the nature of desire, and it keeps us just uncomfortable enough to continue moving forward.

The desire to grow, discover, travel, and transform - this is what fuels our life. This is what allows us to connect with each other and to expand beyond our own limitations. But when we are constantly in pursuit, climbing, searching, and longing to be or do something different, then we are depriving ourselves of our true nature.

When we live on-the-go all day, every day, we are essentially sending signals to the brain and body that we are unsatisfied, which only creates more tension and turbulence. Despite growing rates of hypertension, stress-related disease, and mental illness, this is not the truth of human existence. It is only a distraction from the undisturbed nature that resides within.

The physical postures in Yoga are called Asanas. They are an opportunity and active invitation to arrive within our true, pure nature.

Asana is a Sanskrit word that is often translated as “comfortable seat.” But remember - there is nothing really comfortable about life, and nothing particularly comfortable about sitting. A more truthful and comprehensive translation of Asana is “a physical seat that cultivates steadiness and ease.”

When we practice Asana, we put our bodies into physical positions that build friction. The goal is to bring our awareness to the parts of our experience that are uncomfortable - be it feelings of lack, overwhelm, or indifference. In this practice, we become more familiar with our own causes of resistance and actions that bring relief. But ultimately, none of this can happen if we are not willing to show up and to be present with whatever arises.

In every single Yoga class that I teach, I begin by asking my students to arrive. To arrive in the space, in their body, and in their seat. This might sound like a simple request, but arriving is perhaps the most elusive and fleeting sensation.

Can you recall the last time you arrived home after traveling? Do you remember that feeling of a long exhale, the feeling of spaciousness and satisfaction in your body and mind? How long did you let that feeling last - before you began unpacking your bags, cleaning the kitchen, checking email, and preparing for the next day of work or school? Many of us are so well versed in the habits of busy-ness and productivity that when we do experience the feeling of arrival, its only momentary.

But when we fully, wholeheartedly arrive, we take one step closer towards becoming more of who we want to be.

Arriving is an act of acceptance. When we allow ourselves to exist exactly where we are - when we show up and stay present - we accept authority over our own experience. And when we claim ownership of our own lives, we are no longer ruled by avoidance, denial, and attachment. Instead, we have the power to slow down each moment, to soak up the sweetness of this life, and to burn away the impurities that mask our true nature.

Asana keeps me real. It keeps me grounded. Practicing Asana invites me to see my desires more clearly, understand my own motivations, and embrace the current path that I am on. And somehow, learning how to arrive is the only way I know how to keep moving forward.

--

To learn more about Maria click here to check out her website! 

Give Your Power a Voice

I knew as a child I had a great power inside of me.  When I became brave enough to glimpse its marvelous magic I felt as if it’s magnitude could swallow me whole. I knew that my voice and my power were uniquely mine. A synonym for power is magic and this power is inside all of us.  For most of my life I have been in the process of discovering and hiding my magic power all at the same time.

My teacher says if it isn’t a paradox it isn’t divine. From a young age we’re taught to keep our  “power” in a small box to fit the mold and expectations of others. When we are young, it seems as though we can’t hide our power. Over time we adapt to our circumstances, learning how to let just enough of our magic show to keep us interesting but certainly not enough to make us different, unique, or stand out.

When I started my 200 Hour Vira Bhava Yoga Teacher Training I knew walking into our first practice that I was about to take the top off my perfect small box. I was terrified, trembling with anticipation, fear and excitement. Through my yoga practice I could feel the layers peeling away to show the innate, golden authentic-self that had been patiently waiting to emerge. This was a profound embodied experience that cultivated yoga in the core of my heart.  Through this practice with Vira Bhava Yoga. trust and respect were formed; I restored my power in its most lustrous, immense grandeur.

We all have a unique power inside, we have just forgotten.  In these times it is our job to remember. It is our job to ask questions. Our world in its current state of discomfort, fatigue and grief needs NOW more than EVER our unique power. That is why its time for each of us to give our power a voice.

It is our job as yogis to cultivate trust in purpose. When we come to the mat, we work to create and build energy as purpose. To notice each moment when we show up for ourselves on or off our mat has powerful purpose.

This doesn’t mean that you have to go out and quit your job because your purpose doesn’t match up with your profession… I mean maybe it does.  For most of us this isn’t the case. What we learn in the Vira Bhava Yoga 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training is how our purpose and power can express itself in many different areas of life.  We bring our power to every moment. We learn to use the strength of our power to continually guide us on our path.

One definition of power is to move or travel with great speed or force; this is a power of a Vira Bhava Yogi.  We are warriors. We are courageous. We are unapologetic in our greatness and we walk together in community. We know that by boldly expressing our power we are inviting others to do the same. Seeing ourselves in others, knowing that by first healing ourselves we can then heal as a whole.

I want to live in a world where every person has the opportunity to live more authentically while empowering others to find and share their unique voice. If this sounds like something you too seek… Join us! Vira Bhava Yoga is coming to a town and studio near you. We are excited, whole hearted individuals striving to support each other in being great! Learn more and Register for our programs here!

Welcome to the Edge

What is the edge?  The edge is a precipice between one place and another.  The boundary between what is and what could be.  The experience of the edge is often characterized by intensity and extremes. The edge is a place of unknowns and risk, and a place where there is very little clear direction about the next step. It is the space of transition which often leads us to be both excited and afraid. Hopeful for the movement to the next place, and simultaneously terrified about leaving the comfort of the familiar. It seems that we find ourselves on the edge often in our lives.  It can emerge during big shifts like the edge of a career or the edge of relationship, but it can also happen with something as seemingly insignificant as the edge of a choice.

It is an intense place to occupy, and often we express that we feel frozen, stuck, unclear, and without direction.  So, to stay “safe”, we prolong the process, and hold fast to the familiar and comfortable.  We begin to develop a fear and mistrust about the space between, when in truth it is the space of pure potential. This space just outside of the familiar is where we learn to TRUST, to understand that it is all about us, but it is so much bigger than us.  The less we cling, the more we can feel supported to make the choices that will lead us to greatest ease on our path. Once we step out into the unknown, the next phase of our lives opens to us. But that first step, for most of us, is the hardest one.

The choice to leave the familiar for what is right or good for our life takes a warrior’s heart.  When we take that initial step into the unknown and in doing so, we open a path straight to our center.  For so many of us, this is scary.  We’ve invested so much time and energy into becoming  that we have forgotten our own true being, the unchanging, purposeful, power within.  

It is here at the edge of a quiet moment, or a dramatic life change, where we have a choice. We choose to step out into the unknown away from comfort because we sense it will bring us closer to who we really are. Taking this step will bring us closer to who we are becoming.

Friends and family may think we are crazy.  Our colleagues might question our sanity.  But when we make the choice to honor the call home to ourselves, we become courageous warriors and we feel aligned.  The doubt and fears that we once had don’t disappear, but they begin to ttake a backseat to the hope, excitement, and knowing that surface when you step over the edge. We may do unexpected things like quit our jobs or leave a relationship.  We might become unpredictable and spontaneous and go back to school or become a yoga teacher.  We might allow our true selves to show up in ways that we never allowed before by falling in love or planting seeds in the ground. Regardless of the way your choice will manifest, the edge that we surf is terrifying and exhilarating, and entirely worth it.
 

If you find yourself at this edge, welcome. You are not alone, you are among good strong faithly company. Together we are stepping over the edge and supporting one another as we wake up, feel more authentically, dive into practice, and make choices that will change our lives and in doing so change our world.

Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way:

1. Establish yourself in TRUST.  Trust in the process, trust in yourself, your inner voice, your preparation.  Remember YOU are the point.

2. Be cautious about leaning too much into faith.  Faith requires us to cultivate belief whereas TRUST requires no believing, it is belief itself.  When we TRUST, outside evidence becomes an added bonus instead of the needed proof.

3. When you are in the intensity of the edge, the only practice is to keep going.  Focus all your energy in what you know is true. Keep going, even if you are tip-toeing.  Keep showing up to whatever is offered.

4. Be in relationship with your inner voice.  Do a practice every day that tunes you into YOU.  Your inner guidance, your truth. Don’t worry about what anyone else says, inhabiting the edge is ALL about YOU.

5. Don’t wait for Perfection. The desire for things to be perfect in order to make choices is a way we orient ourselves to what’s right/wrong, good/bad.   So when we have no orientation, the absolute definition of the edge,  we feel that it’s imperfect and something is wrong. Act from your gut instead of from proof.

6. Be fully engaged in the process.  It’s the process itself that is the point, so don’t disregard it in an effort to escape discomfort.

7. Choose growth.  When things are most challenging or confusing, see these experiences as an opportunity to refine and grow.  Riding the edge is an opportunity to become more mature in our efforts.  Apply your intelligence to your experience.  Slow down, invite presence, feel your emotions, and watch how you evolve.

8. Be gentle with yourself.  The edge is scary.  It’s a difficult place to be.  It’s exciting and full of potential, but often without clear and predictable outcome.  If you find yourself seeking old comforts, or feeling discouraged, it’s ok.  Be accepting of your humanness and recalibrate your efforts.

9. And lastly, take care of yourself. The edge is hard and you will likely be questioned rather than supported. Show up for yourself like you wish others would show up for you in these times.

If you are ready to step over the edge and are seeking a support consider joining us for one of our many 200/300/500 Hr Yoga Teacher Trainings.

The Call Has Come

We live in hard times. In one big sweep, all of the veils that we have been hiding behind have been lifted.  Many among us are left staring down the barrel of our own denial.  We have been waiting for things to change, to take their course, and now they have.  But for an undeniable portion of the population, the change was a brutal blow.  Where I live in Northern California, the actual outcome was spoken of as an impossibility and now there are masses of broken hearted, afraid, angry people compelled to ACT.

Social media is overflowing with suggestions about ways to get involved.  Write letters, make phone calls, MARCH.  Yes!  Stand up, claim the right to be here, to have a voice, to fight for what you desire, but there is more to it than that.  In order for this work to have a deep and lasting impact on the current reality in which we live, we MUST be doing the same work inside of ourselves.

Stop what you are doing and close your eyes.

 

Call up all of the characteristics about yourself that you loathe: desperation, sadness, loneliness, fear, worry.  Stay there.  Look at what you push away, look at what makes you cringe about yourself.  Look at your hidden, shameful pieces. Look them all straight in the eye.  This is the only way.  We can’t keep turning away from what is rumbling under the surface, screaming to be seen.  We can’t expect others to change if we are unwilling to change ourselves. We can’t stay ignorant or in denial of our own unlovable parts, yet expect the world to transform into a more loving and accepting place. If we cannot see our disapproval of others as pieces of ourselves, nothing will ever change.

The philosophy of Tantra teaches that what is within us is manifested in the world.  The most advanced Yoga Practice is owning and assimilating ALL pieces of ourselves into an integrated whole. Even the things we want to forget, we accept, and that is the most IMPACTFUL work we can do.  As we assimilate and integrate our shadows, we will also step more and more into the ownership of our GREATNESS.  We will more willingly see what we have to offer, what is loving and loveable about ourselves.  When we do the work of understanding ourselves, then we can move out into the world with the ability and skill to understand others, really.  

Judgements and separation exist in the world, because they first exist inside.  If we can move toward internal non-judgement and unity, then our outer world will start to reflect our internal state. So we MUST, start doing the work.  The practices of yoga, meditation, and self reflection are more important now than ever.  It is NOT selfish to take the time, it is the most powerful thing we can do for the world.  What if the willingness to do your internal work was what you gave the world?  

Start wherever you are.  Whether it’s asana, running, journaling or making art.  Prioritize your internal work as PARAMOUNT.  Going to an asana class can be the first step in making radical revolutionary change in the world if you are willing to show up fully.  We are all being called to ACTION.  Don’t forget that the call is as much an internal one as an external one.  As you show up for the protests, call the congressmen, write the letters, show up equally for yourself.  YOUR practice, whatever it is, will make all of the difference.  

Call your Heart back

How do we deal with the fragmentation that comes with complexity? No one can argue, we live in trying times; politically, socially, environmentally, technologically, and personally. We are navigating through a continually changing arena of questions and challenges. As we move through this complexity, a feeling of completeness can be enough to keep us going. It’s time to call your heart back.  In the midst of heartbreak and disappointment, it’s essential to put your Self in the center.  We MUST realize that the continual output of our energy into other people’s problems, into judgements and blame, into resistance and fear, is draining us of our vital force.

We must realize that this outward commitment, though honorable in theory, is actually the prime dysfunction in our world today.  We have broken our own hearts and tossed them out into the world as a way to show our love.  We have placed expectations upon others whose hearts are fragmented to bring us to wholeness. We are giving away our heart in so many directions and so many different ways that we are internally shattered.

We must STOP looking outside for our deliverance, to Yoga, to religion, to our politicians, our spouses, our community.  We MUST start turning inward and owning what we find. We MUST start arriving into our communities whole and offering our wholeness.  It’s time for us all to call our hearts back.  To return to the state of wholeness and completion that allow us to show up fully in all aspects of our lives.  We must cultivate a strong relationship with ourSelves. Then and only then, will the change that we so deeply desire start to take root.

I bet you know what I am going to say.  Practice right? But maybe there is more to it than that.  If our practice is simply another opportunity to fragment the sweet wisdom and guidance of our heart by trying to do something “right,” or achieve an outcome, then maybe Practice alone isn’t the answer. If we are using our practice as yet another opportunity to doubt, criticize, fall short, or condemn ourselves, then our practice isn’t supporting our growth.  At least not by itself.  The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali says that the highest level of Practice is Abyasa and Vairagya, Practice and Detachment.  See, according to this revered Sage of Yoga, we can’t really have one without the other.  We can experience the heights of Samadhi unless we are unattached to them.  

Our culture gets all wound up about the word detachment.  They think it means lack of caring, or coldness.  They think it means renouncing all that they love and value.  Detachment in the west is synonymous with rejection.  So let’s provide some clarity about detachment before we move on.

Detachment is feeling without an object.  We can feel love, but not attach that love to a specific person, experience, or expectation.  We can be “in” love, macerating in the beauty, joy, and sweetness of the moment without attaching that feeling to an object.  We can do the same with anger, fear, joy, excitement.  You name it.  And what happens when we can fully and completely experience the feeling without dependency on the object of it?  The feeling grows.  The feeling becomes more impassioned, more expansive.  We can make clear commitments, because our commitments are no longer made out of fear or clinging. We no longer try to manipulate situations in any favor, because the experience becomes more important that the outcome. We can work through our disagreements because we are unafraid of loss.  We can fully step into our power, because we realize that the source of all feelings is within, not without.  We step toward possibility instead of shrink from it, because there is no dependency on outcome, and in it’s place we find an innate and unwavering trust in experience itself.

When we practice Vairagya, we empower ourselves.  We become Self contained, Self centered, full of ourSelves.  It’s from this place that we can reach outward with the greatest effect.  We stop inhibiting and start inhabiting.  And inevitably we forget, and get swept up by life again and again. This is when Abyasa becomes essential.  We practice to continually remember.  Who we are, why we are here, what we can do to most fully align with what is good for all.  We practice to recalibrate, to reset,  to allow, and to accept.  Our practice provides a training ground for our challenge.  Whether contrived in the form of asana, or experienced as a deep emotional unfolding, we practice because it sharpens the tool of detachment.  If we could exist fully within Vairagya in all moments, then we would practice to give thanks for the opportunity to experience all of the feelings, processes, relationships, battles, and ecstasies that the simple act of living provides..

How do we call back the fragments of our hearts and begin to heal?  We continually seek the moments of wholeness and land in them: the mat, the cushion, the rock, the trail, the dance, the soil, the sunset.  In those moments, feel the recognition of your infinitely expanding capacity, and yield to it.  Start to grow those fleeting recognitions. Inhabit them.  Remember you are real, that you are purposeful, that you deserve to be whole. Practice loving yourSelf, in all of its brokenness and imperfection.  Forgive yourSelf for the mistakes you have made, and give thanks for the lessons you have learned.  Stay inside the challenges that you want to run away from until they have resolved into growth. Be unwaveringly honest with yourSelf.  Value yourSelf, your existence, your experience, your wisdom. Honor that knowing, every day.  Find the path of practice that tunes you into what you need..  Do it. Every day.  Yes, every damn day.  Your practice will not make your life easy.  It won’t deliver a new existence to your doorstep.  But it can light you up inside, help you remember your innate wholeness, support your innate purpose, and orient you toward LOVE every day.  Your practice can call your heart back, and it’s only with a whole heart that we can truly make a difference.

The Real Practice of Yoga Starts Now…

At the moment of completion after Savasana, when you roll over on your side and transition from your practice back into the world,  I always say this line, “the real practice of yoga begins now, when you take what you’ve learned from your practice out into your life.”  It’s not just a line.  I truly believe that what you do on your mat is practice, reflection, and training for how you live your life.

Today has been a perfect example.  After two days steeped in practice, I woke to a stuffy nose, a kid who refused to get out of bed, a car that barreled out in front of me, then flipped me off.  Everything in me wants to rage, to point fingers, to scream and yell and wallow in my self righteousness.  Yet, it’s in that moment that I practice.  Even in the rising anger and frustration, I call upon years of practice and study to find a moment to make a choice.  Do I move toward the balance and calm that I discover on my mat or do I lash out and react to the situations in which everyone’s perception is unique and colored by their own unique experience.  Do I meet these situations with compassionate understanding or with reactivity and blame?

When I’m on my mat, I encounter myself.  The tightness in my hip, the burning in my low back, the collapse of my chest. For years, I would meet these tendencies with a push back.  A “NO” and then spend my time in my practice either running away from the sensations or berating myself for my imperfections. Years of practice and svadhyaya (self study) have taught me to turn toward the discomforts and shortcomings and to meet them with love and acceptance rather than a forceful desire to fix what is broken, or make right what is wrong. And this has radically changed my experience of life.

As I move away from striving for perfection in my practice, I have stopped viewing my imperfections as flaws.  I have started to appreciate my unique imbalances as expressions of my individual truth, ones that make me authentically and beautifully me.  Once I made this shift inside, I stopped teaching Yoga as something to achieve.  If you are truly doing Yoga, you are simply and beautifully waking up to yourself, discovering the Yoga that exists at all times within, rather than the forceful practices and corrections that we so often characterize as practice.  When my practice started to shift in this way, so did the way I viewed the world.  I now realize that everyone, literally EVERY ONE, has the same struggles with imbalance and imperfection.  EVERYONE has their difficulties and their unique expression of beauty and purpose. I don’t always agree with everyone, but at least I can move toward understanding them, because I am beginning to understand myself.

Rather than feeling that the calm serenity of my practice was stolen from me by the reactions of others and the frustrations of living life, I have begun to see that all of my life is an encounter with my practice.  And outside of the controlled environment of the yoga class, the practice becomes more essential. The opportunities to encounter the tight spots, the desires to run away, or the intensity of discomfort are way more evident.  The choices to stay grounded in truth, and meet each occasion with acceptance and love is more challenging, and even more fulfilling.  

When my morning unfolds in a less than perfect way that’s when the real practice of Yoga begins. When I can open my heart in love, even while being stern with my kid, when I am compassionate to my slower pace because I feel under the weather, or when I can look the guy in the eye as he has his middle finger in my face and think about loving him rather than fighting back, then and only then is my practice is working.  

If you are ready to rediscover yourself in the center of your life and learn the tools to honor and share that discovery with the world, click here to register for our upcoming YTTs now.  

The World Doesn’t Need More Yoga Teachers

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

― Howard Thurman

The world is full of “Yoga Teachers.”  Wonderful people with a wonderful skillset to help you refine your alignment in downward facing dog or get buff in boat pose. Yoga Teacher Trainings that drill the architecture or a pose or the choreography of a flow, but our classes, whether intended or not, also make an enormous impact on our healing.  Miraculously, in addition to helping us stay fit and calm, the practice of yoga also helps us to relieve pain and suffering.  The average Yoga teacher today may be supporting the healing of others through sharing this practice, but they may not even know.  Why are the classes designed to keep our bodies healthy making such an impact on our overall wellbeing?  The answer is simple: the practice makes us come alive.

Someone walks into our class after years of pain or anxiety and finds immediate relief. People come again and again because the practice soothed their suffering or helped guide them to make better choices for their health and well being.  Does this make Yoga teachers healers?  Not exactly.  Teachers are more like the conduits.  Ideally, we have experienced our own sense of relief or liberation from physical, mental, and emotional discomforts, and now we share these discoveries with others.  We are the instrument, but the practice is the wind. The practice itself is what makes the music of healing come alive in others.  I’m sure you’ve had the experience of talking until you are blue in the face about how Yoga could help your neighbor with back pain or your cousin with high blood pressure.  Just talking about Yoga doesn’t work.  You have to do the practice to see the effects.  It’s the PRACTICE that is the healer.  

Patanjali (sage of yoga) said that Yoga serves two purposes, to relieve suffering and to grant liberation.  He didn’t say that Yoga teachers did that, it’s the practice.  I firmly believe that our teachers are guides.  Like Sherpas on the path up the mountain.  They are not the mountain, they are not the ascent.  They are simply people who have walked this path hundreds or maybe thousands of times before and know many of the pitfalls and shortcuts.  They know when to stop and point out the view, or when to keep pushing through the difficulty because the easeful part is just ahead.  They know all of this because they’ve been there.  They know where not to step because they’ve limped around on a sore ankle from making a wrong choice.  They know where to be still and quiet so that the sweetness of the environment will emerge.  When you find a teacher that deeply resonates with you, it might be because their path is so similar to your own.  And in your eyes, they are walking it skillfully.  

If yoga teachers are healers, it’s only because the practice has helped to heal them.  Teachers can know all of the refinements of how to teach an asana, but if that asana hasn’t deeply impacted them in some way, it most likely won’t impact the students.  Teachers can talk about healing all day long, but if they haven’t used the practice to heal themselves in some way, it just won’t resonate. As guides, the more directly your teachers have experienced the path, the better the guide they will be.  So when you seek a teacher, or seek to be a teacher yourself, we have to be open to the process of our own healing.  We can trust those who have walked the path before us (the word in Sanskrit is Sraddha), but we still have to do our own walking.  We have to become curious about how and why these asanas or pranayamas are causing a shift.  We have to be willing to look inside and not simply be told.  

Maybe one of the best qualities of a YTT is it holds you to the work of healing yourself.  It can be so much more than simply an asana class.  It’s an exploration of body, mind and soul.  It’s a sangha of seekers doing the work right next to you, holding you when you are struggling and being held and guided by you when you find your way through the maze.  And it’s this quality of YTT above all else that makes a great yoga teacher.  Anybody can learn the right things to say in downward facing dog, but can you speak to the way it helps you land in your heart?  So if you are looking for a teacher or looking to become a teacher, be clear on your purpose.  Be clear that the world doesn’t need more Yoga Teachers, what the world needs are those who have been brought alive by the practice and want to share it with others.

If you are ready to dive deeply into the exploration, refinement, and healing of your own practice and want to share it with others, check out our YTT programs in California, Nevada, North Carolina, Virginia, and Illinois.

Let's Start a Yoga Revolution

ALL REVOLUTIONS BEGIN AS EVOLUTIONS

I have worked for years trying to meet the mainstream examples of an adept yogi.  I stretched my body beyond it’s limits, I filled my mind with teachings and directions.  I approached my mat like a surgeon, ready to cut and repair my practice into perfection. Until one day I stopped practicing and started listening, and it was revolutionary.  Though not quite in my 40th year, I feel my body resisting the rigid structure of effort and achievement that I’d been striving to obtain for two decades.  I witness that when I threw caution to the wind and ALLOW my body to explore sensation, movement, and breath, the experience of Yoga, rather than the practice of it,  is the result.  I am mystified and terrified, but also excited.  Even though I’ve been teaching for years, it feels daunting to offer this new approach to my students.  For now, my teaching is evolving into a dialogue of trust and discovery rather than a demand to perpetuate the status quo.

Maybe this makes me a renegade or some sort of nuisance.  It definitely makes my classes an acquired taste.  The mainstream idea that yoga is about bikini clad arm balances is not the Yoga I want to be teaching.  Though the asana I teach is full of opportunities to be stronger, it is not a fast-paced,  fitness driven kind of strength.  Instead, we explore an innate strength that arises from within; an unshakeable trust in yourself.  That’s what I want to be teaching: THE FULL POSSIBILITY OF WHAT YOGA CAN BE. I continue to stand on a strong foundation of Millennia old teachings,  and trust that the forms of asanas shape and move our energy in ways that enhance our vitality.  And I will continue to study with amazing teachers.  Am I infalible? Hell NO!  I have blind spots.  I have places within me that I have hidden or locked away that need a teacher or a teaching to crack open.  But I no longer want to be solely dependent on the authority of others to guide my experience.

In this revolution, we will know that we don’t have to master a picture-perfect handstand in order to be a yogi.  We don't have to twist ourselves into complex shapes or harden our core to be successful. We don’t have to disregard the messages of safety that come from our brains and our cells.  When our Yoga becomes our revolution it evolves to embody the unique essence of beauty and perfection that exists inside of each of us.

The most challenging part of evolution is trust. We can’t get behind a revolution without it.  How do we quiet the voices of doubt and fear and criticism (both inside and out) that say that this approach isn’t yoga?  How do we allow the experience of yoga to rise up from within, rather than feeling like it is perpetually something we have create on the outside? WHAT WOULD OUR YOGA LOOK LIKE IF WE REALLY TRUSTED OURSELVES? What if we were the ultimate authority of what was best for us?  Here’s where the real revolution begins.

We are returning to our innate guidance.  Regardless of opinion, we are pursuing the possibility that Yoga is something that is sourced from inside of us and not something to achieve or attain. As we mature our understanding, our practice transforms, and if we are lucky, we get to share that with others.  

This is the new Revolution of Yoga, and we are on the front lines.  Are you ready to join us?

 Reprint with Permission from ViraBhavaYoga.com

Please Don’t Call Me a Yoga Teacher

It never fails.  I am settling into my seat in coach when the nicely dressed businessman sitting next to me asks, “traveling for business or pleasure?”  A deceptively simple question, that I usually answer with a simple “both.” Then comes the question I dread the most, “what do you do?”  To encapsulate this answer with a simple statement falls short of explaining my profession.  Yet, inevitably I say it.  “I am a Yoga Teacher. ”  He then tells me how his niece/daughter/friend is also a yoga teacher and begins the usual talk about how tight his hamstrings are, how he can’t touch his toes, or (my favorite) how fit I must be doing Yoga all the time. This is a gross misrepresentation of how I fill my professional hours and my personal time, but the task of redefining what it means to teach yoga seems insurmountable.

Mr. Businessman’s idea of yoga isn’t a totally inaccurate perception in the yoga industry.  I go to yoga classes from time to time that are simply physical fitness classes.  But that’s not all that’s out there. Some Yoga teachers guide their students to do more than open the hips or broaden the collar bones.

Some Yoga teachers are using the asanas (physical postures) to help students develop an understanding of themselves at the deepest level.  These teachers are helping us to understand the body as an intricate part of the whole system of our humanness, and they are helping us to see that in working with the body, we are also working with our mind, our heart, and our spirit.

So the term “Yoga teacher” is starting to fall short of the truth of what I (and many others like me) do “for a living.”  The problem is that to relegate a vast and multifaceted philosophical and scientific system to a physical workout is a mistake. The postures are the catalyst to discovery of deeper truths and a more meaningful relationship with what is real and true. They are not exercise. The breathing is a tool to experience our life in a different way, more connected and more complete.  The sensitivity to alignment is more than a way to keep the body safe, it’s a way to move and express the energy within and around us that is always working to shape our experience.

It’s time to change the conversation. For all of us who study and teach Yoga as something that is much, much bigger than physical fitness. It is time we work to reframe what it means to be a Yoga Teacher in the world today. It is time that we own the full scope of what yoga can offer and not stop short by limiting its benefits just to the body.  

What are we afraid of?  If you are a practitioner of Yoga (and not simply doing a Yoga workout), then let’s start talking about that. Can we take back the label of Yoga Teacher as source of integrity and authenticity and not just another YogaGirl YouTube spoof?  Can we revive the understanding and practice of Yoga  to be more than just our hamstrings?  

Can we bring back the term “Yoga Teacher,” and not cringe at the thought of telling Mr. Businessman what we do for a living and a life practice?