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.

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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.  

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.