Hello YogaDownload family. How about these last 2 amazing years? Yes, I said amazing. I learned more about myself, my yoga practice, on and off the mat and how I practice the Yamas and Niyamas, and as was revealed to me, bypass them. How and why I teach has also changed tremendously. I kind of wasn’t paying attention to the 100,000 miles I was flying all over the world to teach and the months away from family and friends. It was easy as I am so passionately connected to what I do. It took months to soften and settle and accept doing things a new way, connecting with people in different ways. Then, I settled and realized a new part of me had been fed, physically, spiritually, emotionally, or maybe awakened is a better way to describe it. So, as many teachers begin to travel again and lead retreats and trainings, I have yet to jump back in there. Teaching on zoom and creating online content allows me to connect with all of you more often than if I just came through for a weekend. Also, I’ve moved to Florida and have connected with a community of people that are not interested in pushing limits and finding the next variation of poses. Rather, these amazing seniors are seeking to age gracefully and accept their physical bodies as they grow into their 70s, 80s and 1 man, I teach, is 91. They teach me so much. Yoga has taught me about all beings, happy and free and that the definition of freedom comes in many different forms. For those of you that are new to practicing with me here in the YogaDownload community, welcome. Investigate and excavate. It could be the most amazing thing of your entire life. Who wants to miss that?
What inspires your teaching?
Change and not necessarily that change because something is no longer serving us or harming others. I love watching people discover new possibilities by giving something away, by recognizing that maybe we’ve had our fair share of something amazing and we want to witness others have that same amazing and then watching those who transform from that dark place in their lives to wow I didn’t realize I lived in a way that I didn’t allow myself to receive joy and love to then receiving and then watching all of that cycle and recycle. To me, that’s yoga. I don’t know if I can really teach that but maybe more facilitate and sharing the yoga and recovery pieces that transformed my practice and my life and how I give and receive.
What gives you a sense of purpose?
Listening to students say I had no idea I could do that which is different than a thank you because we begin to recognize that those words come from an empowering source and resource from within. If we discover new possibilities of what we can do on the yoga mat, then we can begin to shift that in what I like to call, our yoga off the mat (i.e., the rest of our lives). We can begin to peel back the limiting beliefs of what we are capable of doing with our lives. These moments in classes, for me, are examples of building trust which is also for me, ingredients of bramacarya, 4th Yama, an intimacy with ourselves and others.
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