When it comes to Neuroscience, my FAV is Oxytocin ! It’s about cuddling, hugging and being … maternal? Whereas, dopamine for all the striving gym-rats and the Rajasic life …a bit too much of that around here. Left the corporate life of self-promotion, and ah, the politics … re-started yoga for stress-management back then. It was managed yes, that’s what I was good at … managing, controlling. But now it’s more about taming the fire, reductions … (cooking term yet again!) , i.e., for stress-“reduction” (note – not “management”), and optimal health. Teaching is an extension of that practice of resurgence, regeneration and the desire to share anything good with fellow human beings. It’s never been about thinner waist line but we know it just comes naturally when we take up this practice. So if the environment or the support system (nil) is stress causing, ironic? Why do it? For money? For ego? For approvals and validation? or Are you incessantly striving for the dopamine rush over other good feelings? Yoga teachers, if you are stressed yoga teachers, you are due for “self-study” session. Why this passion? Why do you “love” yoga so much? Do you love it just as much when it becomes the “business” of yoga? Check in with more experienced teachers with decades of teaching under their belt to get their perspective, so we can learn and grow – it’s all about the tapas?
What does Tapas have anything to do with this?
What do I walk away from this weekend besides Yoga For Digestion covered by Baxter Bell, Yoga Therapist first and MD second ? (besides importance of good dose of sense of humor:) I know as I am always talking about food, you might think I am referring to “Tapas” as in small dishes of savory Spanish foods but I will be talking about Yoga Philosophy and how that philosophy is not something obsolete but ever more applicable and relevant today as we navigate ourselves in today’s world.
Tapas – it’s about the discipline. The motivation to practice. The FIRE. That fire in the belly for some; for me, being a Kapha (okay, so with a little Pitta), it’s the illuminating light, a fire, no it’s not a bonfire, a single candle light lighting up the entire surface of the lake… with each ripple, shaken at the surface but the core is deep and all embracing body of water. Whether storm and tidewaters come upon this body of water, always, returning to reflecting that steady flame. Calibrating that BALANCE that allows us to do all that we want to do with more joy, less stress. More satisfaction, less agitation.
Subbing a Vinyasa class today. Vinyasa practice this morning – would it mirror my morning practice?
(I’m the first to) Find out !
Subbing gives me pleasure because it’s about helping someone; and double-whammy in that I am doing something that’s out of regularity and comfort zone. Got to do that sometimes … It’s about gaining more experience thrown into a new group, new set of needs. Thank you for the opportunity, fellow Yogi. My fire burns more like a candles burning in different fashion – like multiples of birthday candles, full of mirth and joy; and sometimes, a single candle at a vigil, reflective and finding the light from darkness. Thank you to my teachers, past and present. Lovely closure to a weekend in need of digestion so it may nourish us so that we may feed others hungry for knowledge and … betterment.
