Chapter 12

To all teachers of yoga and all aspiring teachers of yoga I can wholeheartedly recommend one thing: be a student. Study as much as you can, soak it all in. Surrender yourself, be willing to ask for help and receive it graciously. Admit that you don't know all the answers and that you're not perfect. What do we share except our journey? And what we have struggled through, fought for, and suffered for is often what we can teach the most effectively. For it is our difficulty that opens our hearts and lets all the light and compassion in. Take a yoga class, ask for help, sign up to learn something new. There is nothing more that I love than the moment of complete letting go when someone you trust takes you deeper than you could ever go by yourself. It's an act of faith. 

I dream almost every night. Sometimes I can immediately glean the meaning, but other times it feels like someone is writing an adventure novel in my head and I have no idea where it's going or what's happening. I believe that the spirit speaks to us in dreams. I believe there are messages that we receive in our dreams that our conscious mind blocks in normal waking life. I believe in the power of dreams.

After a heartbreaking break-up where I was depressed for months & then to about a year, I woke up from a dream with the questions, "How can you live the flow you're meant to when you're stuck in bed crying about a boy?" I got up, never thought about him again and grabbed my life by the reigns and started living. Do you dream? Do you listen to the messages in your dreams? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night with knowledge gifted to you in a dream? There is a powerful, loving force that gently guides our life. It speaks to you in dreams, it speaks to you through the vulnerability of the heart center. It is wise, full of grace and healing. For a long time I was uncomfortable about calling this presence God. But over the last years I have felt His presence beyond any shadow of a doubt. I have been overwhelmed with His eternal peace, His brilliance, His love and compassion for all of us. And I know that the gentle hand that has been guiding my life, the hand that has reached in and picked me up when I stumbled and could not continue on my own, this is none other than the hand of God. When my mind is too busy to hear His voice he speaks to me in dreams. When I become still enough to truly listen He is always there waiting for me, with open arms and wings of faith. He waits for us all, with infinite patience, love and understanding. There is nothing to fear. All is good. You are worthy of the highest love. Look in your life for the signs of faith and grace and you will find the truth. 

There aren't always words for it, but you feel it when something has soul. Without it even the most beautiful form lacks the raw authenticity that creates meaning. Whenever I've done anything in my life motivated by money, power or success it has always failed. But when I've put my soul into it the ac of giving was already enough. Your intention matters. What's in your heart is what's in your soul. Be brave enough to look deeply inside and reveal the truth of yourself. While we may give lip service to peace, love and happiness as long as there is irresolution within the inner plane our subconscious mind will sabotage our best consciously stated intention. Get down deeply and know the truth of yourself so that you can finally be free. Define yourself in terms of the eternal divine spark of your inner being and you will have the truth that sets you free. Define yourself by worldly attachments, achievements or accomplishments and you will find yourself lacking every time. Chase the fleeting bliss of the temporal world and you will come up empty handed. Root your awareness down in the changeless center of all life and you will rise up and soar above anything that you meet in the material world. The ephemerality of pleasure and pain will drive you crazy with its endless series of vacillations. Only the permanence of your divine and true soul leads you to the transcendent peace that we all seek. 

Love is an action, a steady perseverance of the heart and soul. It is said that Sanskrit has 96 words for love, ancient Persian nearly 80, Greek there and English only one. We need adjectives and qualifiers to break it down, discuss our intentions, evaluate and judge matters of the spiritual heart. Or do we? Is it perhaps just that love itself is so powerful, so bold, so big and so all consuming that it remains forever unchained by our linguistic form? Perhaps love is best felt rather than talked about and what we need more than anything is to feel love all around us. For today express your unwavering devotion through actions. We could call this Bhakti in Sanskrit, the path of devotional offering and service in honor of the highest truth. You love what you are devoted to. Go out in the world today and devote yourself to love. Hug your friends and family, send sweet text messages, tag the people you love. Find your language of love and speak in actions more powerful than any words can be. Take it up. Don't go down. Guess how long the full hold was this morning in Guided Primary Series.... And the answer is just over one minute. I remember the first time I could hold the entire ten count of Guruji's Uttplutih count it felt like I had climbed Mt. Everest. It was as much a mental as well as physical discipline. Staying through what felt like interminable counts gave me strength beyond what I believed was possible. It taught me to take it back up no matter how many times I went down. It taught me that success in yoga isn't measured by how well you do the asana but by how well you try.

What is the lesson of strength for you? 

Where do you need to learn how to pick yourself up no matter how many times you go down?

Sometimes they come at you like a tsunami aimed directly at your heart. I've had an emotionally overwhelming evening. A whole host of things just seemed to hit me all at once, most of them centering around relationships and people I love. It all just left me feeling down. My faith is not shaken one bit and I trust everything will be ok. But somehow the sadness still lingers and that's ok, I'll just let it be there without fighting it. So many students ask me what to do when they face difficult emotional times. I know first hand how easy it is to let yourself drown in a wave of sadness, depression, anger, anxiety. First thing to understand is that you are responsible for your own emotional health and well-being. Nobody puts those negative feelings inside and when you're flooded with emotion no one can solve that but you. Instead of running away, backbends teach you how to breathe, remain equanimous and surrender. Learn this tool on your mat and be a better person in every moment of your life. No matter how bad it seems, you are ok. Everything is going to be ok. Take a deep breath and let it all go.

Ask yourself this question: what does it mean to be a yogi? Why does it matter if you are strong enough to do a handstand. At the top of an escalator in the airport today there was a bottleneck. As I got closer I saw the reason. There was an elderly Indian lady in a traditional saree with a giant carry-on suitcase that she was hesitant to put on the escalator. Nearly fifty passengers walked right by her. As it was my turn I looked at her and said, Shall I help? With a little turn of the head and a smile she said yes and followed me on the escalator. Bottleneck problem solved and one nice woman on her way. This is what it means to change your world. Random acts of kindness done each day, stemming from empathy and compassion. This is what it means to be a yogi. Be strong enough to lend a hand when it's needed. Fill yourself up so that you overflow. Your mission as a yogi today is to go out and respond to the world with an act of kindness. Carry someone's groceries, buy someone a coffee, hold the elevator, forgive an old friend. This is how your world changes.. 

When opportunity knocks sometimes you just have to say yes. When something just feels right maybe it's because it is. When your heart skips a beat because it feels like something is too good to be true, maybe it's because it is destined just for you. When I know something is right, I just know it. But how can you be sure? I have also definitely jumped into things that didn't work out. So today's assignment is to reflect on every opportunity in your life. Ask for guidance and instead of letting your ego drive you, turn it over to spirit and let yourself be guided. If you're presented with an option that doesn't feel right it's probably because it isn't. Don't settle. Walk away and wait for the right opportunity. If it feels right but your afraid to say yes, meditate, ask for confirmation and the strength to move forward. Then take the chance! Sometimes you have to just jump in and get the courage after. 

Practice. Practice. Practice. It doesn't have to be perfect. It's just practice. Some days will feel awesome, some days will feel awful. Either way you get on your mat and cultivate the equanimous mind and brave heart of a yogi. This is what it means to live the yoga life. It's easy to forget that it takes years of practice. When you see a beautiful yoga pose remember to look for the years of work. It will show through as a steady peace that shines beyond just the physical form. Take this lesson into your life. When you see someone who has the kind of success that you want look for the hard work that they've put in and then commit yourself to working at least that hard for your own dreams. Set a goal for your daily practice and commit to it for the next month. Or set a goal for your personal life today and stick to it for one month. Or better yet three months! Because if you can commit to the new program of daily practice or the new page your trying to turn in your life it is very likely that it will stick! Commit today to your practice, your life, your happiness, your joy. You're worth it.