Speaking to Spirit

I’ve spent an entire 20 hours over the weekend in yoga training and I’m afraid I’m not much good for anything.  It reinforced a lot of what I had already learned but had, somehow, let drift away a little.  The more exposure to it, the more readily the information is to use.  

It has been explained that with yoga, you’ll only learn what you’re physically and psychologically ready to learn. 

My psychological self seems ready to grab hold of the spiritual part of yoga. That is, perhaps, because it was what first drew me to practice in the first place. I've always felt that my life felt a little off balance in that area.  I had managed to juggle health and well-being, but my inner spirit was not being fed.  

The yoga studio where I practice’s main goal is to speak to the spirit of their students.  The owner (my mentor) explained that for now, yoga is the vehicle for enhancing or encouraging her students’ spirituality, but that doesn’t mean that wouldn’t change.  She originally taught meditation.  She comes from a long line of spiritual teachers.  So when she spoke to my spirit, I was completely engaged. Then I became like a messenger for the art of her cause.  

With time, my physical poses, the ability to stand and to balance, and to be in a pose have begun to develop. But in the end, my mission has become the same; it’s to meet my students with the message of their spirit and how they can connect to that from their body and their mind.  

 

Most people seem to come to the practice of yoga from the opposite direction.  My friend and yoga training partner is the exact opposite.  She strives to push herself to the edge of every pose and work as hard as possible to create a physical challenge. She lives and breathes the difficult, the vinyasa flow, the inversions, the deeply held standing poses.  She wants to feel punished after class.  However, she doesn’t show much interest in the spiritual practice of yoga.  

What I learned this weekend is that there are numerous styles that speak to the student. Your practice can invigorate you through physical postures.  Your practice can be gentle and therapeutic.  I am like Goldilocks.  I want it to be “just right.”  I want to be physically pushed but gentle to my soul.  

Wherever you’re at with what you envision as your ideal practice, yoga will humble you.