Author: Swannasana

During this amazing transformative yoga teacher training, I have come to a few solid realizations. When opening my mind to yoga and the ancient philosophy behind it, one thing stands true: Trust Love.

My goal as a teacher is for my students to feel present in their body, mind and soul. To feel love, to feel acceptance and to feel gratitude. Even more so, I want them to know that I feel the same for allowing me the opportunity to share this sacred practice with them.

As one of my highly regarded mentor taught me:

Love guide me, Love show me, Love teach me.

For me to be the BEST teacher to my students, I must look at myself, because I am my first and forever student. Therefore, I must honor myself, know myself, accept myself and love myself, even at my most vulnerable. This is when and only when I can truly connect with my students and fellow practitioners.

It is HARD. VERY HARD!! But this is what I have come to realize: If I cannot open up and allow myself to TRUST LOVE, how can I expect my student to do this??

So…I know now more than ever that I need to practice what I preach…

TRUST LOVE. TRUST LOVE. TRUST LOVE!

We all need connection. We all need to acceptance. AND We all need love.

Those of us that have found yoga congregate on our mat, essentially to feel connected, to feel accepted and to feel loved. To know that we are NOT alone. That we can look into the eyes of the stranger next to us and say without a word that: You are not alone. I honor you. I know you and I accept you.

By practicing this on and off the mat, let me tell you that this is what everyone can use more of: Connection, Acceptance and Love. Which in turn generates in each of us, to a new found confidence (aka:power) and un-realized strength (aka: courage).

My mantra is “Work in Progress.” Meaning, I will ALWAYS strive to be better and do better. ALWAYS.

As I repeat this mantra in my head daily, I am mindful to look at the person next to me in the eye (on or off the mat) and say with or without words: you my friend and you are not alone, I honor you, I know you and I accept you.

It is my belief that we either need to share love or accept love. Giving or receiving love is scary, raw and vulnerable, but when you TRUST LOVE, trust me:

You are not alone.

Peace,

Melissa

I had quite a terrible dream last night. It was about me as a yoga teacher… Surprise surprise! Being that I am working toward my yoga certification, I have been student teaching on the weekends in my home to anyone who wants to attend a free and experimental yoga class by a true novice yoga teacher.

We all know the mind is a very complicated instrument and it can play mean tricks on you like saying “you aren’t good enough”, “you are lost and not meant for this”, “shame, unworthy and inadequate”.  In my dream, I was in front of 30+ students in a open room filled with judgmental and competitive yogis and athletes. All eyes on me and I was merely volunteering my time and services to improve upon my practice.  I walk in never expecting to be placed in such a daunting role. I was ridiculed for saying inhale when we all know that you exhale into a downward facing dog!! Geez lady get your shit together! I mean the looks and comments were toxic. It occurred to me, as I was lost in my self doubt and lack of self worth, that I need to rise above this! But I couldn’t. I wanted to get on my soapbox and shout from the rooftop that “Yoga is more than a work-out but a work-in and clearly you people have not realized the true concept of this amazing and gratifying practice.” Instead, I just stared mindlessly, frozen and shaken to the core. But in my mind, I continued to speak with a calm and unwavering voice repeating my mantra in my head “You are Work in Progress.” I walked out of the room feeling physically defeated, but mentally stronger.

Remember this is a dream… but it can become my reality if I allow it to. This is the mind stuff we all battle and it often times is a liar. I am certainly not where I want to be yet. I realize have a very long and productive road ahead of me to continue to grow and practice and maybe teach yoga.

So today, having planned a practice teaching day in my home, I almost canceled. Especially after 9 of the 12 ladies canceled on me. But I didn’t cancel. I taught. Despite the fact that I digressed a bit from the dream and the cancelations and slipping from ground gained. I took this entire experience as a valuable learning lesson from my yoga teacher training class. Let go of expectations and attachments. Understand this mind stuff and ego get in the way. Rise above and you know what? It was fine.

I was fine. I was fine that I was absolutely nervous and unsure of my ability to instruct a class (this is my third time…). I kept repeating my mantra “you are work in progress.” We all are.  You are. She is. He is. I AM. This journey called life is always changing and moving forward… even when we think we are digressing and losing ground, well life is work in progress.

Today after the class, I truly felt I was speaking from my heart and intuition and I was gentle with my students and also with myself. I laughed at my inability to differentiate my lefts and rights. I quietly forgave myself for my insecurities, vulnerabilities and inadequacies. I gave gratitude to my students for sharing their insecurities, vulnerabilities and inadequacies with me. I truly felt honored they shared in this hour with me. And deep down, I believe they were honored too.

As we breathed in we invited connection, mindfulness, acknowledgement and acceptance into our practice and with every exhale let go of judgment, misconceptions, attachments and expectations. That my friends is YOGA. Don’t worry about the when to inhale and exhale. Just breathe and know…

We are work in progress.

Namaste –

Melissa