Peace out & in, that is what I intend for my blogs to be about, promoting peace while helping to spread some more positive energy into the world. Much of what I read helps to cultivate a deeper awareness of one's mind, body and spirit and after some contemplation, after not having enough room on my status area of Facebook, to express myself fully, I decided to return to this old blog spot I created while in Prague last year. I created this blog spot area thinking I would document my trip to India through the blog, but then when I got to India all I wanted was to absorb the experience and the full training at Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram without writing about it. I wanted to take the time to fully experience the world of India for that short month knowing I would be back soon enough to share all my experiences.
Since India, I have opened Sunrise Yoga studio in Kalamazoo, Michigan. www.Sunriseyogakzoo.com It is a budding new business and I must say I am so grateful for the opportunity to undertake such an endeavor, as it comes with great risk, but I also know that if I didn't try to open a yoga studio, I would live to regret it. Not following my dream of creating a sacred space for myself and others to practice yoga is something I have dreamt of since 2002. Eight years later I have realized a dream. That is a powerful feeling to experience.
In one month I have collected numerous canned goods, as the first class is free with a canned good donation for Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes, helping to feed the local hungry, while also helping to build healthier minds and bodies. It's a win/win. It's growing slowly like a fine Oak tree, but slow is steady and fast is fragile, as often said in yoga classes also applies here to the growth of Sunrise Yoga.
I have offered many classes where I show up alone only to use the time for a personal practice. Rather than sitting in the empty space brewing and seeping in worry about no one showing for class, I have used the no attendance classes to be a time of great lesson, in letting go, having face to face time with ego that inevitably pops out and loudly from time to time. Then I reach for my copy of the Yoga Sutras and begin reading or for The Bhagavad Gita. Sometimes I practice the chants I learned while at KYM in Chennai and then after the reading or chanting I am good as new, and so far, better for having had the moment to be with myself, inside of myself, feeling the interconnectivity of us all through the ancient syllables that I chant, or through the words of Patanjali and Krishna, with all holding the power to keep me thinking, and being, positive about this new adventure as a Yoga Studio owner and teacher.
After reading, chanting, practicing asana, or meditating, and more often, after all of this above, I always find that part in me that reaches that part in me that FAITH. I find faith in what I'm teaching and learning and know in my heart it is as Gandhi has said, "Be the change you want to see."
It's not always easy putting all these positive ways of being into play for ones life, but the reading materials, the yoga practice, the teaching, and the small but mighty community that's building here at Sunrise Yoga is like a budding lotus flower, growing like an Oak, it is strong, it is fragrant with sweetness and is truly the most beautiful thing I have come to experience because as I look at Sunrise Yoga, all the pictures that adorn the walls of the space, of the people I met in Chennai, I know that it's not all about me at all, it's about them, it's about the lives that we can touch and help heal, and to be healed by, well beyond the time when we are no longer in immediate touch.
The incense I burn and offer to Lakshmi and her owl, to Krishna, Krishnamacharya, Hanuman, Ganesha, Murugan and the faces in the pictures, those seen and unseen, I am reminded of my duty. I am reminded that we are all here to heal and to be healed. I am reminded of the dedication that's needed to do good work not just for myself and Kalamazoo, not just while in the studio, but from the moment I wake till the time I rest my head at night, I must do my duty to be the best I can be for myself and by doing that I am living the life of yoga.
Peace be in and out, for one and for all.
May those moments that come up in your lives, that appear as you hadn't expected, may they, too, be the moments where and when you dive deeper into yourself to do your duty towards being the best you can be, reaching fulfillment, wherever you are without judgment, without force, and with great compassion and love for the person that looks back at you in the mirror, while accepting your best, who and what you are, on any given day.
Dancingly,
Om
Krista
No comments:
Post a Comment