Category: On a Personal Note

Yoga Photos

I’m supposed to have a Bio written.  I’m supposed to have photos taken to add to my Bio.  I’m supposed to have all this marketing done and ready to submit when I go looking for a job as a yoga teacher.  Ugh.

Bio?  Here’s what I have so far.  “Hey, just got certified.  Seasoned yogi. Let me guide you.  Oh yeah…here are some pics.”

As you can see, I’m not getting very far on the biography.  I really don’t want to write it.  Maybe as I get “my voice” in teaching I will have a voice for a Biography Bio.

Maybe pictures will be easier.  I can do pictures.  All I have to do is put on my favorite yoga outfit and take my sweetie and his camera out to the park and I will do yoga while my sweetheart takes pictures.  Let’s do that.  My sweetheart is busy this weekend.    He says next weekend is good, ask him again next weekend.

So here we are three weekend later.  I ask my darling again if we can head out to get yoga photos.  And he had a really good question.  “What kind of pictures do you want?”  Well, um, good pictures.   I responded, “I thought you told me you are good at taking pictures.  I just want some photos of me doing yoga for my social media and for marketing.  We’ll just head out to the park and you can get Mt. Rainier in the background.  It’ll be great.”

I do so appreciate my sweetheart’s support.  I am absolutely authentic here.  Nobody has ever supported me so completely as he does.  He’s a real trooper and he gets when something is important to me.  He plugged in his camera to charge it up while I went to change into yoga clothes, because no, I do not wear yoga clothes all day every day.

My darling’s support and his expert photo-taking at the park did not stop the Yoga Police, unfortunately, from pulling up in their squad car. “This is your favorite Yoga outfit, Ma’am?”

“Well, no officer, not really.  It’s cold out and we’re hoping it won’t rain until we we’re done here.  I’m sorry officer, this is what I wore to stay warm.“

“Well, if you are going to come out here and take pictures where Mt Rainier can be seen, I suggest you wait until the mountain is actually showing.  I’m going to have to write you up for poor planning and lousy costuming.  Also, please, next time shoot photos without a crumply mat.”

“Well, yes officer, I just figured that out.  But the ground was wet and I didn’t want to be standing in cold wet grass.”

“That’s why I am writing you up for poor planning.  Please wait here while I call this in to see if any outstanding warrants are out to stop you from teaching yoga.”

I wanted to run for our car, but my sweetheart was holding my shoes.  I was afraid the Yoga Police would confiscate the camera.  Now I wish they had.

For Starters

I have decided to stay home tonight and write rather than head out for yoga.

I want these posting to be relevant, well-written, insightful and I want to reach those that want to be reached.  This blog, I have been thinking, is to be a yoga teacher primer.  Maybe.   As a newly minted yoga teacher I want to record the journey.  This is the record of my journey.

I love me some yoga.  And meditation is crazy goodness.  I swear, at this time, fifteen minutes of meditation is my new lover.  I am constantly on the look out for a fifteen minute slot to sit in meditation.  And it is sweet surrender when I do.  I am happier, more secure, and confident with myself when I have meditated.

I have heard yoga called the moving meditation, the prayer in motion.  And yes, I have experienced this.  And it IS divine.  It is a full body source awareness.  It is an inner focus on my external body.  It is love, it is divine love seeping into every joint, ligament and blood cell as they are moving and flowing in this wonderfully mundane life.

What I really want to get at is, my goal in meditation is to stop thinking and then to connect with the divine.  My goal in yoga is to allow my body the motion it deserves, and then IT calms down too.

Buddhism lead me here.  Wait, let’s start earlier. Christianity led me to Buddhism.  Buddhism led me to yoga and yoga enforced meditation.  But just to be clear – prayer and meditation are super close to each other.  They are not the same.

While we can contemplate the words of the masters, we can also contemplate no thing.  Contemplating no thing may actually be a more expedient means to our sustained happiness.  It is for me – feel free to choose your path.

Chanting in an ancient unintelligible language actually helped to clear my mind better than focusing on words in my own language.  I kept getting in my own way.  To chant in a dead language and focus on the sounds of the syllables and vowels allowed my head to empty and my prayers to become clear.  My prayers were my heart talking.  My heart speaks more plainly than my mouth ever has.  Things happened, and prayers became answered.  My friend tells me I am very good at manifesting things.  And it is true, most of what I have wanted has come to pass.  I may not be requesting very big things, but I have come to know happiness.  That is pretty huge.

We all strive for happiness.  I’m sorry we strive; happiness is.  Happiness is in recognition; recognition of happiness.  Sustainability is huge.  I myself was not clear that happiness is sustainable.  But it is.  It is sustainable when it permeates everything one holds dear.   I can soak in happiness; steep in happiness; wallow in happiness, speak in happiness and it is sustainable as we expect happiness.  We become mired in happiness and it’s a wonderful place to be mired.  If I am going to be stuck – let it be in happiness.

I have been practicing yoga since I was nineteen.  To gain the designation to be a yoga teacher/instructor/guide is such a thrill.  While I work on my personal yoga, my personal satisfaction and my own awareness, I was able to legitimize my guidance as a yoga instructor.  And a yoga instructor is a whole new journey.  I continue to breathe.

Boy, I hope this blog doesn’t blather on  and on too often.  I just want me some yoga.

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