Surrendering to the Process and Bouncing Back!

Please enjoy this entry from our guest blogger, Derrick. He is currently taking yoga teacher training with the Maritime Yoga College.

Week 2 - January 18th:

A week ago I started my journey with Maritime Yoga College and what a transformation it has been already.

This new year is full of new beginnings and a host of challenges. I am learning how to juggle my yoga-teacher-training, the final semester of my undergrad, rehearsals for an ACT performance of Arcadia, transitioning to a vegan diet, and also honouring my other roles and responsibilities.

It is through the deepening and expanding of my yoga practice that I am finding balance and synergy. And just as when one learns to juggle, I am also learning how to pick everything up once I’ve dropped it.

A Zen proverb states, “If you fall down 7 times, pick yourself up 8 times”.

As I had said in my last post, this journey will be challenging and I will have fear and doubts, but I will the strength, courage, and wisdom to come through the trials refined and purified - like gold passing through fire.

The guided meditation that opened our 2nd day of teacher-training has brought me to be more aware of the language of my mind and the language of my heart. Our minds, although an amazing thinking-organ and problem solver, works against us, imaging fear and doubts that block us from accessing our fullest potential. The solution is to let go of the ‘monkey mind’. Let the mind serve you when appropriate, but do not let it rule you.

The wisdom I carry with me from this meditation, and I hope may also serve you, is to live from your heart.  Your heart is a coach, confidant, and wise teacher. The love and light of our hearts lift us up our of darkness and carries us beyond the limitations created by our minds.

As my peers listen to their hearts and overcome fears and doubts, and shine radiant like gold in the front of the class, I find great reserves of strength, courage, and wisdom - and thank each of them for being present on this journey.

Our karma classes provide such a unique opportunity for us to experience classroom dynamics and learn first hand how to lead a class! And those who support the karma classes directly participate in the blossoming of us, the teachers-in-training!  So you should come! We have them every Sunday 4pm at Dynamic Fitness - a 5$ Drop-in donation for charity.

May you listen to your heart, lead from your heart, and shine from your heart.

We are bountiful, we are beautiful, we are bliss!

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