Power of Intention
Every New Year, I find myself in the strange position of both looking back AND looking forward.
Another beautiful year of life on this earth gone by! All of those many moments that seemed so full and rich on their own now come rushing together...A fulfilling year of teaching and practicing yoga. A year in which I have built my own business, moved house (twice), watched my nephew grow from baby into a boisterous boy, learned how to bake a really yummy cake, bought and used (as in actually relied on) a proper diary, mastered the ten minute set up and break down of our new tent, basked in the glorious reflection of Mt. Cook swimming in Lake Pukaki, discovered new supportive and nurturing friends, connected and re-connected with my Anusara and NZ kula, AND turned thirty.
Like many of us, I look back over my year with a mixture of wistfulness, satistfaction, AND relief and then turn to dream (and yes, even sometimes fret!) about the year that is to come. Every year at this time, I take a few weeks off from teaching. Not only to rest, regroup, and focus on my own practice but also to really think about what I want to offer this year in my yoga classes. What is it exactly that I want to share, nurture, and build in my students and in our yoga community?
The word "yoga" is a huge umbrella term for a vast array of different philosophies, methodologies, and approaches. What this means is that almost every yoga class you attend will be a bit different. Even within a particular style of hatha yoga (Anusara, Iyengar, Ashtanga, etc.), each teacher will share their own unique understanding of yoga as they have experienced it themselves.
My yoga teacher always reminds me that we must be clear about where we have come from, where we are now, and what it is that we want to share and offer. As a teacher, I must not only be able to practice yoga but I must be able to effectively communicate my understanding. I must be able to put it into words, to empower language with the truth of my experience. In yoga, this energized, empowered language is called matrika shakti.
When we infuse our words, our movement and our teaching with this power of intention, the quality of what we are offering deepens.
I teach and practice the Anusara method of Hatha Yoga (http://www.anusara.com/) founded by John Friend. Within this system of yoga, I have learned a creative and elegant system of univeral alignment principles that take my body back towards its optimal blueprint for movement (improving my posture, bringing more space into my joints, lengthening my spine, and helping to heal accumulated pain from injury and/or neglect). Using these alignment principles within this physical practice, I remember that freedom, beauty, joy, and creativity are my truest nature! With that rememberance and within the forms of hatha yoga postures, we link the physical movement of our body to a deep place of inner intention.
What we learn through the practice of yoga is a way of being, not just doing. For me, it is as much an attitude or approach to living life as it is a system of health and healing for the body. It is not enough to simply "Hold the pose and take five breaths". Each posture gives us the opportunity to delve deeply within our hearts, to examine with curiosity and compassion our places of holding and injury, to taste our unlimited potential, and to ground ourselves fully into our present moment. Each year, each day, each pose, each breath!
