Opportunities and Challenges

I was honored by my friends' request to "officiate" their commitment ceremony. What I didn't expect was how it would change me. I arrived in town for dinner, and when I got home, I reviewed what I was going to say, and started to get very emotional. I was re-working it a bit, re-typing and reviewing everything, and I needed an objective point of view. It was quite late, but my friend Stephanie answered. She approved of what I had written, and followed with: "you need to somehow incorporate this part of you into your teaching".

Well, I knew right away she was right, but I asked her to elaborate. She said, if I could share this part of me with my students, they would be able to connect with me and feel that I care about them, and she shared with me some feedback she had received from people who had attended my classes. What hurt about these words was she was right. I know I have not totally shared myself with my students. The worst part was thinking that my students had suffered for it, and did not know how much I care about them.

I don't know what this is all going to mean for me, my teaching and my students, but I do know that sharing what's in my heart (without sounding like a blowhard) will be a challenge. I'm guarded. The power of what I feel inside is overwhelming, and I don't yet know how to express it without being overly-emotional. This process is going to make me a better human being and a better yoga teacher. And that's what it's all about anyway.

I salute, honor and support my friends Gary and Chris as they embark on their life together. And I thank them for being the kind of friends that inspire and challenge me to be the best human being I can be.
--------------------

Here's what I said during the opening remarks while "officiating" the commitment ceremony:

Hi Everyone, I’m Liz. I met Gary a few years ago when he attended a yoga class I was teaching. As yoga practitioners, we’re trying to peel away the layers of junk that prevent us from radiating our true selves, which is, of course, Love. When thinking about Love, I turned to the writings of a Sufi Mystic and Poet of the 13th century named Rumi, and I came across these words, so apropos for this ceremony:

“On a day when the wind is perfect, the sail just needs to open, and the world is full of beauty. Today is such a day.”

The fact is, the wind of life, and life’s available experience, is ALWAYS perfect. It’s really just a matter of opening the sails of the heart, so that the hardened layers of protection we wear as a result of the less enjoyable aspects of Life can be shed, and Beauty can be seen in its full glory. Today IS such a day. Today is a gateway. You may have noticed that marriages are often conducted under archways. These gates or archways are symbols; of goals attained, and more importantly, as a symbol of the end of one phase, and the beginning of another.

Gary and Chris, you’ve chosen to stand here together and make some serious promises to each other, and then walk together through the metaphorical gate to the rest of your Life together. It takes courage and “heart” to make these commitments, and to have this opportunity is a Blessing. No lifetime voyage is without hardships, but know that you are not alone. We are all here, literally at your back, to support you. Today is about your love for and commitment to each other—but know that you are not the only ones making promises today. Our presence here signifies our commitment to you as a couple, helping you all along the way, doing our part to help you keep your promise to each other.

With that said, it’s the two of you that will do the heavy lifting, and reap the incomparable rewards that only come with hard work, devotion, sacrifice, and most of all Love. Where do we look for Love, and how do we keep it alive?

I don’t know what words of inspiration I can offer to the two of you, who inspire all of us. It’s your love for each other that brought you together, and brings us all here. What is love?

Gary, Love is the feeling in your heart that fills it completely, in way you never imagined you could feel for another human being…

Chris, Love is the music of Gary’s laughter in your ears…

Gary and Chris, Love is the respect you have for each other’s way of expressing themself and the confidence each of you have in being who you are…

Chris, Love is Gary’s unexpected kindness towards and tolerance of Teddy when you first met (letting you know you would get the same treatment)…

Gary, Love is talking about your future with Chris early on, even though it made you little nervous, and Love is also his reaction.

Love isn’t one big thing, Love is the Beauty in all the little things. You already recognize the Beauty in each other, and in all the little things about your Beloved. It’s these little signs of Beauty, that add up to the one big thing: the two of you together.

Before the lovely Julie reads for you, I will leave you with one last bit of advice from one of Rumi’s poems on keeping love alive:

RELATIONSHIP BOOSTER
Here is a relationship booster
that is guaranteed to
work:

Every time your spouse or lover says something stupid
make your eyes light up as if you

just heard something

brilliant.

Where are we going with all this?

After a couple months of Tripsichore, since my return from Edward Clark's tutelage, I had a couple of students ask me essentially, "Where are we going with this?" I was speechless when I heard the question- both times- proving how slow I can be! I was talking with one of my teachers, Katerina Wen, describing the question and wondering why people were asking me that. She said, "Well, where ARE you going with it?" I replied, "Enlightenment." She says, "What does that mean?" I said, "I don't know, I'm not there yet and no one else I know is either!" Then we both laughed.

The epiphany for me was that I am out of touch with my students to some degree, and need to be better at explaining the WHYS of what we're doing from their perspective. The gap is a result of the fact that this is my Life's Passion, which I practice and study incessantly, and some truths seem self-evident to me, but probably aren't so obvious to someone who wanders in to the room for a workout or to become more flexible.

Don't get me wrong, you can get a workout and become more flexible by doing yoga, and though those are not reasons I practice, they are wonderful side benefits. If you think about it, it's not likely the entire reason you practice either. There is something transformative that happens in a practice, whether or not you are looking for it. If you come to my classes, you may have heard me say that if you are doing yoga solely to be in shape and shapely, then go to the gym-it's faster and cheaper. And I'm not saying this to be flippant- if you think about why you choose to practice yoga; you know it's more than hot aerobics and a stretching class.

So why do I teach what I teach, make you do all this crazy stuff over and over until you can do it proficiently? Where are we going with this? It might be illuminative to understand philosophically where I am coming from. I believe that your practice is a training ground for Life. You learn, accumulate and practice skills that take you into the real world- where the true yoga takes place. So if practice is to assist you in your Life, we must imitate the circumstances of Life to some degree. For example, Life is not always predictable, so why should your yoga practice be? Daily Life is sometimes predictable, like the individual poses or components of yoga, and those things can be refined and perfected over time for efficacy, and then we try to move between the poses with Grace (like moving from activity to activity in your Life).

What if you never challenge yourself in Life? Your world closes in around you. The same with the body-if you don't move, you lose range of motion. If you don't move your body in different ways and challenge it, it won't get stronger, and in fact, may actually weaken. I ask people to leave open the possibility for growth-mentally, emotionally, physically. I learned from one of my teachers, Lux Sternstein, to use the word YET if you find yourself saying no, can't, won't, etc. It at least leaves open the possibility for something beyond your mental limitations. "The greatest progress in your life is when you know your limitations, and you have the courage to drop them." ~Yogi Bhajan

YOU ARE AMAZING. You can do things beyond your wildest dreams. But only if you try. Would you let your child use training wheels their whole life due to fear? Or, at some point, do you put them on a two wheeler and push them down the sidewalk, even though you know they will fall? What if your one year old child decided after a few tries, or even a couple months of trying that they could not walk and just made the decision to give up? What would you say? My guess is that you would tell them that they would keep trying until they figured it out. Period.

Nick Cave (not the singer, but a director of the Art Institute of Chicago) sums up my reasoning behind pushing oneself physically in a yoga practice as a vehicle for mental expansion, "I believe that the familiar must move towards the fantastic. I want to evoke feelings that are unnamed, that aren't realized except in dreams."

So assuming you're still with me- what do we do with all of this "stuff" we've stirred up with our physical practice- why are we doing it? We're trying to cultivate a sense of mindfulness, awareness and equanimity in all situations. We observe our inner reality as we move through the challenges of our practice without interfering with what we notice. This experiential observation, in the controlled environment of our practice, is helpful to understand our reaction to: pressure, fatigue, discomfort, frustration, even elation, excitement, pleasure- and we work to maintain the consistency of the breath to create equanimity in the mind. As Edward Clark says, "Evenness of breath synchronized with evenness of movement creates evenness of mind."

If we can become skilled in our practice with this (and this works in the physical asana practice as well as a sitting (meditation) practice) we are less likely to be swallowed by the complexity of experience in our lives. Another of my teachers, Aadil Palkhivala recently wrote about the space between feeling and reacting. It's in this gap where you decide what kind of human being you will be, and in yoga, we practice recognizing the gap. Everyone has "positive" and "negative" feelings, the question is will you react to them, and if so, how? The challenges created in yoga practice represent opportunities to practice in circumstances not regularly encountered, so it becomes easier to manage the complexity of ordinary life.

The other thing you realize over time is that nobody is judging your practice- only your inner critic. And isn't that how it is for us in Life? We are our own worst critics. You learn that even when you are doing your best, sometimes you still screw up and maybe this helps you judge others less knowing they are doing their best too- and they may not have your knowledge and awareness, or tools as powerful as yours. It's important, when one runs in to plateaus, challenges or even injury and illness, to TRUST THE METHODS. They work. Well, one caveat-the methods work if YOU do! This trust of the practice (which includes the option to innovate) requires patience. And who doesn't want more of that? My Yogi Tea fortune yesterday said, "Patience gives you the power to practice; practice gives you the power that leads you to perfection." Yogi Bhajan is not talking about perfection of the physical practice; he's talking about the uber Perfection with a capital "P".

Yogi Berra says, "In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is." So you must do your practice. Sometimes that means it's repetitive and boring, sometimes it means you learning stuff that scares you, sometimes it means extraordinary intensity and discomfort, and just as often, joy, pleasure, satisfaction, and just plain feeling good.

If you were one of the students who asked me "where are we going with this?" I did not have a good answer, and I apologize. If you asked me today, my briefest answer would be, "We are going towards being better versions of ourselves, better human beings in general, Self and/or God realization, and in the end, Enlightenment. Whatever the heck that is." As for the long answer-I hope this newsletter helped.

Feeling (en)lighter already,

Liz Doyle
www.LizDoyleYoga.com

Hi Everybody,

Well, it's October 3rd and I'm sending out the "September" newsletter-- I should be writing about procrastination...perhaps next month.

I'll be keeping it uncharacteristically brief this month. Mostly what I want to share with you is the sheer elation I have with regard to the practice lately. Practicing Tripsichore makes me look forward to the next practice even before I've rolled up my mat after savasana. It's so much FUN!

The reason I mention this is that I hope you will join me and experience it. I hope it will invigorate and motivate you the way it has me. If I can share that with you, it will be a satisfying role as a teacher for me.

I think this must be what it was like to be a child and discover I could sit up, then oh my! I can crawl! Crawl??? Let's try to stand up and maybe even walk-- holy crow! Let's RUN! And dance! And now, as an adult, I'm finding the same joy, frustration, challenge and motivation as I've learned to stand, walk, and maybe even "dance" on my hands.

Even without all the fancy tricks, in it's simplest form, Tripsichore Yoga feels and looks beautiful. And perhaps I'll be equally excited about something else one day; but that's the beauty of Life, and yoga practice, as a grand experiment and discovery. Come see what's in it for you.

Experimentally Yours,

Liz Doyle
www.LizDoyleYoga.com

Tripsichore Yoga

What can I say about Edward? He's out there. In a "Life (and a yoga practice) is a grand experiment, question everything" sort of way. One of the many things I appreciate about Edward is that he applies an uncommon level of intellectual rigor to the practice. He has a reason for everything he does. You may disagree with the reason, and he welcomes thoughtful discourse. Where can you find THAT in a master teacher these days?

I would say that Edward is my "guru" or my teacher, but he is an
"anti-guru" guru. He wants practitioners to think, take what he teaches and innovate- make it more, make it better, add one's own experiential knowledge to develop the technique.

I encourage anyone and everyone to do three things:

1. check out his website: www.Tripsichore.com

2. buy his video- and then have FUN!
CLICK HERE

3. attend his workshop and performance in Seattle in March (and September 2011)- date TBD- I will announce it in my newsletters (sign up for the September workshop HERE)

Mental Range of Motion

Hey All,

Well, after two years of wanting, working and planning, I'm finally sitting in the airport to fly to London to study with one of my teachers, Edward Clark, of Tripsichore Yoga fame.

Just a few quick notes before I go:

First, I arranged for some great subs while I'm gone- you can see the list to the right, and I encourage you to be very consistent and diligent in your practice while I'm away. Stay strong, get stronger, work on your breathing and gracefulness, for we will have lots of meaningful and FUN work to do when I return.

Second, my teaching and workshop schedule is very busy when I return, and I encourage you to deepen your practice and join me for the weekend retreat September 24-25 at Mt. Rainier, and one of the workshops I have scheduled- you can read about them below.

Third, I wanted to share with you an experience I had in the few days leading up to my departure. I started to feel anxiety about leaving for an entire month. In my mid-thirties, I noticed something happening that I didn't appreciate very much. My comfort zone was getting smaller, and things I had enjoyed previously (like international travel) evoked a bit of fear and anxiety in me. At that time, I was preparing for a 3-week trip to South America and I realized that as we get older-- much like our connective tissue! -- our comfort zone naturally shrinks. So unless we do something to consciously push our limits, we'll end up doing less and less, and that's no way to live.

Your yoga practice is a microcosm of life in many ways, and just as in class where I encourage you to try new things, things that make you nervous, challenge you and things of which you never even conceived, I encourage you to do this in Life. Do something that makes you a little nervous- it's good for you.

Expansively Yours (and with much love),

Liz Doyle
Www.LizDoyleYoga.com

Pose of the moment: Utkatasana

Last month's newsletter on crow v. crane pose was a big hit, so I thought I would briefly address another pose that is commonly referred to incorrectly. If you missed it, check it out on my blog HERE.

The pose I'll focus on this month is Utkatasana. It's often referred to as chair pose because you stick your rear end back and squat down almost as if you were sitting on an imaginary chair. However, if you translate the Sanskrit name, "utkata" actually means "powerful, fierce, uneven."

In my opinion, there's nothing fierce or powerful about sitting in a chair, and for that reason, I prefer not to refer to the pose as "chair pose", but by it's name, Fierce Pose.

The names of the poses give you an idea of what rasa, or essence to take on when performing the posture, and often indicate what is to be received from the pose. Utkatasana is the beginning of the Warrior Series, and it's meant to be fierce and powerful like a Warrior. And if one, in fact, follows BKS Iyengar's instructions, it cannot help but feel fierce. Mr. Iyengar instructs us to bend our knees until the thighs are parallel to the floor (ouch, my quads hurt just typing that), and to avoid stooping forward, but to keep the chest as far back as possible. Then he says, with no hint of irony, "breathe normally." That's why he is a yoga master I suppose.

A picture speaks a thousand words, so I'll include a few here for illustrative purposes.

Compare the feeling of "fierceness" these poses convey:


























Now both of these poses are lovely visually, and yet there's a definite difference in the impression they leave, and no doubt, what the practitioner is feeling in their body.

Try out the difference for yourself in your next practice, and really go for it. You will receive the benefits (strong back, legs, toning of the organs, development of chest) of Utkatasana much more quickly and intensely.

Keeping it real and fierce,

Liz Doyle
Www.LizDoyleYoga.com

Get Down Dog

Just for fun I thought I would share a couple of pictures that were taken this week while I was practicing. I was feeling grouchy when I got to practice that morning, and laid out my mat and started on some handstand walking.

When I returned to my mat about 10 minutes later, the teacher's dog, Aigo (loosely meaning "love dog"), had decided to camp out on my mat. It's funny how animals somehow know when you need some amusement. In any event, I did some other work just beside my mat and eventually decided to simply work in the available space on my mat. The teacher saw what was going on and took some pictures with his phone.

The "Love Dog" did not move until I was finished with my practice, and pulled my mat out from underneath him! And it definitely cheered me up.