Photo: Courtesy to Lula. Portrait of Radek, the guy whose blue eyes are not photo-shopped.
How much yoga practice can one pack into one day?
Tree of Life Yoga in Tervuren. Open day. Everybody welcome with an open heart.
I started with a kundalini session, then threw a class of energy-vini yoga focused on the fire element, later in the afternoon I unfurled in a wild yoga dance and finished the day sitting in an om chanting, in between I had a veggie sandwich and a spinach pie and a strawberry cake and endless cups of tea, all delicious. Smiles exchanged, offered, shared. At the end of the day, the physical and energetic body are transformed, they vibrate contentment, happiness, peace.
Fine. This is the true picture, the easy-to-write one but not a complete one and I know that. If anybody sees into me during the day, they would find moments of insecurity – Will the class I am giving be good? Is the class I am giving good? Was the class I gave good? Will I look all right in hundreds of pictures taken during the day? Shall I weigh five kilograms less? I am enough concentrated in the conversation that is going on? Etc…
And in the car, on the way home, the Indian summer evening, other thoughts flood in: How will the new season be for me? Will I succeed facing all the changes ahead?
Yes, yoga is a perfect tool of transformation, the teacher, the friend, the healer. The books that slipped into my hands this summer only prove that, consistent with the ancient teaching of yoga. They point out one important theme: Do not search for what is not there. Accept what is and start the transformation from here. Good and bad is only mind labelling.
Eyes naturally reach the surface. I also polish and control the pictures in my devices to offer the images I am content with. This is the fearful part of me.
Therefore, the books have come to me this summer to talk about the beauty of imperfection, the order in chaos, the acceptance of all. Okay, so, I am also hooked on smooth appearances, why deny that? I love good clothes and the butterfly earrings that so much suit the shade of my eyes, and at the same time, I know it is only a part of the Whole. And knowing this, I can admire the turquoise and black of my colleagues´ eyes or t-shirts and know that there is much more to admire and love. And during the wild dance to the loud music, with sweat glistening in the late afternoon sun, I forget to know anything, I am moving, purely being, loving and being loved. Perhaps the best party in town – as somebody said.
In the evening, when anxious thoughts suddenly come from nowhere, I acknowledge their presence and they can smile at me, and the punto fijo is untouched by them. Therefore yoga. But there are many roads.
As Carl Gustav Jung says, If the road we are walking is smooth, we are probably on somebody else´s one.
The new season of vini yoga courses will start with the focus on drishti. The eyes, the in-sight in asanas, carefully leading us to intuitive, inner vision.
Learning to love all.
And the books of this summer?
Jeff Foster: The Way of Rest
Thaddeus Golas: The Lazy Man´s Guide to Enlightment
Gay Hendricks: Learning to Love Yourself
Brené Brown: Daring Greatly
And of course, shining through all them is the pure, cold, perfect gem of Eckhard Tolle´s The Power of Now.
The elements dance together wild and calm at the Tree of Life Yoga. Be welcome.
