Recently we celebrated Thanksgiving, that is a holiday that I love even though it is not a holiday we celebrate in my native Colombia. Not only the fact that we use this day to express our gratitude towards all we have and the people we are surrounded by, but also that everybody regardless the nationality or religion, families and friends gather to enjoy an evening together.

I always think about my daughter and how much happiness she has brought to my life, my family that is always there for me even when we are miles apart, my friends that are like bright stars in a dark night, my teachers that opened my eyes to the most beautiful path of yoga, and my students who keep me inspired to keep practicing every day.

As I thought about my students, it got me thinking how enriching the relationship student/ teacher is. 

I started teaching fitness classes and then yoga for about three decades now, and Throughout all these years, I have had students who became dear friends. I talk to them often, with some of them we lost track of each other but they still remain in my heart even when I don’t talk to them anymore. Some of them became teachers and now we share the passion of teaching the path of yoga with others. 

So many students have been part of my daily life year after year; waves of students who enter and leave my life, always teaching me something different, always showing me the ability the human body has to transform itself as the amazing proof of the greatness we all have within us; some have also come to show me some limitation that eventually became a broken barrier; limitations that showed us both a different way to open up to new possibilities and the willingness to accept new challenges.  

The relationship between the teacher and the students is a very magical one, where the teacher has the possibility to share what she knows, and the gift she gets in return is acquiring more knowledge to then be shared with other students.

I feel very fortunate to count on my students who show me love every day even now when I only see them through the online classes in my computer. We have developed this sense of connection and we know we count on each other to surmount the difficulties we encounter on our mats and often outside the yoga practice. I feel very inspired by them, showing up every day or most days to their practice, putting aside everything else while they do their practice. I can see how much devotion there is in their hearts for the yoga path. Being the witness of this passion and discipline has been hands down the most inspiring experience.  

I can feel their trust as they got themselves into asanas that bring back memories of fear, memories of disappointment, fear or feeling pain or falling…and even though all those emotions seem to cloud their minds, they decide to only listen to my voice and go ahead facing the scariest experiences. Watching them overcome those fears and transform them into simple day to day movement gives me the courage to do the same and encourage them more. 

Being a teacher is to me a gift that only keeps me learning more, about myself and about the way we connect to each other often times without talking more than a few words every day….it has also taught me to observe and to be present, to enjoy and let go, to celebrate with them the small victories and the biggest achievements. Being a teacher has taught me to appreciate the exchange of a smile that represents the love and respect we have for each other. Being a teacher has giving me the opportunity to learn more about myself as I try to understand my dear students minds. It has made me more compassionate towards our bodies that eventually ends up showing us how strong and how vulnerable we can be. 

Being a teacher has shown me the ability we all have to give selflessly and observe when we feel frustration as We understand we don’t  know it all, that there is still so much to be learned and that my students are the ones who keep teaching me more and more.

Watching students come and go, watching their progress, their devotion, their eagerness to transform their bodies and their lives is my engine to keep showing up not to only teach every day but also to get my own practice done.

Yes, this is for you my dear students, the ones that I see every day, the ones who Covid got us separated from and the ones I haven’t seen in years. This is to let you all know that a huge piece of my heart belongs to you, and that you have been my dearest teachers. You all are on my mat during my practice when I am trying to understand how my body moves so I can later help you understand yours. All the love I receive from you has given me a different sense to my life making it a purposeful one. 

I’m thankful to you all today and always, and these words are dedicated to you! 

Thank you!

Emilia Arenas, teaches Mysore at Miami Life Center. She has a workshop on Hip Openers and a Led Intermediate class coming up this month. Sign up here!

The post A Thank You Note… appeared first on Miami Life Center.

Two things showed me that members of my yoga community were racist; the election of Donald Trump and the murder of George Floyd by the police. Donald Trump’s election gave racists permission to be in the open. All of a sudden, yoga teachers I had known and studied with for years were openly gaslighting Black people, praising the cops on how they handled George Floyd, and entreating Black people to just get over it. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali warns us about this when he tells us that afflictions can be dormant, feeble, intercepted or sustained.

Before we can talk about Patanjali’s warning, let us define afflictions/kleshas. The afflictions or Kleshas are obstacles that keep us disconnected from ourselves, others, and the path of yoga. The king daddy affliction that gives birth to all the others is ignorance. Patanjali defines ignorance as “regarding the impermanent as permanent the impure as pure, the painful as pleasant and the non-self as the self. Racism is ignorance. 

 When someone is racist they treat external traits such as skin color, as if they are permanent, purer, more pleasant, and view them as an indicator of the goodness of someone’s soul (the Self).  The color of our skin is not permanent. When the body dies, the body goes back to the earth. According to Patanjali, the energy inside finds another body.  This means that according to yoga, you can be White this life and Black in the next!! Our bodies are impure. Noone no matter what your skin tone, is exempt from bathing and no one is exempt from “impure”  thoughts and murky intentions. When you live in a society that favors Whiteness, being in a White body may seem more pleasant.  However, yoga teaches us that we cannot get around the impact of our actions. Viewing oneself as superior always has consequences. Hitler’s regime fell. The economy of the South, supported by slaves, came to an end. In 2020 and during the Civil Rights Movement, there were protests and unrest led by those who were  being treated as second class citizens. There is also the issue of the future karmas you will have to deal with due to behaviors that were harmful to others.  Lastly, the Self or soul is apart of the Universe that is limitless but having very limited experience of itself in a human body. Something as limiting as skin color can never be who you truly are. 

When people we love and have had pleasant experiences with, seem to flip into bigots, kleshas have been awakened. Kleshas can be dormant, feeble, intercepted or sustained. Let’s start with sustained and work our way backward. When racism is sustained, it means that the person wears it on their sleeve. They don’t hide it nor are they trying to. It is a huge part of their identity. When kleshas are intercepted, it means that racism is hidden and cloaked in good qualities.  This is where you get spiritual bypassing which is using spiritual ideas to get out of looking at or changing problematic behaviors.  “We are all one”, “Just let it go” and “I don’t see color” are favorite one-liners of spiritual bypassers.

Kleshas can also be feeble. This means someone has done the work of looking at their racist thoughts.  They are not totally gone but they rarely come up. Events such as the police killing Black people chilling on the couch (Botham Jean) and the election of a president that believes that Columbus landing in America and killing Native Americans and taking their land is something to be celebrated (Proclamation on Columbus Day 2020 by Donald J Trump) bring the thoughts back to the surface.  The last state of the kleshas is dormant which means that it is unconscious and the right situation like having your president not denounce a White supremacist group but instead tell them to “stand down” happens. 

I found a silver lining to the heartbreaking realization that people in my yoga community were racist. Hindsight is 20/20. I started to understand why doors were not opening, conversations went sideways and why I was so confused. I understood why my intuition was sending me warnings that I didn’t understand. I now had the clarity to easily walk away from situations that were not working. There is power in knowledge.

The post When You Find Out Your Yoga Teacher is Racist appeared first on Miami Life Center.

I step on the mat (or log into zoom) and I think, ‘good I made it, the hardest part is over’. I remember why I’m here. How after I practice I feel so much better in the body and mind. More settled. So, from that point, getting started in the practice is easy. Telling the body to move through the tapas, the discomfort and effort is easy because I remember… this yoga works.

The teacher’s smile to greet me makes me smile right back. I feel the energy of the room, the collective breath makes it feel like the room is actually breathing, like there’s a pulse to the energy created by the practitioners. But then I take a closer look and realize beneath that collective energy is each individual practitioner fully absorbed in their own world and I think ‘oh good, they made it too’. Each breathing at their own pace, following their own unique rhythm, making their own unique shapes and somehow blending perfectly into the collective energy of the class. They are part of a whole that would be incomplete without each of their presence.

And then again I catch sight of the teacher as I lay down my mat and prepare my personal practice space. She weaves through mats and students to check in with me, and I take it as a moment for me to check in with me. She goes back to moving in and out of working with each individual student, like she’s weaving in and out of our personal stories, and somehow tying the whole collective story together just by her presence.

The teacher. Human, imperfect and sincere. She’s holding the common thread between each practitioner in her caring hands. The common thread of this practice, of this desire to be better versions of ourselves, of the intention to find stillness. Her presence re-affirms that for me. That I am here for a reason because this space is here and the other students are here, and the teacher is here to make sure that keeps happening.

I come to the top of my mat, bring my palms together and chant the opening mantra silently to myself. Feeling grateful, lucky to have this practice and teachers who have led me to this point of continuing to practice and sharing it with others.

Then I start to move the body, and carefully place the inhales and the exhales. As I lift my arms over my head I feel as if I’m reaching with everything I got, with the hope to make each movement for the next hour or so, sacred. Placing the body and breath so purposefully and delicately as I would anything I loved. I feel into the body and the breath moving through the body to fully experience this moment of being alive. I remember how precious it is to have a healthy and strong body, mind and spirit through which to experience this world by.

As I move through the practice I weave in and out of my personal world, a microcosm of the universe and the collective energy of the room, the overall sense of tapas and transformation that’s happening all around me. Each is a reflection of the other. I keep moving alongside my fellow practitioners to find those rare moments of knowing, of seeing that reflection clearly.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is it that makes a mysore room a mysore room. Since we’ve translated many of them to the online sphere, how is it that we can still call it mysore without being in the same physical space and without the hands on adjustments of a teacher? Are the basic pillars of a mysore room still present? I think so, yes. 

These are what I believe to be the basic pillars of a mysore room, which I believe can be applied to both in person and virtual mysore classes:

1. The teacher-student relationship. Whether it’s through conversation, physical touch, verbal cues this can be present as long as there is trust and compassion both ways in the relationship. The teacher is there to guide you day by day, and eventually through the long term journey of your practice.

2. A sacred space. This practice can become a life long journey that mirrors the ups and downs in life. Whatever is going on you have that room, that space to go in and connect with that part of yourself that will always be there despite all of life’s changes and fluctuations. It becomes this tangible space to provide you with somewhere to go through it all. And the teacher is there to make sure the space stays sacred for you to discover whatever it is that’s waiting for you. The mysore room represents that space – as a physical location or a meeting you log into, it doesn’t really matter. It’s is setting the clear time and place for you to tune in. It sets the parameters for your discipline. 

When you’re practicing at home, creating a sacred space can also be as simple as making sure there is a designated spot in your home where your practice. You keep it clean, maybe light an incense or candle to acknowledge the beginning of a practice. You create your own personal ritual for preparing the space and treating it with care. It reflects how you treat the practice, the postures, how you treat yourself. When you’re in a physical mysore room, usually much of this responsibility lands on the teacher to keep the environment conducive for self-inquiry.

3. Community. Having this tangible space I think is also the foundation for such a strong and connected community that grows from the mysore room. We share the space in which we each go through so much and so we can be there for each other. You can travel the world or log into any mysore class, and find a room with the same sense of community, and feel you are a part of something bigger than yourself.

4. The Breath. The collective energy of the room and the energy moving through the body of each practitioner. The movements are guided by the breath rather than a teacher’s count to set the pace. The breath becomes the guide.

5. Consistency. Sutra 1.14: sa tu dīrgha kāla nairantarya satkārā ‘‘sevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ 

Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and with deep devotion and sincerity, rather than a task we have to get done and check off our to do list. The mysore room needs to be a space that supports the consistency necessary. It’s the practical consistency of the mysore room – it happens at the same time 5-6 times a week. You can rely on the room being open and the teacher being there. This creates a framework within which yoga and transformation is possible.

The Mysore room is one of those things that once you’re in it, you can’t remember why you were ever scared. Once you’re in there, alongside other well-intentioned people you can’t imagine not having that space. But before that, you feel like it’s something you need to understand or be a part of. But you don’t. You just start. And there will be teachers and others students there with you, supporting you, celebrating you the whole time and it’s such a beautiful thing.

I really hope to practice alongside you some day.

The post The Mysore Room Experience: IRL & Virtual appeared first on Miami Life Center.

Being a yoga teacher is more than just a career move for most of us. We’ve come to practice as a way of easing our own suffering and having found some success in that, we begin to want to share the healing with others. The journey to teacherhood is complex. Yoga teachers must develop a personal approach to method, style and outreach through both continuing education and trial and error in the real world. Many of us can feel an internal friction between a desire not to commodify this ancient practice and also wanting to pay our rent doing something we love. Even if that’s not so much an issue, getting jobs and income enough to support yourself often takes time.

Here are a few points of interest which you might use to investigate the methods and meaning in your own approach to teaching.

1. Is your heart in it?

No instruction booklet is issued to each yoga teacher, but if it were it might say ‘some assembly required’ and ‘batteries not included’. Becoming a good teacher is a process and it will take lots of time and energy to develop the skills and confidence required to speak with depth of knowledge. It’s important to acknowledge this known condition of becoming a teacher and pursue small, attainable goals.

Look for opportunities to hone your craft. There is a saying: The best way to learn something is to teach it. Find a local studio and see if you can audition to get on their list on the substitute teachers list. Learn how to facilitate classes over zoom and offer a free introductory session there. Get on the schedule at your local gym or YMCA. Reach out to a local hotel and see if you can give donation based classes to their guests. As a yoga teacher you will have to learn to balance hustle and flow. My early years of teaching were sometimes exhausting, but my willingness to put so much energy into my calling eventually allowed my career to evolve.

2. Have you found your voice?

I’ve seen that the most successful yoga teachers are the ones that can connect their own yoga transformation into their message. Think of your life as a research project. Glance back on what life was like before yoga and what it was like after. Make a list of several important things that shifted. There might be some clues in this information that will help you find your tribe.

Defining your message and niche audience is an important practical matter and can be approached analytically. Here is a quick checklist you might write out answers to.

1. What three words best describe your teaching style?
2. What unique gifts and talents do you posess that will help you communicate your message?
3. What do your current or prospective students have in common?
4. It would be terrible if students left my class with the idea that yoga is…
5. What do you most want students to take away from practice?

3. Do you have a mentor?

A good yoga teacher will always be a student. Seek out and maintain a long term relationship with a teacher who inspires you. Be choosey. Make sure your teacher has a teacher and many years of practice under their belt. You might seek out an in person apprenticeship at their studio or pursue a long term online mentoring.

Learning the intricacies of hands on adjustments is a intricate process, so if you want to perfect your assists then you might want to commit to an extended period of in person study. Likewise, the sacred texts of yoga are dense and require a knowledgeable and patient teacher to unpack. You can seek out online and in person courses with yoga scholars to help these deeper dimensions take root.

4. Do you have a marketing plan?

Don’t depend on your studio or gym to do all your promotion for you. Take control of how your message is communicated, starting with the bond you build during class. Ticket sales platform Eventbrite says that 45% of students find new classes through word of mouth. So make sure to check in with students and make that personal connection.

You’ll also need to leverage technology. Build a website and collect email addresses so that you can launch a newsletter. Connect with local influencers and wellness brands to amplify each other through special events. Build out a strong social media presence and consider buying ads in certain cases. Always make getting into your class as hassle free as possible, so let your students know they can reach out to you personally with questions. 

5. Have you considered diversifying your income streams?

In other words, don’t quit your day job right away. When I began teaching yoga it was one class a week at a local hotel. I was also working full time at that same hotel mopping floors and scrubbing toilets. You can get creative in seeking ways to earn money. Look into partnerships with health brands through field marketing companies like Productions Plus, with whom I spent a year giving out samples of green juice at my local Whole Foods. You can even reach out to me and get on board as a Distributor with my WiWorldandI yoga mat brand!

Eventually that first hotel class of mine became two. Sometime later I booked a gym class and that eventually turned into a full time schedule. While I built up the skills and connections to teach yoga full time, keeping additional income streams made life much less stressful.

6. Keep Practicing.

No, This is not a question. Yes, this is number 6 on a 5 questions blog. Let this underscore the importance of maintaining your personal practice. Being a yoga teacher can be quite a challenge when you’re starting. As you begin to wrestle with new and confusing arenas like marketing plans and niche audiences, it’s so important to remember why you started.

For this Ashtangi, that means getting on my mat 5-6 times a week no matter what. For you a dedicated practice might look different, but it’s important to set an intention and follow through with it. Surround yourself with teachers and community that inspire you and keep you grounded in the power and potential of practice.

Yoga is a subject loaded with thousands of years of teachings. The modern world is allowing unprecedented access to these teachings and as such the number of people looking to benefit from yoga is increasing rapidly. We need good yoga teachers as much as ever and there is no reason why you can’t be one of them.

I make this sincere suggestion to you… Only seek to become a yoga teacher if it is your heart’s truest calling. If that describes you then you’ll always be able to remember the miraculous and transformative power of yoga in your own life. With this dharmic fuel you’ll be prepared to embrace all the ups and downs the journey to teacherhood throws at you.

Joseph Armstrong is an Authorized Level Two Ashtanga Yoga Instructor. He teaches early Mysore and workshops for Miami Life center and Internationally. He’s giving a workshop on Authentic Yoga Marketing later this month. Sign up here!

The post 5 Questions for the New (Or Relaunching) Yoga Teacher appeared first on Miami Life Center.

By Beatriz Yepes

On march I celebrated a year living in Miami. I decided to mark the milestone with a Mysore Ashtanga Retreat with my Teacher Kino Macgregor. It was an amazing experience. I felt connected to the practice, to my teachers and my new found friends. It made me feel that finally I was adapting to my new surroundings and my life in a new country. I felt a sense of belonging that I haven’t felt for a long time.

Corona Time

A few days later the lock down was announced and even when I am no stranger to virtual teaching and learning, having been a professor for 3 years of an on online class at a local University back in Colombia, I could not make sense of the situation. Like most of us, I was wondering, how long would it take for everything to get back to normal and how I was going to manage to stay motivated and present in my Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga practice, while staying at home.

Even though having a Teacher was fairly new to me, for a moment, I could not bear the idea of not being able to have the guidance  and adjustments in my practice. I also wondered what would happen with the connection with my fellow practitioners, people who have become a force in my life, an additional motivation to get in mi mat, whose smiles, hugs and conversations kept me coming back to it every day.

The uncertainty crept there in the back of my mind and I continued practicing at home by myself, sure that at any moment the situation would turn around. As days, and months passed by and it was apparent that we would be staying in for a long time, the offering of online classes became my lifeline.

Zoom, the new Shala

After months of Mysore and Led classes through zoom, I no longer worry about my practice and my contact with community, and a part of my uncertainty is gone because, now I know, that you can feel the energy and the magic of Miami Life Centers’ Yoga Shala, even from home.

Their experienced and knowledgeable Teachers, with their online presence and loving guidance, continue to ignite in me and in the rest of students, the fire of Yoga and show us that the expertise in hands on adjustments can be perfectly translated into words, if it is needed. Furthermore, India, as the source of traditional teachings is now closer to our hearts and reality with Saturday’s led classes with our Teacher Sharath Jois.

What about the Sangha?

The community, the Sangha, or in the words of my Teacher Tim Feldmann, founder of MLC, “the supportive environment, and healing space” has not in any way disappeared. If anything it has become bigger than before, since we can practice with people from all over the world, with a sense of togetherness that knows no countries, frontiers or differences of any kind.

And, Now?

From my perspective, this reality that felt so odd, impersonal and even “wrong”, actually has become something to be grateful for. It has given us the opportunity to continue to practice with our Teachers. We have shared our living rooms now turned into yoga shalas, with friends and fellow Asthangis who live in different cities and even continents. We have heard words and cues that have felt close to a deep hands on adjustment and motivating words that felt personal and close. We have learned how to really listen and how to hold space for others. We have marveled with the deep spiritual teachings of Led Practices and Talks and seen first-hand, how diverse, powerful and dedicated are Ashtangis, from every corner of this world.

But beyond all, we have found out that even when the material conditions change, the possibility to learn and to find a community that supports your journey is ever present.  Even when our teacher is not physically there, we are still accountable for our own work, for our practice, and even when the learning experience is individual and we need to put on our own effort, commitment and devotion; our Community, our Sangha, now through a screen, written messages and virtual hugs, supports our journey, and keeps us connected and motivated.

Who knows what the future may bring, how we will continue expanding our knowledge and how we will relate to one another … What remains true is that our Shala, whether physical or virtual, will continue to be a place of timeless teachings, of community and of lasting transformation for the practitioners that have an open heart.

The post Zoom, Sangha and other tales appeared first on Miami Life Center.

It’s the day after I completed my first 10 day vipassana course and reintegrating into daily life is easier than I thought it would be, because going from no talking, only sitting with yourself to interacting with the outside world and answering emails should feel abrupt. Or at least I thought it would. For the time being I’ve undone my knee jerk reaction of reaching for my phone, because I feel more settled in my own skin, and somehow that makes being in the world simpler.

I was given the opportunity to participate in a vipassana course, ten days of silence learning one of India’s most ancient techniques of meditation. Vipassana was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2500 years ago and passed down to the present day by an unbroken line of teachers. It is taught as a ‘universal remedy for universal ills’ aiming for the total eradication of mental impurities and the resulting happiness of liberation.

Nestled in the Rocky Mountains with not a town or neighbor in sight, I was asked not to communicate in any way. I sat with myself, in silence, alongside 50 others. Initially, I felt the need to run away, away from the work they were asking me to put in. I was looking for distractions in conversations, emails, planning, doing. I quickly realized I wouldn’t have access to any of them for 10 full days. At first, being there sitting from moment to moment, I wanted to do anything else. But what? Why?

With the Vipassana technique we work with felt sensation in the body. Before external action there’s an internal sensation, and according to the technique it’s at this level we need to think about transformation. Our subconscious experiences a sensation it’s come to associate with pleasure, and we automatically act towards it (cravings), it experiences another sensation associated with pain and we act to avoid it (aversions). We are asked to observe and dissect these subtle and gross sensations by observing the moment before the automatic reaction towards or against the sensation and re-route. We re-route to simply being there with the sensation and thereby break its association with pleasure or pain. We observe it for what it is – a sensation in the body that will eventually pass. Before bringing our awareness there, our actions and the way we are in the world, seem to only be interfaced with experiences outside us, which leads us to believe it’s someone or something else dictating our reality. That notion that its me, it’s always been me—or rather my unconscious mind calling the shots by reacting to those sensations – flooded my understanding.

An example to paint a picture – you have a big presentation coming up and you get anxious. Our subconscious mind has come to associate the sensations that come with anxiety with something to push away, so the usual avoidance strategy kicks in. We spin out, go over in our heads the worst possible outcomes, maybe figure out a way to bail, or we say something to bring someone else down. With vipassana, we are asked to observe the anxiety and bring the discomfort to our conscious mind. Feel the tension and how it actually feels in the body. For me, it’s a knot in the throat, shallow breathing, tightness in the chest.

The pleasures and discomforts are merely sensations felt in the body that shouldn’t be labeled. They shouldn’t be considered good or bad, right or wrong, craving or aversion. They are just energy vibrating without our awareness. Until they aren’t. Until we become aware and discover the mind body connection and how that determines our external world. The process put forth by this technique seemed almost scientific to me. We feel the sensations and retrain our bodies and minds to not react by our deeply rooted patterns of attachment and aversion, patterns ingrained internally by past experiences. We do this by observing objectively. From this space we can retrain our actions to be less reactive and therefore less tainted and more connected to our authenticity. If all our reactions and unconscious patterns were to be erased, there would be nothing fogging our view of the present moment, and we could experience the world as it is.

Back to the example – by observing the anxiety, you settle the mind on the body, into the present. Maybe you watch the anxiety pass soon after, or it remains until after the presentation is over. Either way, the anxiety is there but it’s not taking hold of you dictating your actions. You can consciously choose your next set of actions from a clearer state of mind. It’s not easy and it’s something that takes practice. It takes doing it consistently in a daily seated meditation practice, when your effort is focused on objectively observing the sensations in the body, for it to be a new way of operating out in the world, when the attention is mostly outwards.

Changing external circumstances is useless because the method of perceiving and interacting with the world would remain the same. In other words, you’d be looking at something different on the outside, but the lens through which you’re looking would be the same, with that same warped tint. There would be the same unconscious reactions to things feeling good or getting tough, so from where you’re standing the world would look the same. The work needs to start beneath the surface for real change to happen. You don’t change the presentation, you change your reaction to the anxiety that comes up because of the presentation.

The first 3 days were mentally challenging. Getting through an hour of just sitting in the same room, never mind not changing positions just yet, was hard. Really. Hard. I had to come up against all the reasons why that was so difficult and find the mental determination to overcome them. I had to tell myself to just wait it out and no matter what I wasn’t going to run back to my room (sometimes we had the option of meditating in our rooms but I knew I would just take a nap or start stretching to distract myself). So I stayed, and stayed and stayed. At some point, I think around the 4th day the staying got bearable, and I was able to face the next challenge—staying without moving. That’s when the pain came. To some extent the physical pain was easier for me to deal with: there were moments it was excruciating, but it felt like something tangible to work with, whereas the mental discomforts of restlessness were so hard to pinpoint in my body. But the sharp precise pain was a clear place to rest my mind. The challenge at this point came from observing objectively, removing the mental anguish from the physical pain and simply witnessing the sensation within the body.

I went in. When there was discomfort there was pain, uneasiness, anxiety, more pain, sadness, a scattered mind and then more pain. And then there was the other side of ease, calm and glimpses of peace. I watched and trusted that what I was told was true—there’s always another side, and it’s worth going through the pain to get to the other side. There was one particular experience during the 10 days where I was able to observe the pain without reacting and see through to the other side of pain. I watched as the intense pain in my left shoulder was broken down into vibrations moving faster and stronger, taking all my attention. I studied it long enough to eventually watch it dissolve into the sea of vibrations contained in the rest of the physical, energetic body.

There’s a catch though, in this process of looking through to the other side of pain. After moving through the pain in my left shoulder, I felt good. The vibrations dissolving into the rest of the body felt ecstatic. It felt so good that I wanted more of it and just like that I was again caught up in the cycle of craving. I faced another challenge—continuing with objective awareness even as the gross sensation passed and the other side was sensed. Moreover, I couldn’t let this experience inform future ones. I needed (and still do) to develop the capacity to observe for the sake of observation, not for the promise of a particular sensation arriving or disappearing. Instead there should be genuine objective observation, without the expectation of a particular outcome.

Another profound part of this course was the silence. No talking, no communicating in any way with anyone (unless you had an emergency you could talk to the course administrators). Since I wasn’t communicating externally all my attention was internal for 10 full days. I was with myself and that’s it. The first couple days I realized just how much actually goes on in my head. With no other noise to cover it up, it was all I could hear. Then to watch as these thoughts slowly faded as the days went by felt so settling. It was a relief to know that all the thoughts, conversations and stories created in there aren’t really necessary. I had this deeply rooted idea that I needed to keep these thoughts active to maintain a valuable identity. Who am I without these stories? Who am I without the person that comes up to interact with others? Who am I without people around me I know and share a common life with? Who am I without a job to do and people around me telling me that I am doing it well? Who am I without my parents and family showing me where I came from and those who came before me? Who am I without all the distractions covering up who I really am underneath all that? I think these are all questions that will take a lifetime (probably more) to discover and definitely a 10 day course didn’t answer for me. But what it did do was offer a path to understand that the labels we give ourselves can’t define who we truly are because they are always changing, in the same way the sensations in our bodies are always changing.

There were moments I wanted to run after the next car that passed and beg them to take me with them. There were moments I grew so restless and agitated knowing I needed to be there for another day and another… but the bigger picture of getting through day by day (rather than getting through one sit) put things in perspective for me yet again. Why did I need to get out of the course? To be who? To do what? I would continue being the same person out there that I was in the course. No matter where I go, I’ll be there, with the same reactions, cravings, aversions, with my insides reflected on the outside. I knew I just wanted out to distract myself from the work. Wholeheartedly coming to terms with all this gave me the determination about halfway through to really get down to work. To look in and keep looking in and keep looking in. I found the determination to put in the work. And that’s something I wasn’t prepared for—just how much effort this would require.

It was amazing to me, and still is that I experienced this whole process through the means of looking inside, by my own effort! Every sensation I experienced, whether mental or physical, came and went. To experience the reality of impermanence inside myself was a sort of paradigm shift in the way I see myself, but also beyond that – how I see the way events and people unfold before me. What first meets the eye isn’t the whole story. It’s just a glimpse of a moment in time. There is so much more. There’s the inner world, the whole story of the entire universe. To think we understand someone or something fully by only perceiving the superficial external aspect in a particular moment is misleading. Because that will change and therefore we must look deeper. What we’ll find is true for everything—nothing lasts forever. People aren’t set as the person you see or think they are. Events aren’t set in one condition. I think it’s important to re-learn the people we think we know and to look at situations with a new perspective. Refusing to accept the truth of impermanence will only lead to suffering, because contrary to what the subconscious is trained to believe, nothing lasts forever, so we might as well surrender.

The mountains surrounding the center helped me get through the course and understand the process I was going through. They hovered over me, strong, stable and unmoving throughout the entire 10 days; yet their external appearance never the same as the sun rose and set, the shadows and the way the sun rested on their sides was always changing. Likewise, we are always changing—our minds, bodies, ideas, everything. There’s nothing about us that remains the same, yet we act like we are this one unchanging being with a perfectly constructed image. An image that can so easily be shattered at any moment. Only awareness is always there looking out— the unmoving mountain.

To learn more about Vipassana 10 day courses taking place all over the world, visit https://www.dhamma.org/ This course is truly accessible to anyone!! No prior meditation experience is necessary, although having a daily practice of even 10 minutes a day is helpful. They even give the option to sit in a chair, if sitting on the floor is uncomfortable. I highly recommend participating in one and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have about the course, just reach out.

For some guided meditations of varying lengths, check out my YouTube channel

The post An Unmoving Mountain – Reflections from a 10 Day Vipassana Course appeared first on Miami Life Center.

I remember myself from a very young age having a deep interest in spiritual matters. When I was a teenager I joined a group of people who would gather to pray together. It was a beautiful experience and soon I saw people develop the magical power of talking in ancient languages during this absorption as they prayed. I wanted so bad to have that power or being able to talk to Jesus himself or with Virgin Mary. It never happened to me though.

Later on I joined groups of meditation where people would see lights and colorful spaces that would give them so much peace and they would find answers for their conflicts and for the existential questions. I never saw lights either. Somehow trying to feel special I started to feel worthless and fell deep on my addiction to alcohol. 

Lucky enough I found these support groups where I learned how to stop drinking and observe myself to heal what was broken in my heart. 

It did work, and with it my search for my the answers to my own questions took a different path. I found books that would give me so much hope and would help me reconcile myself with the world I was surrounded by. 

Now after almost 20 years of practicing Yoga I have had the fortune to study the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with different teachers who have given me different perspectives and approaches. The beauty that lies on this Yoga explained by Patanjali is that nothing happens without being experienced. In other words he defines yoga as the action of stilling the fluctuations of the mind. The yoga Path is a path that needs to be taken, it just doesn’t happen to you. The yogi who is established in the practice ( Abhyasa ) and dispassion ( Vayragia) strives constantly to remove any Rajas ( the quality of movement) and Tamas ( the quality of Inertia) and replace them for Sattvas ( the quality of purity).

The beauty of this system, to me,  is the fact that the knowledge is acquired empirically. Patanjali indeed gives us a formula, and it is the yogi who actually puts it to work.  With the practice we re enforce the devotion, which might have been not so strong at first. As we see changes happening to us as the result of the practice we begin to refine the way we move around this world and inside of us. Devotion then,  is an important part of the path since with devotion discrimination comes and it helps to cultivate sattvas and a sense of understanding of why we are really undertaking the path of yoga. 

The yoga sutras of Patanjali shows us how to tame the mind and control all the passage of thoughts, until  eventually the yogi is able to still it completely which is the goal of yoga. Then he, the yogi, is able to realize the Absolute Truth, and Pusrusa ( pure consciousness) finally sees himself and is able to shine in its own whole light.  

The first chapter of the yoga sutras, called Samadhi Pada, guides the aspirant through the path of meditation with the purpose of stilling the mind and reaching the state of samadhi- meditative absorption.

The second chapter, called Sadhana Pada, is said to be directed to aspirants of Yoga whose mind is harder to control. For them Patanjali gives a more practical method, the method of Ashtanga yoga or the eight limbs. 

Yamas, Niyamas, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, daharana, Dhiana, and samadhi. Ethics, observances, posture, breath control, the restraining of the senses, concentration, meditation and meditative absorption. They constitute the eight limbs on which the yogi focuses to reach that state where the Absolute Truth is revealed to him. It is said that the yamas are “the great vote” and are the foundation for the other limbs. In fact, the practice of the other limbs are done with the purpose  of strengthening the practice of the yamas. These are Ahimsa or non-violence, satya or truthfulness, asteya or non-stealing, brahmacharya or celibacy, aparigraha or restraining from the desire to possess.  

Through the the work of the eight limbs, the yogi is able to be at peace with himself and with the world around him. His every moment becomes more sattvic and his mind not only works for his own understanding but all beings around him start to experience a purifying environment only for the fact of being in the presence of the yogi. 

And again, the magic doesn’t happen overnight and hard work is required for the yogi to find the light that resides within himself and beyond his body and his mind. No magic words, no colorful lights, no talking to angels, or maybe all of the above, but none of that is what matters. What matters in the constant observation of the yogi, and the work he does day by day on removing rajas and tamas out of his being and cultivating his sattvas until eventually even sattvas will be removed to let the Absolute truth shine it brightest light of all.

The post On the magic of Practice and the Yoga Sutras. appeared first on Miami Life Center.

The first time I tried a meditation practice, I promptly decided I would never do that again! Everyone said I was going to feel blissful and relaxed, but all I recieved was pain in my body, distraction from sudden itches, and a whirlwind of internal judgement for not being able to silence my mind. Luckily, my yoga teacher training forced me to go through an entire month of hour long meditations and hour long breathing practices. Although I rarely experienced a sense of calm during the month of meditation and breathing, I did start to observe short segments of present moment awareness.

If you are anything like me and struggle to concentrate and feel easily overwhelmed by stress, meditation can become an incredibly empowering practice. Once we begin to strengthen our “letting go” muscle and release our stickiest habitual thought patterns in which we typically find ourselves entangled , we allow ourselves to open up to the present moment. Sticky thoughts like trying to understand why our co-worker was so nasty to us, obsessively ruminating over “what-if” scenarios, or a slew of other important matters. Once we train ourselves to let go of our routine automatic reactions or stories, we begin making more space for clear moments of insight, we begin to create new neural pathways and rewire our brain, we begin to feel more clarity and decisiveness, and we have more energy since we are no longer using up so much of it to obsessively ruminate.

We live in a world with constant stimuli pulling our awareness away from our body. The moment we experience boredom, we tend to grab our phones to distract ourselves, we fill silence with conversation, and we rarely ever have a meal without a television on in the background or while scrolling through social media. All of these experiences pulling us away from our core end up draining us of our energy.

One of the common threads in most contemplative practices is a “journey inward.” Once we begin to let go of our constant ruminations and bring our awareness back to the sensations of our breath or the scanning of our body we start to feel more connected to our gut brain, our intuition, the deeper layers of our existence, or our essence. Once we come in contact with that place, we start to flow with life. 

It is not an instant light switch that goes on inside of us, but it is a non-stop dance filled with highs and lows. Because of this, it is crucial that we are kind to ourselves and do not judge our “monkey mind.” It is a practice! We don’t DO meditation, so practice letting go of being overly critical and give ourselves the beautiful gift of present moment awareness.

Once you decide to commit to a practice, how does one even know where to start or which practice to choose? Not all meditation practices are created equally and not all of them have the same effects. From Patanjali’s one pointed concentration or dharana, zen, loving kindness, or transcendental meditation, there are a variety of practices and one size does not fit all. If concentration is challenging, mantra repetition, mindfulness of the breath, or body scanning might be helpful. If stress and burnout are a concern, loving kindness or metta meditation might be best. If you feel sitting still is too challenging, you can always try walking meditation. Alternatively, practicing asana or breathing exercises first might help you move around energy that will then allow you to find a comfortable stillness. 

The time of day we practice is also incredibly important. The window of time before the sun rises or sets, known as the sattvic hours, is an ideal time to practice since the energy feels more calm and pure at these hours. Early morning, before the rest of the world wakes up, the calmness in the air is almost palpable. Practicing before you’ve checked emails, social media, or the news might allow you to experience more stillness in mind and body, otherwise you will be thinking of the few posts you’ve just scrolled through as you sit for meditation. If you wake up with a running to-do list in your mind, the better option for you might be practicing around the time the sun is setting and you’ve completed most tasks on your list. 

Curious about starting a practice? Here are some top tips and tools:

• Plan ahead! Look at your upcoming weeks and schedule it in. What will you do on your busier days to ensure you still make it to your sitting practice? What is your best window of time without distraction?
• Be consistent. If you miss a scheduled sit, get to your seat anyway. Even if it is a significantly shorter practice, just sit.
• Find an inviting spot in your house for your practice. For extra incentive, you can decorate with pictures of your favorite places/people/quotes, candles, favorite books, plants, stones or crystals. 
• Download apps that can help guide your practice and keep you consistent. Using “The Breathing App” can also help you if you’re having a challenging time falling asleep.
• Get friends to join you and keep each other accountable.

The post Meditation Tips for Beginners appeared first on Miami Life Center.

Often, when the term yoga is mentioned, people say “I can’t do that, I’m not flexible enough” or “Yes, I love the workout.” This is in response to what many people in the west define as yoga equaling a rigorous and challenging physical practice- one that involves contorting the body and focuses mainly on a material, corporeal, tangible experience. The booming business of yoga plays a major role in this, as it is safer to disconnect the asana (postures) from the spiritual path. This encourages clients (practitioners), who often come from varying cultural and religious backgrounds to feel comfortable participating, without the possibility of it interfering with their belief systems.

The asana and transitions, especially in a vinyasa (flow) style class, now serve as a way to meet the expectations of creating intense, sweaty exercise in the span of a short time. This is very popular within a hot yoga setting, countering what is otherwise a primarily sedentary, yet hectic lifestyle with a fun way to move in community. Action-based classes are considered a yang way of practicing and are celebrated for all the do-ing that comes with them because culturally, we have been trained to achieve and see results. There are many positives to practicing the physical yoga postures including noticeable progress, strength building, discipline, speeding up the metabolism, and balance, which are all important for our physical health.

There is an entirely different way of practicing the physical component of yoga that may seem contradictory to all of this, but is also extremely beneficial to the state of the world we’re in. With so many people suffering from trauma, anxiety and stress-related illnesses, envision instead, a way where stillness, nothingness, and deep rest are encouraged during the session, all with a heightened sense of awareness and presence. Picture the opportunity to gain clarity and create a sense of calm where there otherwise may be internal chaos, by learning about who you are as you listen to your inner world, while a posture is held in stillness. This is considered a yin way to practice. Results may not be immediately visible to the external eye, but the nervous system calms down, the breath elongates, thoughts can be reprogrammed, trapped emotions arise for processing, and toxic internal patterns begin to release. In turn, rest sets in as there is no longer the need to hold it all down. All of these benefits are important for our mental and emotional health.

If we imagine the Chinese yin yang symbol and its meaning, we can visualize a circle comprised of two crescent-like shapes. One is black and one is white. Within the black there is a small white circle and within the white there is a small black circle. This symbol reminds us of the fundamental laws of the universe stating that everything is made of energy -light and dark- and that one does not exist without the other.

Yoga is an energy-based practice. Beyond a concrete definition, the terms yin and yang represent certain qualities. Yin refers to feminine energies: intuition, darkness, the moon, cold, rest, and death. Yang symbolizes masculine energies: intellect, light, the sun, heat, action, (re)birth. The yin yang symbol represents the need for creating balance and equanimity. Similarly described in yogic philosophy as ida (yin) and pingala (yang) these qualities lead us to holistic health as we create harmony among them.

An immediately noticeable difference between a yin and yang style of practice is physical stillness. With nothing to do on the physical level, tuning into thoughts and emotions becomes an integral part of the practice. This stillness leads us to explore beyond the physical and into the emotional, mental, and spiritual realms of our experience within each posture. With one of the translations of yoga being union it is important to remember that before we can create union among us, externally, it is necessary to know your Self internally and integrate shadow aspects of your experience with the light. From the external eye, stillness may seem boring, useless, or too easy for some, while seeming extremely frustrating and unattainable for others- and it all depends on what each person carries internally. What does it mean to explore the emotional, mental, and spiritual realms, especially when we’ve been programmed to believe that emotions should be suppressed, that intellect is reserved for the privileged few, and that spirituality is outdated and interferes with cultural and religious beliefs? Or, even more damaging still, the new age perspective of “blessings, love, and light” that can be so demeaning of the experiences of anyone who has suffered difficult life situations.

The beauty of yoga is that it is welcoming of all at its essence. Since it is a study of the Self, it does not discriminate. On the mat, it is you facing you. The nature of yin practices reveals, through physical stillness, where we are internally generating excess activity and also where there are deficiencies. It heightens our awareness of our subtle bodies created of energy, with major centers called chakras, also known as wheels, traversing the physical body in areas along the spine and other key parts. In stillness, taking the need to do physically out of the equation, we are able to listen to our inner worlds and discern our own thoughts and emotions. Through this process we learn to see clearly what we are working with from the inside out. As we face all aspects of who we are, without judgment, acceptance reveals our undeniable inner truths. As we surpass barriers of limiting thoughts and emotions, and reconnect to our spiritual essence, we eventually tap into a deep sense of be-ing.

Let’s talk about four yoga practices in which the asana is slowed down or completely minimized, allowing space for internal observation. These practices are: yin, restorative, nidra, and meditation. So what are they and how do they differ?

We’ll start with the similarities.

All of these practices slow us down. They ask for a posture to be held for extended periods of time, starting at around 3-5 minutes in yin or restorative, and often much longer, for advanced practitioners. They all require a deep sense of responsibility from the practitioner to listen to the subtle sensations of their own body to establish a feeling of harmony within. They encourage a release of tension, layer by layer, on all levels- physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. The main focus of each is the breath, which becomes slow, long, rhythmic, and maintains a sense of grounding and presence. They reveal what consciously or subconsciously resides internally and bring it to our awareness for transmutation. They allow time to process, thus creating space for deep rest. They are enhanced by a sankalpa, or intention, with this being the foundation within the nidra practice. They guide us to inner clarity as physical stillness prevents us from escaping what occurs within through physical movement. They empower us to become aware of internal patterns and energetic blockages and transform in a way that honors the essence of who we are, as opposed to who others expect us to be. They tune into the parasympathetic nervous system, generating a soothing, calming response. They remind us that we are enough. They evolve us from within. They guide us back home to the love within our hearts.

With all these similarities, there are also vast differences in the experience within each practice.

Now, let’s break it down practice by practice.

Yin: Poses are held for extended periods of time starting at around 3 minutes and longer as the practice develops. The practitioner is asked to determine the edge of their comfort zone in each particular asana and push ever so slightly beyond it. Although this creates discomfort, there should never be any actual pain. Every person has a different threshold for pain, so it is highly encouraged for each person to truly learn to listen to their body.

In the space of slight discomfort, the work begins to happen. The ujjayi breath comes in to internally guide each person through their own inner experience, any stubborn areas of physical gripping or tension are brought into clear awareness, and the observation of thoughts and emotions that arise becomes key within the practice. Gravity, patience, and a slight, yet constant internal tweaking allows the body to stretch and open. It shows us where there is holding on and highlights any self-criticism and expectation for our body to be any way other than as it is in the moment. The way our thoughts and emotions affect our inner state and interact with our physical experience while on the mat, actually correlates to the way our external lives develop- and that becomes astoundingly evident as we practice.

Restorative: Sinking deeper…the experience in a restorative practice is very different from yin. In a restorative session, the use of props fills in any gaps between the body and the mat. The props serve the very specific purpose of creating support and comfort on both physical and emotional levels. Instead of entering a space slightly beyond their comfort zone, each practitioner is asked to pause at the very first layer of sensation. The props then come in to support, and in this gentle space, the inner work begins.

Through focused breath and an active softening of the muscles in the posture at hand, the body begins to open organically. Poses are also held for a minimum of 3 minutes and can be extended with less risk of injury than in yin because of the use of props. Transitions between postures are also smooth and slow, intended to gracefully set up the next posture with minimal interruption of the calm internal space already in creation. There is no work in this practice, except the sometimes seemingly daunting task of letting go, and playfulness is encouraged as the breath deepens and becomes rhythmic. Some questions that may be beneficial when considering this practice are: What is your relationship to the concept of support? Do you allow yourself to soften? Where do you experience resistance? What is the root of that resistance? Is it serving you to continue holding on?

Nidra: Yoga nidra, translated as yogic sleep, is a practice of deep, conscious rest and internal transformation through kind, disciplined stillness. Practiced in a supported savasana, it allows for even more detailed exploration of inner sensations, as the practitioner maintains a sharp focus on the path of their breath. Setting a sankalpa (intention) communicates to the subconscious who the practitioner is ready to be and through practice, anything out of alignment is faced as the choice to remain true to the highest intention is made with every breath. While practicing, the mind is trained to remain fully aware of inner world experiences, creating a sense of presence that extends beyond the material. Mindfully observing thought, emotional, and physical holding patterns reveals internal programming and provides the opportunity to process, release, and reset at a vibrational level. This, in turn, imparts a feeling of rest beyond imagination, as the mind clears any previously toxic thoughts and invalidated emotions are accepted and resolved. With this newly developed awareness, we gain inner evidence that we exist way beyond the physical/material realm and there is no doubt of the mind-body-spirit connection.

This practice fine tunes the limbs of Yama (ethical code), Niyama (self-observances), Pranayama (breath control), Pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), and Dharana (concentration). Since throughout the duration of the practice, the only task is to breathe, the practitioner can see and hear more clearly the nature of thoughts and feelings that govern their inner world, how they perceive themselves and others, where their sensory attention and concentration wavers, and how it all affects the flow of breath. It also becomes clear how family, society, education, language, race, religion, socio-economic background, political views, gender identity, sexuality, and more, create boundaries between us all, and even fragment our own selves.

As the intuitive powers of the mind’s eye maintain a sharp focus on the breath, we are given the chance to honor the light within even the darkest of our experiences, with every single inhale and exhale. Separateness essentially dissolves as we realize that when it comes to matters of the heart, we are all the same. Time pauses, as we recognize the moment is now. Health returns as we perceive the impermanence of it all. Beyond these states, it is possible to experience Dhyana (meditation) and even glimpse moments of Samadhi (enlightenment) in yoga nidra, as weight lifts off the practitioner energetically.

Self-discoveries from a steady yoga nidra practice inform the Asana (physical posture) practice and encourage the practitioner to explore movement in a way that respects and honors the wholeness of their entire being, not just the physical vessel.

Meditation: The term meditation is often misused in the business of spirituality, as it is generally promoted as bliss. Like navigating a wild, overgrown terrain leading to the sanctuary in the woods, it is important to not only carve out, but also maintain the path to the destination. In the study of yoga, the “destination” is the divine Self and the breath serves to clear the way by assisting in the dissolution of negative internal patterns and a return to love. First, we get to work through what is inside, while forgetting the destination altogether and learning to be fully present as we allow the path to unfold. This is no simple feat as the inner landscapes are vast and the terrain is complex, but it is invaluable in the journey back to the recognition of the Self.

Since the practice is generally performed in a seated lotus position, or an easy seat, many thoughts initially revolve around the discomfort of the physical body. When beginning a practice of sitting, the experience may also be that of a distracted, fluttering, overactive mind, unable to focus and remain present. Before entering a meditative state, it is essential to surpass the active, critical mind.

On the eight-limbed yogic path, meditation is the seventh step, dhyana. Before this step, there is an entire limb, dharana, dedicated to concentration on a fixed point. Generally, as in all styles of yin practices, often performed with closed eyes, the breath serves as this point as the mind’s eye remains glued within it. To calm and reprogram the mind, this fixed point, or drshti can also be enhanced by a mantra, affirmation, or object if eyes are open, among others. When focus is held, the mind begins to reveal itself. Negative thought patterns, judgments, and insecurities all come up for examination. Following the breath and elevating the perspective to a higher level of consciousness allows the practitioner to observe these varying internal states without criticism. Before meditation comes the practice of listening and observing without judgment, from the perspective of a witness, and eventually beyond. There are expanding layers of meditative states of calm and nothingness beyond the overbearing, active mind. Meditation can be experienced laying down extending through a nidra practice when the mind is trained into the expansive state of love and oneness. With a dedication to sitting and stilling the mind, a meditative state also begins to occur in motion throughout the performance of even the most mundane tasks. Practice shows us that there is, in fact, no destination. All the answers that we seek live within our heart.

An important note to mention about the body opening and softening in yin, restorative, and nidra practices is that it actually has very little to do with the body. Holding the postures for extended periods inevitably does stretch and open on a physical level, but it is the mental and emotional processing of previously unresolved situations that maintains that opening. The samskara (memory or imprint) of those situations was once lodged in the tight spaces of the body and the postures helped dislodge it so as to return to conscious awareness for processing. Since life situations are stored energetically within our tissues, the systematic release of tension begins to reveal what has been kept down in the shadows.

This may be extremely uncomfortable, especially if there is known or unknown trauma, and this is where these practices are challenging. For example, a flash of a difficult childhood experience may come up as there is a release in a certain part of the body. Maybe it was something we didn’t remember and all of a sudden, in a posture, in a class, we may be taken to another time, and it feels very real, as if occurring in the moment. Or maybe there is no memory, but as the heart opens, tears may start to flow without an obvious reason. This is where the breath comes in to keep us focused and present. These are basic examples, but it is important to allow the energetic release of emotions, instead of holding it back in –again-.

Although stillness sets in physically throughout all these practices, there is a constant state of energetic flow. There is always a sense of inner tweaking as the muscles soften, the nerves calm, and the skeleton realigns. As a practitioner becomes a disciplined, curious explorer of their internal landscapes, there is no question that layers of consciousness are stored along the spine, in different parts of the body. It becomes clear that different emotions affect the health of our organs and systems. This energy, once trapped within the subconscious, flows through, bringing with it information and lessons to be integrated into our lives.

People who have experienced trauma often dissociate/disconnect from their physical bodies and are seemingly able to withstand more pain, push themselves deeper, feel like they “can (and must) take it.” Unprocessed emotions sit within us like a stack of bricks and as awareness magnifies, we become the demolition crew, the clean up committee, the architects, engineers, and artists who clear and recreate our own inner worlds.

This release may be the start of a long healing journey, but consider all the effort it was consuming to push down those memories, those emotions, that energy. With this new found release and a strong support system, there is possibility for a life beyond shadow feelings of guilt, shame, fear, anger, jealousy, and the gamut of emotions that consume humanity.

For someone the work may be on the mental level. Maybe breathing in stillness reveals a consecutively negative train of thought about a person or situation. For another the experience may be purely emotional, as they begin to recognize an emotion that has been dominating their life, for example. Or maybe there is physical pain taking the forefront of awareness. When pain is in the body, it is of utmost importance to return to the emotional and mental realms, as that unresolved energy is now affecting the material plane.

When difficulty arises in any of these practices, and we all experience difficulty at one moment or another, anchor into your breath and repeat within your mind, “in this moment, I am safe” until a sense of presence is restored.

Through patience, persistence, trust, empathy, compassion, and surrender, it is the heart that expands and generates love, thus allowing release in the body and creating deep rest in the mind. With practice, once fragmented pieces of ourSelves release from the shadows to become reintegrated within our whole being.

In closing: When the inner world is faced with courage, honesty, and humility our shadows no longer have the chance to overpower our existence. It is integration that restores our spirit to its divine wisdom.

There is no way to practice that is better than the other and anyone alive can practice yoga. The most important is to listen to and honor yourSelf physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Remember: within your heart live all the answers that you need.

If it’s activity, enjoy it.

And if it’s deep rest, you have the right to settle into stillness, nourish your cells with your own breath, and be just as you are.

About Natalia 

Natalia Vásquez is a visual artist and yoga practitioner/guide focusing on the restorative, meditative, and energetic aspects of the practice, regularly using the chakra system as a map. She is the founder of Heart in Brain, a space where art and yoga unite. Natalia is RYT 200 certified and holds a third degree black belt in the Chung Hun system of Tae Kwon Do. Through her artwork and teachings, she aims to de-stigmatize society’s perception of mental and emotional ailments.

Natalia leads our Restorative Yin program at Miami Life Center teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30pm and leading Yoga Nidra on Moondays. Check our schedule for updated dates and times.

The post A Mild Introduction to Yin Practices appeared first on Miami Life Center.

Teaching yoga to children provides them with a variety of tools which they can take from the yoga class to use throughout their lives. Incorporating different aspects of the world around them, such as nature and animals allows them to connect to these elements. Especially now that they are thriving in a technologically driven existence. “Playing Yoga” consists of providing kids with the tools they need to develop  self awareness, flexibility, coordination, and strength through basic and challenging yoga poses, partner poses, group poses, yoga games, mindfulness activities, music and stories.

Furthermore, the breathing and visualization techniques teach kids  to focus, relax and most importantly, it teaches them self-control.

As children learn to manifest their inner-strength, confidence and self-esteem, a feeling of well-being and respect for others along with a love for one’s self, inside and out, begins to develop naturally. Their concentration and sense of calmness and relaxation also improves. Learning to tame their impulses and encouraging kindness in their daily activities allows them the space to mature emotionally and participate in all kinds of group settings.

Yoga is a wonderful resource for children with untold benefits that can dramatically impact their lives and their future in so many ways.

8 Benefits of Yoga For Kids

• Yoga is non-competitive. …
• Yoga teaches self-acceptance. …
• Namaste: The light in me sees the light in you. …
• Yoga encourages healthy habits. …
• Focus. …
• Yoga teaches calming techniques. …
• Children learn self-awareness through yoga. …
• Yoga supports positive mental health in children.

Sabe Mazzi has practice Yoga since 2013. She was certified at Karma Kids NY as a kid Yoga Instructor and has been teaching yoga to children of all ages for the past 2 years. She teaches the kids yoga program at Miami Life Center

The post Playing Yoga appeared first on Miami Life Center.