Passion and practicality
Happy May everyone. It’s been wonderful to meet the many new yogis rocking my little studio, as well as students who are revisiting after having attended classes in the past. Everyone’s improvement and confidence in their practise has been truly wonderful to witness. We have a magnificent yoga community – no doubt about it.
So today I want to talk about PASSION!!! Does that make you think of being close and sexy next to someone? Well for me, it’s about feeling that passion in life can take a sudden stop and a back seat to safety and PRACTICALITY!!!! (BOOOOO BOOOOOO BOOO!!!)
My passion has been running a yoga studio for 13 years. My super dream job. It was definitely not what I thought I would be doing in my life, when I started my personal yoga journey in my 20s. I can tell you they were a bumpy two years. I was the tightest yogi you would have ever met, also super in my head, a muscly (back then), anxious, hard ball of doubt. But I turned a corner.
Yoga was my everything. I did classes, courses, went to Byron Bay on my own whenever I could (and this was 14-15 years ago, pre-Instagram era peeps) and attended Yoga festivals. I truly did yoga all day. I attended classes with teachers like John Ogilvie, Rachel Zinman, Lance Schuller and let’s not forget Simon Borg. I would go on a mat and just wait for the teacher’s guidance. None of my friends did yoga so amongst yogis I felt like I was in Heaven!!!
I did it all. Kundalini Yoga, Bikram, Power, Acro, Iyengar, Ashtanga. I hung on every word of my passionate teachers. They led with such big hearts. They loved teaching, and I loved yoga.
Once I met my late teacher, Acharya Upendra Roy, I made sacrifices, travelling from the airport to the city four nights a week to attend his classes. At that time, I worked three jobs. With Acharya, if you wanted to do his Teacher Training Course he gave you a testing ground of three months. You had to attend a minimum of 4-5 classes a week, and he would then decide if he was going to accept you in his course.
I did, and the rest if history.
That taught me that passion is giving it all you’ve got!!! Everything!!! It’s love and devotion. It’s pushing through your skin at times, past safety and precaution and doubts and charging on with passion.
Then you have practicality. Yes, I love teaching yoga marathons, but many students do not have the freedom of time to participate. There’s kids at home, the need to get ready for work for the next day, to meet and greet your loved ones, to organise, cook, clean, errands etc.
This term I had to hold off my ceramics class. I love my ceramics class, and I have enjoyed the sticky learning phase. But I had to be closer to home to help with my Dad who was so unwell (but he’s a fighter) and with Autumn colds and flus, more clients are coming for Homeoapathy. So this month, I was practical. It ruled. I look at practicality as the “safe” outcome or, at times, what’s “acceptable”. Practical jobs, practical love, practical routines, practical friendships. I asked my Mum for her thoughts about practicality. She said it’s simple and it works.
As a Yogi I seek the balance – in my body, in my heart, my soul and spirit.
