Last night I had the incredible opportunity to sit in on a Skype Q & A session with Darren Main. I'm currently mentoring a group of new yoga instructors through the studio I work for, and part of their education has been to read Darren's book The Yogi Entrepreneur. The book is about the business of and ethics within the yoga world. The students I'm mentoring, along with about 40 other newer instructors, had the chance to do a Q & A session with Darren via Sype. Being the yoga nerd that I am, I forced myself to sit as far away from the computer as possible so that I wasn't the crazy yogi with the huge eyes who was constantly nodding her head in agreement to every syllable that came out of his mouth while making that strange "mmm" sound that intellectuals make when a speaker makes a poignant statement. I swear, I didn't do any of that....
Anyway, nearing the end of our Q & A, one of my fellow instructors asked Darren about longevity in the yoga world. "How, after teaching for 20 plus years, do you still do it without feeling like you're just going to burn out?" Deep down, I was so grateful that my colleague asked this question. It's something I often worry about. I've been teaching yoga non-stop for the last three and a half years. I have no intentions of slowing down. I never feel like I'm worn out or sick of it. But my concern is that someday it might happen. Darren had so many great responses to the question, but there's one thing he said that truly resonated with me. He said, "Because of yoga I am alive." Not only was he sharing that yoga has helped with his physical health, but he was expressing the feeling of being alive through yoga. And cue tears streaming down the face of the crazy yogi in back!
Seriously. Darren hit the nail on the head. It's so hard to put into words, but through yoga I now feel 100% alive. I think back a few years in my life at times when yoga wasn't part of my life and those memories feel like dreams or like they happened to someone else and I was just a bystander watching the mess unfold. I can say that I now truly experience life because of yoga. Perhaps yoga has taught me to be kind and compassionate towards others and that kindness has oped my eyes and mind to so many wonderful people and experiences. Maybe yoga has allowed for me to be comfortable and confident in myself and my own being so that I am not timid to truly be myself. Or maybe it's my, as I like to call it, Spidey Sense that I've acquired through yoga so that I'm now deeply in tune with my mind, body, and spirit in a way I had never been before. Whatever the reason, there's no doubting that yoga just makes me feel alive.
Of course stepping outside and experiencing the current weather in Minnesota, a lovely wind chill of -20, could also make someone feel amazingly alive!
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