Welcome: L.I.T. (36m)
Course Progress
Hello and welcome to this incredible adventure we will be sharing together. First, I want to thank you for committing to your growth and for choosing to commit to yourself. I am grateful you have chosen to spend this time with me and I am excited to share everything I can with you. I have put this training together to support you to achieve your highest potential as a practitioner and as a teacher. The training is designed to facilitate this by following a 3-step process that I call L.I.T. – Learn, Integrate, and Teach
Learn:
I am going to share with you what I have learned over the last 12+ years of studying and teaching yoga. This includes techniques and exercises to help you become more aware of your body and your mind. From awareness, we have the freedom to take action that directly aligns with our intention. Without awareness, we are constantly reacting based on old habits and patterns both physically, mentally, and emotionally. These patterns are called Samskaras. Together we will work to burn the samskaras that do not serve us to make space for new patterns to form – patterns that support our overall sense of well-being (body and mind).
One question I would love for you to contemplate is: What is yoga to you?
I am certain that in one way or another you could distill your interpretation of yoga down to some form or practice of self-awareness – be it physical, mental, emotional, or energetic. The Yoga practices are designed to help us peel back our layers of perception in order to live more fully in the now. The layers of perception are based in the past; They are the patterns or samskaras that cloud our ability to see life as it is now. This is the very first yoga sutra: In the now, yoga happens: 1.1 Atha Yoganusasanam (p. 21). The goal of yoga is to experience Samadhi. As stated on page 3 of our Tantra of the Yoga Sutras Book: “Samadhi is tuning in to the greater intelligence of the universe through the vehicle of our own thread of this very intelligence, and this attunement, once established, naturally infuses and inspires every moment of our living.” I would describe Samadhi as the moment when our intellect releases its grip and allows us to remember that we are a being of nature, and nature is within us, all around us…we are nature.
For some of you, this conversation motivates, inspires, and excites you. For others, your eyes may have glazed over and you started thinking, “What did I get myself into?” I’d like you to take note of which reaction you had because this will be incredibly important to your learning process moving forward.
Think of your brain as two muscles. Your whole life you have likely been strengthening one muscle over the other by placing your attention on whatever you were told was important. If your parents told you that studying in school and getting good grades was important, you’ll likely be more dominant in your left hemisphere – linear side. Linear thinkers are likely to be turned off to conversations that include words like “energy,” “heart,” “spiritual,” etc. On the flip side, if you were told creativity and artistry were more important, you likely trained your brain to focus on these things, and as a result, you may be turned off by words or subjects like anatomy or neuroscience.
The beautiful thing is, regardless of how strong one side is over the other, you can train the opposite side of your brain through one simple practice: attention. Attention is the most powerful tool you have and this entire training is about harnessing the power of your mind and directing your attention to help you step into your highest potential physically, emotionally, and mentally. By harnessing your ATTENTION you are capable of anything, including sharing your knowledge with others.
Integrate:
Integration is the second step to our equation and it goes hand in hand with the subject of attention. It is one thing to listen, read, and watch me deliver information to you, and it’s another for it to become a part of you. Passing on information that has not been fully processed by a teacher will always feel inauthentic and disconnected. The teachings would sound like the teacher is trying to convince themselves while simultaneously convincing you. These are not qualities that we want to embody as teachers and this is why I have created ways of integrating the knowledge into your practice.
Here’s how we’ll do that:
- Discussions on philosophy will be woven through your asana practices so that you can directly apply the concept and bring it to life.
- Anatomy will be delivered in the form of knowledge but integrated by feeling the sensations of your muscles and/or creating the movements in your body.
- Integrating techniques and biomechanics will also be done through your asana classes.
- At the end of each section, there is a key points review that will help your intellect to integrate information, and in many cases, you will be asked to record a video of yourself and submit your video to me for review which will make sure you bring the concepts out of the digital ether, out of your head, and into practice.
Integration is key to the embodiment of physical and philosophical practices.
Teach:
Teaching is the inevitable result that comes from taking in information and processing it. The mind operates in the same way as our digestive system. Take in information, digest it, then put that information back out. If ANY part of that cycle is missing in our digestive system, we know our health will be at risk. The same is true for mental health. This cycle of input, integrate, share or Learn, Integrate, Teach, must be fully functioning for overall well-being.
You will be asked to teach right from the start. I will provide small pieces of information for you to learn which will be easily integrated so that you can begin the process. In this way, you will be participating right away. While this feels more challenging at first, it will be far easier later on in the training and you will have tons of practice under your belt and ultimately be more confident.
I am thrilled to start this journey with you! I will see you in the next video.
