Getting Real at Level One

I just spent a week in Sedona at yoga teacher training with Barron Baptiste. 

Why?  I’m a commitment for growth.  I want to teach.  I want to live big, be awesome, and not hold back in life. 

The heart of this training is all about inquiry.  You dig deep and get real about where you are and where you want to be in life.  What are you afraid of?  What are you hiding from?  Where are you stuck?  What’s missing in your life? If you really take on these questions honestly, it’s a painfully beautiful unearthing and opening up of your heart and soul that leaves you perfectly empty, yet full of life’s richness and possibility. 

Wait, that says nothing about teaching yoga, right?  Yes, you learn Baptiste sequence, flow, and technique.   You practice teaching, and you break down essential cues and language. My teacher “tool belt” is full of great new ways to help students land in their bodies, expand their strength and deepen their practice.  But that’s kind of the side-dish of this journey.  The meat & potatoes (or eggs and avocado, as it were) was all about transformation, and I both experienced it and witnessed it on many levels that week. 

My life is in transition.  This training helped me open up and release pain, face my fears, and let go of knowing what my future will look like.  By letting go and being empty, you make room for grace.  Now, this moment, is all any of us really have.  I recognized where in my life I’m not being present.  I’ve got some work to do, and I’m facing my fears head on.  

It feels good. 

Practice.  Yoga is a practice, and we had plenty of it in Sedona.  The sweat and exhaustion of Barron’s kick-your-asana practice created a real physical sense of being present in my body.  It released stuck energy and left me feeling strong and powerful.  After Thursday’s practice, I think I felt every… single… cell in my body.   

It. Was. Awesome.

The really cool thing about transformation is that it’s like throwing a pebble into a lake.  

One life is changed and ca-plunk… the ripple in the water begins, and keeps spreading out, touching lives as it expands outward.  I met so many amazing people from all around the world.  I learned that while we all have different life experiences, we can all relate to the same emotions of the human experience.  It was an honor to be a part of Sedona Level 1, 2012.  I can only imagine the kind of ripple effect that will grow out of this group.

So, now what?  Right now I am present to the experience of peace.  I’m feeling grounded, ready to move forward.  I was just asked to join the amazing teaching team at The Funky Buddha.  I’m a yes.  I’m ready now.  I’m so honored to be able to share the gift of yoga.  My new way of being is of power.  I’m giving up the lie that I’m unprepared and I’m not good enough.  Because, hell… I’m awesome. 
P.S. So are you.  Go be awesomer.