The skills of leading Noble Silence ~ Being on Retreat

Last November after months of much rain and gentle sunshine, I ran my annual silent retreat. I call it Deep Healing Retreat as that is the intention ~ to feel deeply healed in the areas of life that you care about. Or to simply feel the soothing care and attention you can give yourself through yogic practices.

It was the perfect season, the perfect location, with just the right bunch of humans.

Getting things right so others can thrive is something I really value. I can plan for and manage the deliciousness of the food, the comfort of the guest rooms, and of course the aesthetics of the yoga studio.

These things arranged attentively by the host helps to set the scene for our participants to feel honoured and take refuge in the Sattvic qualities of harmony, ease and quiet-radiance.

The elements of a retreat that are not under ones control happen to be the most interesting ones: communicating what Noble Silence is, how it can serve you, what it is not and how to get the most our of it feels a bit like throwing a line out into the raging ocean and hoping to catch a fish.

Deep healing means foundational investigation of one’s self and that requires a letting go of our everyday behaviours.

Yogis have a powerful tool to end out dated habitual patterns: the deep pause of reflective silence.

Inviting retreatants into the experience of extended silence is a communication the can take some planning and skill. Here are my recommendations having reflected on the task for a while now. I have summarised the invitation to silence as:

Sewing the Three Seeds of Noble Silence.

Imagine if I asked you to be silent for a day. Likely you would have all your proclivities and attachments in full swing, just continuing on inside your head instead of voiced out loud. Same record playing the same tracks, and getting the same results.

Thought captured in the light of yogic awareness

So instead, a teacher can take wisdom from life and set the scene. Just as a gardener knows to prepare the soil and select the right spot for seed planing, so it is with effectively setting up students for the healing nature of Noble Silence. Having chosen the right spot, tilled and nurtured the soil and prepared the seed we are more likely to see flowers blooming and fruit ripening.

seed number 1 - This process of Noble Silence is profound!

Communicating to your group that there is something profound about yogas’ penetrative nature is step one.

Spend time sharing with the participants that so much more is possible, that we are likely stuck on repeating tracks and there is a way break through old limitations.

And don’t just use words, engage in practices too that get the group actively opening to challenges that meet an edge and cross old boundaries. Here we feel in our bodies that we have thrown off old assumptions and stepped into a new realm of energy, breath and self identification.

Change based on deep insight is profound. So expect depth and expect insights from your Noble Silence!

Seed number 2 - Facing your own thoughts

You have thoughts all the time so what does it mean to face them? Our usual thoughts occur to us as real, natural and true. “I’m hungry” “I’m tired” “I like this person” ‘It’s time to go to work” however hiding amongst such neutral thoughts are little misconceptions - which left undetected - can lead us astray.

Unconscious beliefs that have never seen the light of analysis or whose impacts we are unaware of are likely stewn all across our daily self talk.

For example, take the thought ‘I’m hungry’ and let’s sieve and detangle it through a Noble Silence view:

“I’m hungry… therefore I must eat the closest thing available, whatever it is, there’s no time and resources to eat what I actually want nor am I likely to get something that is good for me”.

Oh! That’s interesting. All of that was sitting underneath such a simple, common thought.

That’s a lot of insight right there!

Let’s look at “I’m tired,

“I’m tired…therefore I will be grumpy until I get sleep and I should not have to do anything”

Oh! Now I am feel to see that I can relate to tiredness in new and different ways that might not include grumpy and on strike. Silence gives us time to hear our own thoughts and have new light breathed into them.

You can do the same with the other statements. Try for yourself “I like this person” and “I must go to work”

Try to find at least 5 preconceptions or misconceptions for each statement.

Naming what’s underneath the thought… identifying the context from which it arises… and experiencing new insight are all natural outcome of Noble Silence when it is well guided.

Summary: Facing your own thoughts is about having the quiet reflective time available to you, in a safe and nurturing environment, where you can see what’s underneath them, unconsciously driving your life.

Seed number 3 - Facing your body’s sensations

Mindfulness has always been taught as an awareness that includes bodily sensation. It is a way to be in the Now. The mindful person notices what they feel, where they feel it and may also acknowledge how they are interpreting the sensations.

Using the examples above, this is what might come to light during Noble Silence: “

When I have a sensation in my upper belly (that I call hunger) I become vigilant and my nervous system becomes active. I am compelled to seek out food to stop that sensation. Why? Because I interpret it as a negative sensation, as if something is terribly wrong. Is something terribly wrong? No, not at all, I ate only 2.5 hours ago and I was sated. What to do? Keep noticing it, engage in places and activities that regulate my nervous system and keep me centred. Change my breathing to a pattern that soothes the feeling. Make a reassuring promise to check back in with the feeling of hunger so it knows I am listening and tending to it. I know I will eat in 2 hours. I can be a voice of calm reassurance to the freaking out of my tummy talking.”

Or the going to work example:

“When I know if it time to go to work I feel my body stiffening slightly. There is a fist in the pit of my tummy that tightens. I start rushing and getting my self worked up. I wonder what it would be like to calmly prepare to depart for work…. I wonder if I could delight in the process of getting dressed, eat slowly, enjoy the big hugs as I bid my family goodbye for the day, and walk out the door with my heart full and my feet on the earth, noticing the flowers and trusting that I am enough. Trusting that I bring light and joy to my work and to other people . Imagining this I feel something new is possible. “

With these three seeds sewn:

-Expect the profound - Face your Thoughts - Face your Feelings

the foundational philosophies of yoga starts to have practical applications.

We are now actively engaged in the study of the mind and the levels of Self/ self that are available to us. We see that we are whole and yet made up of parts.

Summary

In Noble Silence we have time and intention to look deeply at our own mind. We look both at the thoughts and at the underlying beliefs that fuel the arising of those thoughts.

With the yogic Yama and Niyama guiding us, knowledge of the Kleisha and especially an appreciation of Atman we will have a wisdom consciousness available to us that sheds its light on the dark.

Noble Silence is self-study (Svadyaya) but it is also even simpler than that… once things quieten down and the retreat has its effect on us… the mind sits quietly and we reside in our own radiant nature.

Yes, the thinking mind quiets, the feelings quieten, the breath settles and the Self is revealed. Even if only for a twinkling moment.

The atman, the true self, the divine within us at last has the stage and we can feel deeply blessed to be present among such a warm and loving light.

Restorative Yoga - all yoga is restorative

“All yoga is restorative” could be better said as “Yoga is always restorative” because when a yoga class leaves you feeling shaken, it isn’t yoga. Exercise, fitness, ego, some yoga business / bottom line decisions are often not what we would agree as being yoga. 

A class is a place of learning which means that one will come across the discomfort of growth. We often say ‘yoga is a path and it is a state’. The classroom-learning of yoga is a necessary path but the state of yoga takes time to develop.

This article puts forward the idea that the state of yoga is mostly not present in a standard hatha yoga class. (Most western yoga is hatha yoga: asana and pranayama based) Therefore the restorative nature of yoga is also not present for the person, yet. You just have to look at the marketing material most yoga classes use to get a clear indication of what is going on: the ubiquitous rows of tightly placed mats. The student is put in a limited space, lined up and treated like everyone else in the class, made to fit in, put in an unnatural environment, expected to follow instructions and made to appear more like an economic unit than a blossoming, fully connected and enlivened spirit.

For some students their ‘yoga’ practice can even be completely devoid of yoga if the student/ self or student / teacher relationship is not right. The challenges of learning are best done wrapped in the attidue or context of yoga’s essence: wholeness, freedom, friendship, love, joy, beingness, nature, support, honesty, simplicity, lightness, beyond ego into fullness, and regular acknowledgement of the unlimted and eternal. 

Those learning about the body and energy flow, and about the mind’s influence with and by the body, will sometimes make learners mistakes, as is expected and necessary. They will go too far, get injured, fry their nervous system, face strong emotions, exert their will on the body, and all the things that a student must learn to then move toward knowledge, wisdom and mastery.

I must note here, that for many yoga practitioners, what is learnt in yoga does not often translate into daily life where it could have its best impact, instead it is discarded until the next yoga class. This is odd to me.

If I learn that the hip opening and thigh-enlivening of Warrior Two makes my energy flow big and full and I feel my nervous system and breath become more integrated and whole, and I feel I AM MORE WHOLE,  then surely I would want to use that. Like when I find myself  in my kitchen worrying about my disintegrating friendship and the shame and self blame that I probably should throw off and disown because it is wrecking my day and my nervous system. So Warrior Two is there as a friend, a saviour, and I grow even more affection for it. Right there in the kitchen. I learn this pose’s grace as my neuroception informs my interception. With this information my past memory of the pose’s gifts make it an obvious choice I freely offer myself.

All yoga restores us to our sense of wholeness. The phrase 'sense of wholeness' is not an idea. It is a felt experience that a yogi must have. Sometimes wholeness is the result of 10 minutes in Child’s Pose over a bolster, sometimes it is a sun salute series throwing off the malaise of a dull and spiritless day. Sometimes it is saying sorry to someone or being open to a hug. 

Sensing and Wholeness are both vital in the vocabulary of a yogi. Perhaps that is what I was most wanting the yoga Australia member’s circle to walk away with.

Being uncomfotable is an important part of yoga. Staying in a pose when the first reaction is to get out, or staying still when that habit is to fidget... these are moments when our idea of ourselves and reality move from being small to being full of possibility. They reform what was the past self, into what is possible now and into the future.

Possibility implies the unknown and the soul speads its wings in the spaces that are not yet charted. 

Newness, freshness and a releasing of past beliefs, attitudes and postures are signs that yoga is happening within the person.

The essense of yoga is the mind being seen for what it is - a cycle of raga and devesha - and going beyond mind. Behind thought is pure, expansive consciousness. Underneath the fluctuations of mind is stillness. There is nothing to be known in stillnes, but we tend to take back into the world with with us a little note to self, a lesson, that says “relax, all is an illusion of sorts”. That is where we learn the play of opposites, the trap that we navigate throughout our lives. We may learn to choose sattva over the other two best friends/ frenemies: rajas and tamas. We may even become sattvic. A quietly, radiant being. Self restorative in our choices.

A class is not a space for the state of yoga, but a place to learn how to get there. It opens tiny little doors inside us that we may chose to keep open if we attent to them properly, treasure them, take them home and begin the process of ownership.

With true ownership, yoga is always restorative.

~

Reference to my past teachers on this topic: Leigh Blashki, A.G. Mohan, Sophie Lefevre Bunn, Patanjali, Buddhism, Louise Simmons

Scaravelli inspired yoga

I would like to say that my teaching is Scaravelli inspired because that is true for me.

 I am not saying that I or my teaching represent Scaravelli and all her students.  

I am acknowledging the profound and deeply transformative nature of my teaching does not spring from me alone and it does not spring from my classical yoga training alone. Something came along like a large Flower Truck and knocked my assumptions and limitations off their feet and I landed in a bed of botanicals called Scaravelli yoga.

One can easily set a Scaravelli workshop’s learnings aside and continue along the pre-made path of acceptable and normal yoga teaching. I say ‘easily’ because the Scaravelli teachings can be elusive and not at all instructional.

Instead of giving up, I grappled with the impact this Flower Truck had on me. I let it turn me around and flip me upside down. The result was… I felt broken and useless as a teacher. I cried, I asked questions and I trusted in my body and my breath and the spirit of Louise, Diane, Caroline and others.

When one has a spiritual connection it is self evident. In the presence of these Scaravelli teachers their light allows me to see and feel and truly live my light. The experience was not so much one of adding to my knowledge, it was one of taking away the coverings.

Although shame and self doubt will crowd in, as it always does, I chose to fight and to protect what I learnt. I chose to keep it alive within me and be fearless on that path.

Every single day I have honoured these women and their teachings. And I have trusted my students to be ready to engage in this uniquely genuine interaction.

 I have transformed my pashimotonasana, my bujangasana, my tadasana, my uttanasana, my adho mukha svasasana, my chakrasana.  All are forever transformed.

They are so changed that I would look a fool turning up to a regular yoga class and teaching them.

What do I say to those who follow my instructions and see how I formulate these poses? Am I to be guided to the edge by my Scaravelli teachers and then be abandoned there when I chose to take flight?

Of course not. I say “This is what I have taken away from working with Louise and Diane and Caroline and Rossella.” And to say that more succinctly, I say “I am Scaravelli inspired”

To say anything less would be untrue.

And besides formal poses… my relationship to body and breath has been liberated. My relationship to self and to other has become more natural, playful and sacred. 

I have risen up and I now ride the wave that these women gave momentum to and swelled up inside me.

I took action, quit all of my teaching, made a yoga studio at home, unleashed my intuitive flow and learnt the lessons my heart and soul were yearning for me to hear.

Every single day I am Scaravelli inspired. Not just in formal yoga poses but when I wash dishes, when I drive my car, when I speak to people. Each moment that I decide to enter my spine, to sit on it a little longer, to converse with, listen to and transform it, means to be in a Scaravellian moment. I am thankful to and influenced by Scravelli in my most personal and intimate of places.

Each time I relax my knees and open the bottom of my spine. Each time I am not even sure anymore of what I am sitting on because there is so much gathering and releasing happening in my hips, so dynamically, that I feel more like helium than a solid object. And each time my consciousness penetrates this flesh and reimagines it anew, I am Scaravelli inspired.

Much of the ground-work I had laid years before even meeting Diane. So there was a preparedness inside me. I was not in any way starting from scratch or needing hand holding.

From my early 20’s I identified the rigidness of Iyengar yoga was not a healthy path for my gentle soul.  I chose a Chi Gung teacher and then a Tai Chi teacher. Only returning to yoga when I understood softness, a quieting inner humbleness and deep surrender.

This protected me.

For example, in an ashtanga class which my Yoga Teacher Training provided for us, I met face to face my physical prowess and the egoic drive it could unleash. I chose ‘No’. The feats of my muscular skeletal body were not to be a path I would follow just because I was naturally good at it. I walked away even though it stoked the flames of my ego. In that split-second I made a decision to walk a path of internal alchemy. The glossy allure of success through dominance or the appearance of “excellence” would end up being empty. I felt that, and it was my truth.

I actually remember this particular Asthanga School’s principal teacher pushing students bodies into poses like they were pieces of meat. It was rough and directional, as though the human person was secondary to the position aimed for. That was a big give away. *

Other ways of preparedness include always chosing teachers who are relaxed and friendly and have zero power play going on. I feel so blessed by this. I have somatics, I have Rolfing, Feldenkrais, Alexander technique, Mary Bond, Aikido, Jiu Jitsu, Vocal Training. All are arts that inform my yoga and align with Scaravelli in potent ways.

My students who showed up were all genuine in their search and requiring the soothing Langhana approach which I preferred over the strengthening Brahmana practices. So I kept nurturing and sharing deeply genuine approaches to yoga because of the beautiful souls trusting my teaching. It was never about poses. It was always about energy, relationship and consciousness.

In pranayama, I always preferred the subtleness of full yogic breath, Dirga Swasam, over any formalised or forceful breaths. I didn’t judge this preference as lazy or undisciplined. I watched with open mindedness and trusted in the natural tides of my own body and emotions. I now feel a profound intimacy in relation to my breath that rarely leaves me, the friendship is so beautifully bonded.

I only really do nadi shodhana as a Chandra Bhedana when in bed and the right side of my face happens to be squashed against the pillow. Natural and divine! Whole body affected by the slightness, the subtleness of spirit riding on the breath. I don’t ‘do’ the pose, I notice what is happening in the current shape my body has already taken. And I look for the intelligence there.

Yes, I feel my breath is bigger than me. Rossella gave me that.

Yes I feel my arm does not end at the glenoid fossa. Louise gave me that.

Yes, we can spiral up and back down through limbs to spine. Caroline gave me that.

Yes, my legs continue up as high as my solar plexus in a backbend. I learnt that from Paddy McGrath.

Ultimately, we are all drawing from the same source and seeing the rejuvenation it gives, in which ever form that happens to take. As Joseph Campbell says, the source is the same, it just takes different forms.

I drink from the scaravelli well.

I have no doubt about that.

If you want to join me and share and take a drink together that would be even more lovely.

It was common for a guru to teach a student one pose. The student then goes home, explores the learning for a year to then return and learn the next step. I feel this path suits me well. As I said, I was fertile soil and my philosophical approach and natural tendencies have always been deeply aligned with each of the Scaravelli teachers I have come across.

For me I would like Scaravelli sessions (and most non beginner yoga sessions) to be about exploration and questions and principles. For the teacher to observe more than instruct. Observe a student’s natural intuitive flow, prompt them with questions they could ask themself and ask the moment/universe, begin investigations from where they are, and only making inroads into what is already there.

If I were to contribute more to the path of Scaravelli, that would be my contribution and I feel it fits beautifully because it trusts what is already there. A teacher should observe more, assume the student is complete and simply ask questions the student might want to ask themselves. In this way a new branch of the tree of Scaravelli could grow. Different to the other branches, but in balance and harmony with them and sharing the same source.

Everything is there for a reason and shining a light on it is the nature of yoga.

And when one holds a torch we must know about letting things sit in the dark a little longer too, and honour the sacredness of those spaces that are not open to the mind’s interfering ways. Leave it in the dark. That is also the kindness and wisdom of yoga. The viveka within me, I trust.

An example of this is when my body does not let me enter into what I think might be a Scaravelli practice. I lie on my back and try to relax everything and go into the secret places of the spine, but my gut and my heart and my head all say “No way girl! Not here, not now.” And so I let the subtle things remain in the dark and move as the body asks. An energetic sun salute is no less yoga because it uses straight lines and prescribed directions. It is yoga because in that moment it is true and results in and come from Union.

For some that happens in the Iyengar lineage, for other Satchinanda or Asthanga. And for me, all are one. All are the same when we listen deeply and open up to the fullest possibility.

The close and constant teaching I so long for and desire is something I simply always assume will happen. I am not forcing it. In my mind, there is a fuzzy beacon shining in the distance, leading me to it, and so I foresee many trips overseas with Scaravelli teachers. For now that is not my reality and I am content to wait and let life surprise me.

~

A few more moments of Scaravelli Yoga alive in my life:

Louise’s “thighs that would climb a tree” keeps resonating in so many ways. The sole of the foot to pelvic floor connection through to spine has had a myriad of spin offs for me in many poses. It evokes incredible emotion and wholeness like an animal would feel – immediate, embodied, ready.

Diane’s step with forefoot first not heel. Something so patently incorrect I took away with me and made it make sense.

Louise’s shopping at the fruit stalls – we can see the health, we can see the life flow and wellbeing the same way we choose one fruit over another. It is tangible in an enigmatic way.

Caroline’s shoulder stand without pushing anything to get up. No push, no momentum. Just gathering, gathering and releasing, gathering and releasing to create lightness.

I know what it is like to leave the mind behind and let the body reveal its directions and desires freely. I put the mind aside and I listen and I follow reverently and in awe that I get to experience such a sacred moment.

Louise’s deep back of the shoulder. Transformed everything. It is present for me when I open a draw or lean down to do my laces. All transformed by this incredibly beautiful discovery. And still the shoulder “is as big as the sun”

And a thousand and one more that I could name and demonstate.

That is my Scaravelli share for now.

P.S. Here are some of those thousand and one moments that came to mind just this morning:

~ The back of the head reaching back, elongated upward like ‘Alien’ and it being the first spinal curve even before the neck (which precedes the lumbar etc…)

~ My head on top of the spine springs like a flower, blossoming

~ The body’s two halves - earth below and sky above, wanting to meet and interwine, and share a bit of each other so that the solid bits become light and the light bits know something of substance.

~ Relax the (fucking) jaw, mouth and tongue.

~ A foot that steps like the central actor in the limelight of a stage. Steps forward in all its glory!

~ Stand on your knees

~ The thigh join is not a hinge

~ Round Round Round - the roundness has no front or back. Go round round round

~ Move the opposite way to where you think you are going.

~ Let the weight of the head rest the thoracic spine. Ahhhhhh!

~ Let spine have short bits followed by long, followed by short followed by long. Shorten, lengthen, shorten, lengthen all the way up.

~ The spine splits at the lumbar. (So does the breath but the breath is whole)

~ Feet opening bottle tops.

~ Feet the could float you on water.

~ “Do you wanna come play?” feet

~ Standing is not a static position.

Do you still want more? I could go on :-)

~ Trikonasana legs wide wide like on a fat horse, but in, in holding on even as they widen out. Oh la las my inner thighs and pf love that one! Dynamic and Juicy!

~ Trust the middle of your back.

~ The openness slides through the door of the pelvis like a cat flap just missing the cat’s tail

~ Your shoulder is between your elbow and your knee

~ Wrap the goodness into the belly like making Katupa, keep those gems in there are you go up into full chakrasana

~ Warrior One with thighs and pelvis alive and responsive as they would be when riding a horse and feeling each movement and breath made below.

~ Twisting by going internally in the opposite directions. Dynamically avoid the twist you are doing. Just like in singing where you want to avoid getting to the note and keep the previous note still resonating and ringing out as you meet the next note. Hold back, hold on, hold in but sing!

~ Downdog like a panther, ready to leap into a forward stride

~ When I relax my knees my tummy does a big flip and starts moving in the opposite direction. Like a change from sympathetic to parasympathetic in an instant.

~

References: Thanks for Dr Fox for the Fuzzy Beacon idea and Cecilia Macaulay for sharing it with me.

*Note: I could have been diplomatic and said “a popular style of hatha yoga” instead of risking branding all Asthanga practice in this light. However, I see two things: 1. my reader is smart enough to know not to generalise, but to look and see for themselves. 2. Being coy and playing with euphemisms lacks the spine I hope yoga brings to my writing.

"Nothing to prove, nothing to hide" opens the heart to unknown depths.

If you want to be able to step outside your comfort zone, I have something that will give you the support and confidence you need. It is four statements to guide you in your thinking, feeling and decision making.

These four statements banish fear and get me into a high-quality mode of functioning. I feel I am able to see reality more clearly as I relate to the people around me.

For example, in holding workshops and retreats it is common for fear, self sabotage or over-preparing to occur. These fears are ‘inner friends’ I have faced many times as I walk the path I am on. No doubt you too step into new, unknown realms and need an anchor or guide-rail as support.

Read each of these statements and see how they feel in your body.

“I have nothing to prove”

“I have nothing to hide”

“I have nothing to defend’

“I have nothing to protect”

I recently ran a workshop “Owning and Loving your Yoga so it Rings True for You.” This topic inspired me to abandon negative thinking in order to share myself openly and hold space successfully. I committed to a deep alignment of my inner life with the workshop intention.

In holding space for others my intentions were: to teach without

proving my worth,

hiding my weaknesses,

defending my ignorance

or protecting my vulnerabilities.

Aligning with one’s actions with one’s truest, deepest calling is not easy.

It took an initial hit of self-awareness svadhyaya and grit, to deeply listen in.

With these four statements I experienced a radical throwing off of ‘shoulds’ and limitations. My physical body opened up, shoulder loose, chest big, smile wide. And my breath flowed too. So much love can be felt on the breath.

Because I had these powerful four statements, I found the process from start to finish to be engaging and delightful. Without drama or incident, I learned to be easy instead of fearful and I warmly connected with those involved in hosting the event and those attending.

How did the participants experience my offering?

“Our yoga teacher workshop by Katie de Araujo, created a beautiful exploration of yogic freedom, and permission to honour and embody our own unique yoga journey as individuals and as teachers.” 

“We explored concepts such as curiosity, roundness, and replacing goals with presence. We connected over personal reflections on yamas and niyamas, while time flowed as smoothly as the energy in our bodies.”

As humans we can be triggered, stressed or defensive. It is not a great state for us, and has an impact on those around too.  

If you feel there is something more and that the reflective path of insight can uplift and liberate the mind, then I offer you this embodied skill.

If they feel like fake words, great, that means that you are engaging with satya (truthfulness). Naming truthfully how the phrases land in you is the first step, and the work is before you to be done.

It is good news to know you are on the right path, asking the useful questions.

From the deep psychology of yoga, these four phrases: nothing to prove, hide, defend or protect, can be viewed as a kind of surrender. An offering up and letting go of the self and of the ego.

PRACTICE

Say these words, one phrase at a time, and see what arises for you in your heart or in your belly.

“I have nothing to prove”

“I have nothing to hide”

“I have nothing to defend’

“I have nothing to protect”

Visualise yourself speaking with a lover or a stranger from this state of selflessness. Do you feel freedom to side step the mental noise and open a fresh path of presence with another?

If stuff arises you’d like assistance processing, you can book in to a Yoga Therapy session in studio and online. I am available for such deep work.

In letting go we receive gifts we could not have known to ask for.

The yoga of tennis: a story of heightened inner awareness.

Tennis merged with yoga tonight, and I loved it.

Stephanos Tsitsipas beat Jannik Sinner at the Australia Open after 5 long sets. He was asked what changed at the start of the final set that pushed him on to win. What did he tell himself?

To answer this question truthfully, as must be his default, he first warned the audience that it may be technical and people might not understand it.

“I relaxed my wrist for my serve” he said.

This type of minor adjustment elite athletes deeply appreciate. A runner, a swimmer, but also anyone completely engaged and engrossed in what they are producing with their bodies: a musician, a singer… they understand that tiny, minuscule changes make profound impacts to the outcome.

Yoga is all about awareness, and refining that awareness to a point of mastery.

Yoga begins with behaviour and ethics but is mostly understood through the body. A person who has great mastery over the energy moving through their body will therefore have mastery over their emotions and mind and self.

Titsipas’ minor adjustment was not about releasing the wrist. It was about having a mind so attuned to the inner world of the body and the situation that he could sense where and how changes needed to be made. And it worked! He was right. What an awesome level of connection. This is a whole system experience. This is not about the wrist. It is about being a person who understands the mind and can use that mind to merge with the body, listen to its millions of different messages, even under stress, even when tired, even when being watched by millions across the world, and make that perfect subtle adjustment so everything clicks back into harmony.

From my experience, this state of refined awareness feels like a heightened or elevated state. There is a tacit spirituality.

The mind is immersed in an interoceptive state. It is not worrying about the future or churning up the past. The information from the body in this one lived moment is lit up.

As Jim Courier says “Minor adjustments have major impacts.”

So at your desk, dive into that interoceptive state, let the body be felt and make a minor adjustment. You might release your jaw, or roll your shoulders, or sit forward on your sit bones so your chest lifts. In standing, you might place the feet evenly under the pelvis or lift the chin when scrolling through your phone.

And it feels a little more special than just a bodily movement, if it feels like something in your spirit has changed. Then great. That’s yoga. And it is special.

I really hope you take this with you in to your yoga and into your life.

I am so thankful for Tsitsipas and his honesty. It meant that he did not underestimate his audience. He trusted that something so personal and specific and “elite” is true and real for all of us in some way.

Intuitive Flow turns the letters of yoga into Poetry

You will see I am sharing on YouTube and Facebook many of my Intuitive Flow moments. This is piquing interest in yoga lovers. Is this a yoga class? Is this a random movement practice? Should I even be privy to this since it seems more a private monologue than a public lecture?

I want to encourage discussion of the idea that what happens in a class is not the formula for home practice. Does a yogi of 20 years think “I’ll do a set of yoga poses and that is my Hatha yoga”. I know I would be bereaved if that was all I wanted for my beautiful soul and tender Self.

In this blog I present the idea that what happens in many yoga classes can be best categorised as the ‘abc’ of hatha yoga. It is foundational learning that is necessary and useful, but not complete. It has not had the fullness of spirit breathed into it, because that is something that happens in a different space.

If what happens in a an average yoga class in the Western World in 2023 is really building blocks of learning, then I find myself wondering and asking the question… what happens next? At school, once we have learnt the abc’s we don’t keep repeating them each year. They are committed to memory, just as asana are committed to cellular memory, so we can use them to create something more meaningful.

Yoga poses as MEANING is my way of Being In Yoga.

Just as our abc’s are used to write words and sentences which then allow us the more meaningful ability to communicate and even create stories, Yoga practices can trickle through us into our inner most psyche. One’s yoga becomes attuned to those inner places where deeper truths, archetypal knowledge, music and poetry reside. It is a creative, unknown world where sponteneity is welcomed and authenticity has the full authority.

My yoga is definitely poetry. It took growth and maturation to move from rules to deep listening and self trust, but it is a step for yogis to take if they wish.

I will in time offer some useful break-downs of what is happening for me in Intuitive Flow moments, so the principles are well communicated.

But for now, to bring the ideas together I’d like to start with what is important to know:

“The approach is simple - a completely undefended looking and feeling into
the essential activities of life: joy, sorrow, breathing, loving, walking,
dancing, sleeping.
Meditation is diving into your entire sensorium so fearlessly that you go beyond it into the core of your being and rest there.
This is a yoga of delight, awe and wonder.

”

— The Radiance Sutras, Introduction by Lorin Roche

Yoga means Union. Meditation leads to absorption. A yoga class is an opportunity for a safe and sacred space to learn, but it is limited. I invite you to open to a personal practice, a yoga that can take your hand and walk you through the wilderness into awe. These paths are there for you to pioneer your way through until the toil turns to leisure and delight. The guiding principles are clear but they are pillars, not fillers. They leave a wide open space for the unknown. This is what the Japanese call ‘Mu’ the creative void or the dance of nothingness.

At this point in the evolution of yoga, we Yoga Teachers may have a lot more to learn and share than is currently thought possible.