Look for the Lessons

Hi Everyone,

It’s taken me a few days be able to write this newsletter. In just over two weeks my family will be relocating to Florida. As you can imagine we are cleaning, organizing, purging, reminiscing, and mostly cherishing our last days here in this sweet town. 

I taught my last classes for a while this past week which feels very strange to even type here. This is the first time in 14 years that I do not have an upcoming class on the schedule. However, as everything is… this too is temporary. I am finding comfort in the temporariness right now. 

Through all the cleaning I came across the teaching philosophy I had to submit for my first teacher training in 2005. While I would write it with more eloquence today, my hopes and goals from seventeen years ago still ring true for me. I began to think back to who I was as a person, a yoga practitioner, a new teacher and a new mother when I drafted it. That led me to think of all I have learned in the years since. 

As I shared this philosophy (included at the bottom of this newsletter) with students this past week I asked them to think about the biggest lessons they have learned from this practice both on and off the mat and I shared mine. 

My biggest lesson is the realization that there are ALWAYS lessons. Life is perpetually our teacher if we allow it to be. Temporariness becomes a lesson in holding all of the joys and sorrows lightly.. being present in them without being overcome by them. As we become more present we become more mindful– we get better at listening and seeing the lesson and we learn to trust our gut or the universe and have less worries and doubts. Those doubts and fears about the future can cause us so much unnecessary suffering so the lesson becomes the practice of softening into the resistance– whether it be in the body or in the mind– often when we do we find space for acceptance, lightness and ultimately peace. 

I will be taking a few weeks off from my newsletter. But I will be back on the other side of this huge transition with new insight to share and warm wishes from a warm place. (very warm in summer!)  So if I may leave you with one message as I get settled in my new life— Look for the Lessons. They are always there, waiting to teach us.