For the past 6 months, I have had the unbelievable opportunity to work with the Africa Yoga Project as a mentor to a teacher trainee in Nairobi Africa. Each month I find myself in my kitchen in Stamford, CT Skyping with my mentee who is sitting in the Shine Center in Nairobi Kenya. It is pretty amazing that we are literally across the world from each other but find ourselves face-to-face discussing the various themes and sharing our experiences of teaching and practicing yoga, as well as getting to know about our lives and families. Each month, there is a short list of themes that we are given the opportunity to explore and talk about. Many of these themes, are ones that I have seen before at my Level 1 Power Yoga teacher training with Baron Baptiste last summer and during a program I participated in last year called “40 Days to Personal Revolution”. The two themes for this month have made me begin to think and explore more about myself. They are “Equanimity” and “Drop what you know”, both intertwined with each other. I wanted to approach these themes with a fresh pair of eyes so I started by looking up the definition of equanimity. Equanimity – “Having an even mind; mental calmness; evenness of temper especially in a difficult situation.” – Web dictionary Equanimity – “The art of meeting life as it meets you, calmly without drama, without fuss” – Baron Baptisite, 40 Days to Personal Revolution Well, […]
Read More“What’s the darkest day of the year?”. It was question asked by the Rabbi at a Bar Mitzvah I attended last weekend. “December 21st” was the answer called out from the congregation. “That’s true”, the Rabbi went on “December 21st is the first day of the winter, the shortest day of the year.” But, the Rabbi went on to tell a story. One wall of the room that we were seated in is made completely out of glass. And that glass wall happens to be facing the south. So as the Rabbi explained it, in the height of the summer, when the sun was directly overhead, he looked out and saw the congregation covered in shadows, the roof blocking any of the light. But, on a Saturday afternoon, with the winter sun traveling low across the southern sky, the room was awash in bright sunlight. In fact, the lower in the sky that the sun travels, the shorter and darker that the day gets, the brighter the sun shines in to fill this particular room. “Often, you’ll find, it’s the same with life” concluded the Rabbi. It was a lesson I have had experience with. When sickness struck my family, when the days seemed darkest, suddenly we found ourselves awash in the light and support of a community we didn’t even know existed. Other times it would be simpler things, a phone call from a friend at just the right time. Or that break you get out of the blue, […]
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