Becoming the Spiritual Center

This weekend i went on a walk in the woods with my friend and her dog. as we walked we talked and caught up on our spiritual lives lately and how they relate to our body movement lives. for me that means how spiritual am i being in my yoga teaching and yoga practice path?

the answer right now is really not very spiritual at all. somehow i seem to have lost contact once again with the deeper practices that can help keep my mind and body open to really be able to be there for my students. in recent weeks i have put plenty of emphasis on maintaining my asana practice and even on allowing it to change and soften as my body is becoming more round. but it seems as much as i have allowed for change, i have dropped off in my commitment to pranayama, meditation, and reading (and obviously, blogging about it) somehow the change in my body has entirely usurped disciplined spiritual practice.

next week i go to ohio for almost a week to work with todd norian and ann greene for my anusara immersion part 2. and i have been deeply concerned with keeping my asana practice up so that i'll have the stamina to make it through a week of strong practicing and lecture. what i neglected until about last week was the reading. oops! after a quick trip to amazon for used books several new volumes have landed on my door step and i'm trying to get through them as thoroughly and quickly as possible. re-reading the yoga sutras and reading about the chakras and about tantric tradition has once again reminded me... there is SO MUCH MORE on this yoga path than the asana. the readings have reminded me that my lack of inspiration comes from dropping off the other important practices and from not stopping to just be still and listen to it all around me.

my friend put it beautifully as we discussed wanting to bring spirituality into the classes we teach. she said rather than wanting to work in a spiritual center or run a spiritual center she herself wants to BE the spiritual center. in that way, everywhere she goes becomes a sacred space and everyone she comes into contact with is able to be reached more from a deeper spiritual connection. that is how i feel in the presence of great teachers like todd norian or john friend. that deeper sense of knowing and connection to my own spiritual self is what i want to cultivate and continue to bring to the classroom (and outside of the classroom). so there is an intention for me. create and maintain within the ever continuing spanda of this universe my own connection to source.

back to the meditation cushion i go.