Choose Your Own Path

Yoga Teacher Training- Day One
Friday, August 26, 2011
1. Give from fullness, not depletion.  Take care of yourself first.  Think of the example of an emergency on an airplane.  You are told to put the mask on yourself first.  If you are not healthy and full, you cannot give to anyone.  You must also receive to be able to give.
2. Self-reflection.  Society is numb from business especially in the West.  Yoga is good for depression, anxiety, and stress, because we can calm down and rest our minds in stillness.  "Be still and know that I am God."  Psalm 46:10
3. Loving yourself first is the best gift.  Be able to forgive yourself.  We all make mistakes.  The beauty is found in learning from them.
4. Surrender to yourself.  Calm your mind.  We all have layers like onions that can be peeled back through meditation and yoga.  Sometimes pain from childhood can come out during your practice.  Sometimes people can feel emotional and cry during a practice or meditation.
5. Use yoga as a tool for transformation.
6. Be the change you wish to see in the world.  Don't tell people what to do, but lead by example.  Purity of thought, food, and practice.
7. Everybody needs love.  Don't react defensively to negative people.  React in love.  You never know what they've been through.
8. Yoganize is a combination of styles.  *Yoga is a system of breathing accompanied by movement.