This week has been a relaxing one so far. I had the chance to see Bryan Kest for my second time and take his master class. As usual, it was amazing. His outlook on life is inspiring and just having the chance to listen to him speak about life and speak about yoga is something that would benefit everyone in order to live a better, more authentic life.
I wish I could have recorded his entire talking portion of the class because everything was noteworthy. He talked about how we make yoga SHIT. We bring our shit into yoga and we make it into shit. We bring in our insecurities with our bodies, we bring in our competitive nature and perfectionism issues. We make it shit. We come into yoga wanting to lose a certain amount of weight or get a yoga body because we are unhappy with the way we are. He said YOGA thinks you’re perfect and beautiful just as you are…
He talked about how the point of yoga is to gain enlightenment. It’s coming into class and opening our bodies and creating balance. Anything in life that we force, or overwork….wears out the fastest. If we go into class and the teacher says to do something, we don’t have to do it exactly as he/she says, we must listen to our bodies and modify as necessary. Your teacher doesn’t care how fancy you get and handstands won’t promise you a healthy body. The key is balance.
He discussed the idea of buying a used car….what kind of car do we want to buy? Even if its an older car, what kind of car do we want?…..We want that gently used car from the old lady in Pasadena. WHY you ask? because that old car in Pasadena is in a location with no humidity and no rust….taken care of by a lady that probably follows the speed limit and takes care of it. The last car we want to buy is one from a taxi driver in New York City. See the difference?
He uses this as an analogy for our bodies. The better we take care of our bodies, without force and with gentle moderation…will last the longest. The body we pound and overuse and not let rest will wear down quickly.
He said so many things to write down… so with this blog entry I didn’t exactly care where it went format-wise….it’s more a free-write of what I remember from my experience.
Something else that he mentioned was gratitude. We must always be grateful. When we come from a place of always always thinking “I’ll be happy when….” then we’ll never fricken be happy. We will always get something then once we have it we’ll move on to the next thing we think will create happiness for ourselves. We must come from a place of “I am happy. I am grateful for…”
One part that i could really relate to was addiction. He discussed the addict who stops the substance he/she is addicted to. There is this space of stress and boredom and a flow of emotions but once we get through that, there is serenity. It’s so very true. To be happy JUST THE WAY THINGS ARE is key. As an addict myself, I have gone through this, and it’s the best thing that has ever happened in my life. I am grateful for simplicity. I am grateful spending time alone with myself without the need to feel incomplete. When we get to this peacefulness….we develop serenity.
There was so much more but if you ever get a chance to check him out, you should. After his lecture we had a great practice filled with laughs, F-bombs and smiles. I have been so grateful for my life. I even signed up for Art of Assisting here in April and I can’t wait. This is another teacher training program through Baron Baptiste. I am grateful and excited for my life to unfold.
