The past several months have been a whirlwind of activity for me. The 40 Days to Personal Revolution wrapped up and within the same week I started teaching (along with other great teachers) Yoga One's 200 hour Yoga of Thriving Teacher Training. In between weekends spent teaching regular yoga classes and visiting family I've managed to get to the beach, the mountains, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Asheville, drumStrong, slacklining, rollerderby(ing), and enjoying life to it's fullest. 

Despite the busyness, I've not been inspired to post much to the blog. Reading some other blogs, I came across a question though that got me wondering, if I could only say ONE thing here today, what would it be?

From Trent:

Today is really the only day that matters. You can’t make your past self do anything. You can’t make your future self do anything, either. Your only freedom of choice is right now, and thus today is your one chance to paint your masterpiece.

So today, I want to say THANK YOU!

Thank you to all of my friends and family for being exactly who you are. I wouldn't be who I am without you being there for me in the exact way you were.

Thank you to my workplace, Yoga One, and to all of the teachers and staff that make it the most amazing place to be.

Thank you to the students who continue to show up and shine for themselves and in doing so keep me employed in a career that I could never have dreamed up on my own.

Thank you to the technology that allows me to stay in touch with everyone in my life.

Thank you to friends near and far, and those near who are about to be far (and thank you in advance for letting me crash on your couch when I visit far). 

Thank you Thank you thank you thank you!

I went through the checkout line at Healthy Home Market today and the cashier asked for a closer look at my wrist tattoo. I had it done right after my Level 2 teacher training with Baron Baptiste. It was the theme for the week, and now that it's permanently etched into my skin, the theme of my life: Defy the Lie.

She was taken aback because she was having a conversation with another customer about tellin the truth versus telling lies and asked me if there were every any exceptions or circumstances in which telling a lie was better than telling the truth. My immediate response was no, no good effect can come from lying. I could see the wheels in her heard turning and as I sat down for a quick lunch, she sat beside me with some more questions.

"Okay, so my friend really wants to go on American Idol but she can't sing. Do I tell her?" she asked.

I had to think about it for a minute until I figured out what sue was really asking me. Is it okay to hurt someone's feelings with the truth, or should feelings be spared with a little lie? I remembered back to when I was first learning about the yamas and niyamas. The first code of conduct that yoga teaches is ahimsa, mostly translated as non-harming. Second is truth. At a discourse with Blair Lewis, he said that they are taught in that order specifically so that we will put non-harming before the truth. His idea is that we tell the truth always, but we should always, "grease our words with love."

The cashier seemed a little lighter at this prospect, so I felt we could take it one step farther. I reminder her that ultimately love is truth, and that if she's torn between telling a lie or telling the truth, that there is probably some deeper fear or problem underpinning the situation.

This is the everyday work of a yogi. To live is to bump up against tough choices where we might lose something or someone. The practice though, is to sit with these situations long enough for the truth to become apparent. All events in life can be boiled down to a choice between love and fear. It is our work to not leave any situation until we can choose love and truth and be behind that decision fully.

*Excuse any typos or formatting issues. This post was composed entirely on an iPhone.

A few years ago some fellow yoga teachers in training and I decided to host weekly meet ups to teach our selves the art of Acroyoga. It was an amazing and sometimes bruise filled summer. We had the official Acroyoga Flight Manual, lots of videos and even found a couple of workshops to attend. By the end of the summer we were comfortable flying, stacking and spinning each other in the air in a combination of yoga, massage and dance. 

Fellow yogi & dancer Tai and I have decided to bring back the flying fun in an intro to partner yoga playshop. I emphasize play because we work enough as it is, and this is going to be fun! It's for all levels and we don't expect anyone to know anything. Actually, it's much easier to teach people who don't know anything. You don't even have to have a partner, but you get a discount when two or more people sign up together. We'll be working in threes for the acrobatics (a base, a flyer and a spotter) and twos for the partner asana. 

To sign up, call Yoga One (704.332.9911) or click here!

Time to dust off the mighty written word, or typed word, as it is, and tell you about my post holiday Vipassana meditation course. After Christmas, I took refuge with about 60 other people in an old (as in no heat and bad plumbing) Catholic summer camp to learn the teaching of Gotama the Buddha. It's a technique dating back around 2500 years and it is still being taught all over the world as a remedy for all ills.

From the website: www.dhamma.org

Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are, is one of India's most ancient techniques of meditation. It was rediscovered by Gotama Buddha more than 2500 years ago and was taught by him as a universal remedy for universal ills, i.e., an Art Of Living.

This non-sectarian technique aims for the total eradication of mental impurities and the resultant highest happiness of full liberation. Healing, not merely the curing of diseases, but the essential healing of human suffering, is its purpose.

If you read nothing more about my experience there, know this-- it was the most transformative experience of my life! Coming from someone who makes it his business to experience and teach transformation, I do not say those words lightly. I've been through many yoga trainings, even taught them, but nothing has allowed me to go so deep into my own being as the 10 day vipassana course.

The Experience

Just signing up for the program is a test of mental preparedness. After deciding that I wanted to do this for ten days, I had to fill out a questionnaire the plumbed the histories of my mental health and family life. Each step of the way is met with the recurring question Do you really want to meditate for 10 days? and Can you stay the entire length of the program?

The first night there, I took the vows of a monk, which are not really all that hard, especially the big ones like I will not kill anyone or anything or  I will not steal. It is slightly more difficult to take the vow of noble silence. For the duration of the course, I was to cultivate the sense that I was working alone, meditating in seclusion. Not talking to anyone was easy, but the vow extends to all forms of communication, including eye contact. I also adopted the schedule of a monk, which involves waking at 4am and meditating for 1-2 hour blocks until 9pm. Each day was about 11 hours total sitting in meditation.

Aren't there alligators in Florida?

The predominant thought for the first three days was Dear God, Please let a rabid alligator bite my leg so I can go home! I formulated plan after plan for escape the first few days. Every time I sat to meditate, either alone or with the group, I felt the urgent need to be doing something somewhere else. Or I would gain some amazing insight on some project I was working on back home and want to act on it. Since writing and reading materials were contraband, my only option was to continue meditating and hope that the thoughts would subside (and maybe that I would remember the good ideas in the New Year).

It got easier as the days went by. They blended together into a sludgy blur, as if time decided it really didn't have anywhere to be and could just take a little rest before getting on. My body was wracked with the most physical sensation I have ever experienced, even at the Baron bootcamps. After day three though, it just stopped. I could sit without pain for one or two hours. Around day six, I stopped worrying that zombie reindeer would ambush the camp and I realized that when I sit still, the mind keeps churning up thoughts and I usually miss out on the benefits of being silent.

There is no spoon.

The best stuff doesn't really show up until day eight or so, and I know now why they ask you to commit to the whole course. It takes nothing less that a total commitment to the process to reap the benefits or vipassana. The technique is simple, but not always easy. To sit and be still, on the inside as well as the outside takes a strong determination. The reward for such actions is clarity. I'm not talking about the clarity that comes with a good nights sleep or a cup of coffee, I mean the "this is the matrix and no, there really isn't a spoon" types clarity. Every bad sensation that arises, every negative (or positive) emotion that comes up and into the awareness has a cause--and I could see it. It was like having a magic xray machine into my own being. Thoughts would happen and I would see how they actually changed my body, either by pulling some muscles tighter here, say across the chest, or by releasing some new hormone into my bloodstream making me feel giddy and light.

Each emotional event disintegrated into all of its constituent parts. There was cause, action, reaction, new event, new cause, new reaction. Like the sense of time that slowed, each biological process revealed itself to me like stop-motion movie of how my mind was working. Even more exciting was that there were no blind spots. Everything I looked at came apart and revealed its history to me. It was easy to see the truth that we create the reality we see. What's hard is keeping  that awareness open and flowing while moving through life and making a living. Coming from 11 hours of meditation a day to maybe 1/2 an hour to an hour means that a lot more thoughts are churning throughout the day, clouding up that pristine sight that made everything so simple and clear.

The memory of all of that clarity is preserved, however, and it serves as a reminder that seeing things clearly is possible and more and more possible every time I sit and be still. 

Check out the not-so-silent ride home!