This moment in some ways feels like the end of the semester and we’re headed into the summer break. I’ve taught my last class and cleaned the studio as we’ve just completed 17 weeks of live online Zoom classes and it’s time for me to take a respite and recharge. Quarantining, social unrest, a challenging economy, and a bunch of uncertainty has offered up a plethora of topics on which to focus over these past four months. The time is ripe for “doing our work” and it feels like we’ve all undertaken an extended course of study.
Yet, I know that many students feel stranded when their teacher isn’t in front of them. I’ve had experiences, thankfully not that many, where I was subbing a class for another instructor, and upon entering the room their regular students would roll their eyes at the “sub” with even a couple of people leaving before I even began. We get attached to our teachers and our routine. And I am here to reassure you that if you’ve been coming to the mat with some level of regularity, all of the times you’ve been live with your teacher, have been embedded in your being, and now is the time to trust all that you know. An embodied practice is your toolbox. Think of every time you’ve been in savasana, the final relaxation pose of a class, and know that it’s during this refractory period that what you have just undertaken is now finding its home within you.
The complementary part of this week’s thought is “the tree”. Recently, on a call with one of my best friends in Australia, she said I have been like a tree over the past four months as people have come to lean on me. Then she asked, “How are you feeding your tree?” Oooooh! I thought that was a rich question! I feed my tree by taking a good chunk of time off every year and look for someplace to put my feet in the ocean.
All of us are trees in some way – others may come to rely on us for support, some come under our shady canopy for refuge and solace, others admire how our branches are always searching for light and providing a playground for kids, birds, and other critters.
As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “For a tree to become tall it must grow tough roots among the rocks.” I thought this to be a most appropriate quote as these times have been hard, our soil being less than optimal and rockier than we could ever have anticipated. We need to know how to dig into our toolbox in order to nurture and nourish our own tree.
Self-care and recognizing what supports strong roots, solid trunks, and expansion takes a consistency of coming to our mat and asking the question, “What do I need to nourish me in this moment?” Over time, often years, we fill up our toolbox with a variety of skills, becoming deft at adapting the many practices to the present moment.
A couple of tips to stay connected to your practice when you’re on your own is to: Roll out your yoga mat and simply get on it. Trust that if you get quiet and listen, asking yourself what you need in the moment, an answer will arise. Second, stick with your routine. If you always practice 9 am on a Monday morning, continue to practice at 9 am on a Monday morning. Keep it as part of your weekly schedule and stick to it. Third, perhaps recruit a yoga buddy and practice online with them. You can support, socialize, and hold each other accountable for sticking with it.
Ultimately, my job is to teach you about yoga and how it fits into your life. It’s to open the doors to a deeper understanding of your own needs, to sharpen your inner listening skills, to support you in trusting your intuition, and to let you fly on your own. One image I have when trainees in a yoga teacher course are about to graduate is they are sitting on the edge of the nest and I have one foot at their backside, ready to give them a loving and gentle shove off the edge. They always seem to fly, some even soaring higher than anticipated.
It’s time for you to fly. Open your toolbox and love on your tree.
You are so worth it. You can do it. I believe in you.
