4/10/25 Live Session Recording (Module 10)

At 24:10 this asana in chair yoga is my daily fave for maintaining a strong and healthy lower back, sciatic nerve, and piriformis muscle. I follow it with a deep squat and prayer hands for 3 minutes (sometimes with a short meditation on my physical sensations). I loved this practice, thank you Jen.

So! Lots more feedback from peers which is great when I'm there and it's live, but in a recording I feel frustrated with opinion/feedback and honestly a bit envious that a great time was had by all and in a way, I missed out. But all good! I know my Self and my processes, and I know that when I express what I'm thinking and feeling, it goes. The great thing about a recording is that I can stop/start but it's a 2nd option if I've had to work on past 5pm on a super busy day. I now take Thursday afternoons off to counter that.

TAPAS and defining discipline. I go to self-discipline and discipline of practice. I know that I was disciplined in my childhood and at school and I rebelled. I definitely connect with 'good trouble'. My self-diagnosed ADHD and autistic traits help me see that I survived alcoholic, narcissistic, violent parents. I survived psychopathic behaviours in teachers at school in 1980's South Africa. Rebellion and belly fire and a personal discipline to survive made me a good soldier and Police Officer. TAPAS showed my that I was actually born a good person doing good things, not what I thought I was: a bad person 'trying' to do good things.

TAPAS in practice, philosophy, and meditation showed me empathy, love, and compassion for behaviours in others that harm people. TOTAL non-judgement and congruence. Watching the show 'Mayor of Kingstown' on Paramount is really showing me my capacity to relate. People are human and everyone deserves dignity and respect. TAPAS gets me up at 4am every day, it's how I'm conditioned anyway from 2 past professions. I was interested that a 4am rise was spoken about at length. You do you, and I'll do me. I'll stay 'in my lane'. It's all yoga! I love it. 

TAPAS, or 'burning enthusiasm' is from my experiences of nearly getting killed or killing or thinking about killing, that step right up to my life is about to end violently, and getting saved for whatever reason, and, afterwards, experiencing 'now I'm going to live'. Accepting that my mother had post-partum psychosis and tried to drown me when I was 3 years old means that TAPAS contributes to me being to love her and separate her behaviours. You can't blame anyone for anything if their mind is elsewhere. Love conquers all. Enthusiasm comes from that. Quite often, TAPAS manifested as not really feeling like I was alive until I was a quite close to getting killed. Then, chasing that to get a dopamine hit or satisfying my addiction to adrenaline, or the ADHD paradoxical traits of seeking conflict AND hyper-sensitivity to injustice. Exhausting, right? No. Counselling training over 17 years so far and meditation and knowledge of Self bring blessings. Self-harming with a crazy forward bend and willing my hamstrings to pop, and when they don't, moving away from self-harm to self-love and safe, ethical yoga practice. TAPAS doesn't care, it's just there, and I'm reminded that this course isn't just about yoga: it's about me, me in relation to you, and the Namaste prayer that we are all One when we all rest in love, light, peace, and joy. 

I suppose I'm talking about access to Samadhi: enlightenment or bliss. TAPAS leads to that. Sartori in Zen Buddhism: waking up and understanding. I'm really caught by how TAPAS leads me to these thoughts and feelings. The Yamas and Niyamas literally blend my life and my attitude to myself, my life, and love toward others without even trying. Do you know what I learned this week? That the first ancient original Yoga was meditation and philosophy ONLY - the yoga of joining of the mind, the body, and the spirit. No poses or asana's. 

Loved Jen's melodic, 'Hurray for Tapas!'. That warmed my heart.

So, TAPAS is fire, it's discipline, it's yoga, it's 'I'm okay and you're okay'. It's a bubble bath and it's a coffee and it's a walk on the beach. It's cool.

Thank you!! I love that I have this opportunity to learn and grow and be with you 😍 See you tomorrow!

Hi Jen & Friends - so sad to have missed this session! I was out sick and wanted to join but was in and out of napping and wanted to be mentally present when engaging with the material! 

I really appreciated the conversation after the movement breakout rooms were done because it was really encouraging to me how folks were working through their nerves and being vulnerable in starting to practice facilitating. I feel all those nerves and have been trying to push through those to just allow myself to start taking it one step at a time in terms of practicing facilitating and just speaking the words!

In the Tapas discussion - I really liked the interpretation of the fire and the idea of leaving behind what doesn't serve you anymore, even if it once did. Since leaving graduate school, I have really struggled with the version of myself that was on this very particular, niche path. Everything is sort of set up for you on that path, and I was someone who didn't really fit into the mold of the perfect graduate student who walked in a straight line down that path. But when I got into grad school I thought, ok, maybe I am someone who can fit into the mold in a sense. But now since leaving that program, I've had to face the reality of leaving behind a previous version of myself and what I thought was my identity to build something new. I guess I had never really thought of this as discipline before, because it was something forced upon me in a sense - but now within this context, it feels like I have the power to define my path moving forward. 

So thanks for this, as the phoenix rising or fire analogy really helped me understand discipline as more of a giving back to self rather than a taking away from self (as it may be framed in youth or when you get in trouble). Why is that? That being "disciplined" as a kid meant you were in trouble, but if someone calls themselves "disciplined" than that is a good thing as an adult? 

The Movement: It was easier for me highlight the transitions of sequencing and match the corresponding yoga limb, based off previous modules. With the little footnotes it is easier to not get ahead of myself. I agree with Kari, the lose of time is real LOL! The standing forward fold for the hip hinge language got me I am not sure if it’s like going into chair pose and bending forward or standing up and bending forward with a straight spine? I will have to explore more what bending from the waist and hip hinging is. For me I changed the words “relax” to “let it go”whatever it is because I do remember first starting poses non of them were relaxing, they all made me feel like the tin man I was disappointed at my body for not doing what it assumed it could do. I enjoyed playing around with the seated figure four stretch (On my elbows and lying down or just supporting the leg on the mat with a block) while keeping saucha in mind and then played around with some of the yoga nidra’s from the website in the module, I really like the one for children (blowing up a balloon). I find myself waking up in the middle of the night sequencing these yoga flows and I just laugh because sometimes I am tired and the only flows i sequence are ones where no one even stand up ( just planks, side planks, bird dog, squats etc. Even a western theme with these cactus arms, LOL! My brain loves this stuff. I did think about poster board for cueing so i don’t forget but, i had to hold up and remember life isn’t a script, just go with it. 

Tapas, I have had some work disciplining myself, especially my thoughts but, this invited me to look at disciplining in other ways like self forgiveness and do I give space for myself to practice self forgiveness? I am still exploring ways I can work on this one,

When it comes to defining discipline through experiences I can see why I struggled in the past to have respect for authorities figures, especially my parents. It feels like double standards and abusive of power by asking things of me when they don’t have the same ideals for themselves and think they are above it. But also the pressures placed to mask their wrong by overpowering me as a child/teen. Even more so no I pay close attention to the way people talk and the words they use. Mainly, how people talk just to talk but, have no true intention or life behind their words. When others don’t take themselves, their words seriously I don’t invest my time in conversation with people like this.Especially those who are so quick to change their words and opinions like chameleons. Where is the authenticity of values? 

The question who nourishes/replenishes/supports me? This Community. 

Hello, I attended most of the live session, I came in late so did not have the opportunity to practice with the group but I did join the groups and participate in the movement and stayed for the discussion on tapas. For the sequence, I enjoyed this flow, I think that this could be a helpful flow for a beginning group because there are a lot of ways to modify and make it accessible for different abilities and it might give a facilitator a good understanding of people's comfort levels with movement. I also liked the them of grounding and I can see how the different postures support feeling connected with the earth and utilizing attention/concentration as well as the breath to support regulation like chair/warrior poses and then seated poses as well. 

It was great to have discipline framed in the way that it was, I feel like when I hear this word it often brings up negative connotations and I think that when I look at how I have used discipline in my life it's been helpful to focus and prioritize the things that are important to me that I want to center in my life. For me personally when I have incorporated more discipline in my life it allowed me to place an emphasis on what my values are and how I want to use my time because I have the very human tendency to get off track and not use my time wisely so having some gentle discipline has been good for me, gentle being key so that when I inevitably get off track and I can remind myself of what is important and my values/goals. 

YTT Module 10

Great practice to start class.

I appreciated Drew asking the question about calling out the names of the poses and if that is triggering.  It is nice that you, Jen, have created a space for the cohort to feel their own freedom and space to teach as feels natural to each of us. Since we are the first cohort to have templates, it is nice to have the freedom to use or not use.

TAPAS is your discipline, and using what really works for us.

What is discipline to you?  Can be both restrictive and a way to grow by closing off doors. What if discipline means sustainable self-care or even forgiveness? Tapas is often seen as fire.  Maybe it means burning down wrong truths.   Tapas discipline is more the discipline of listening to yourself.  Are rest and reset a part of our discipline?  Self-care, relationships, work, activities, projects, support, and choosing sustainability.  Building your tapas team.  Self-support and self-care.  How do we commit to that?  Learning? Saying No? Saying Yes?  It is different for everyone.  We get to choose what is right just for us. 

I love playing, so I'm looking forward to this week’s mindfulness activity! 

Good morning January 2025 PYP Cohort!  Saturday morning and I really enjoyed Terry class to start out with to get moving.  I too really appreciate the templates as a catalyst to design a sequencing that speaks to me as a facilitator...it's great to have guidance but also to be able to allow creativity from my True Self to shine through.  It feels like this sequencing is integrating many of the themes that we have been discussing in the course.  Tapas is really resonating with me, especially the slide that stated "What is self-discipline meant Sustainable Self-Care and Self Forgiveness?".  That feels like essence of a healing-centered practice....instead of feeling like I am beating up on myself or constantly nagging on why I "should" be dong something, this has shifted my perspective on my "excess of multi-tasking and business" to one of simply asking myself to take perspective on what is serving me well, what is serving me less or potentially harmful, how might I think about organizing these aspects of my Life where they support my Self-Care?  I actually printed out Slide 8 and put it on my refrigerator so that I could ask myself these questions and take time to discern on what my True Self is telling me and allow that to shine through in my Life Energy.  I also want to say that I really appreciated the guidance on the 1/2 practice and an example of the number of minutes per sequence phase, this was actually something that I had been thinking about so this was perfect.  This seemed to be a shorter recording (2 hours vs. 3) so my reflection here is a bit shorter but I am loving how we seem to be shifting more into the movement and sequencing now but bringing and integrating all of the philosophy, social justice discussions and each on of ourselves into the practice.  I just really love this approach and this course.  As always, MUCH Gratitude to Jen and everyone here.  Namaste!