7/2/24 Live Session Recording

The information provided on the 8 limbs and the relationship between internal reflective work, physical movement and learning to ‘listen to self’, and the idea of meditation as single focused flow doing what fills your cup. I dig that! Learning about the 8 limbs also is another reminder that I have work to do! I unfortunately can be pretty mean to myself sometimes with negative self talk and can be a big jerk to myself sometimes. It still happens but I am able to catch myself doing it and reframe. I think contemplating the Ahimsa and “what can I do to reduce harm in my thoughts”  as well as Asteya, that negative self talk “steals” from my true authentic and capable self.

I also had the great privilege of attending a very specialized special education K-12th grade school in NYC when I was a child. The school specialized in individualized learning, providing therapeutic support, and was very focused on creative arts and the humanities. I have noticed from working in the school system that many schools are not equipped and fall short of supporting children with learning disabilities, or who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, or live in homes where a lot of conflict exists.  I’ve seen a lot of these kids receive limited support that are homogenized instead of individualized. Or the school to prison pipeline due to horrendous zero tolerance policies instead of leading with compassion, support, and understanding. Limited support, putting people into boxes, and zero tolerance that leads to SPP are examples of policies that do great harm and steal from people instead of bolstering supports and lifting up peoples potential. 

I think that it is important to listen to what your body is telling you. When it doesn't feel right and something like our intuition is telling us that we should pay attention to that. Meditation is a practice I use to center myself and clear my mind to focus on what my body is telling me at the moment. I didn't realize that many of these 8 limps of yoga are being practiced by myself daily. I would like to work on the posture part so I can help others who deal with any pain or discomfort in the body that affect them. I believe that practicing and learning these can help myself with taking care of self and when I feel like I am ready to help others with this it will be so fulfilling. 

I felt many emotions and sensations throughout my body while watching the recording - specially when speaking about harm. Although I spend a lot of time in deep conversations and am involved in social-justice work, my body reacted to the conversation about inequality and the harm humans induce on each other with pain in my throat and chest. As a white and straight woman, I realized that my first memories of inequality is a direct representation of my privilege in our society.

In the discussion about the 8 limbs, I reflected on my personal experience. 

Ahimsa - non harm: How am I harming myself with my negative thought patterns I spiral in?

Satya - truth & Asteya - non-stealing: How has my personal truth been disrupted and have I disrupted others' truth? I reflected on a previous relationship where I was gaslit and manipulated. My own truth became confusing and distorted and I remember feeling like my own words were stolen. I have spent years processing that experience and creating boundaries to not have that happen again. 

Aparigraha - non-attachment: attachment immediately makes me think of "attachment styles" such as insecure-attachment and avoidant-attachment. The conversation spoke of other forms of attachment such as to the physical world and materialism, people, our memories etc. In my experience, I am attached to my past, specifically to memories of my sister who passed away. This brings up emotion because I know that attaching too hard to the past causes me pain, but I don't want to let go, which also brings me pain. I guess its all a balance.

Thank you to all who spoke in the session, and I am excited to make more connections in this beautiful cohort. 

With gratitude,

Kay 

Greetings community! Wow, this session was packed full with amazing insights, knowledge and so much wisdom. I just finished the recording and am definitely processing as I type. For the purposes of sharing here, I will say I highlighted three stand out things.

The first was around non-attachment (I think I literally took a deep exhale after listening to this part)! Learning to practice non-attachment has been HARD. I first became aware of this concept a few years ago because of a Pilates class. I think at first, I practiced and experienced it on such a surface level. As the years have passed and my healing has deepened, I have learned to embody this concept in a more profound way, or maybe I have just experienced more significant life experiences since my first introduction to it. Albeit, this has been the hardest thing I have learned, continue to learn and, continue to grapple with. That being said, some of the most beautiful or amazing moments, clarity, things have come when I practiced letting go. For me, I think I rely on the attachment to the thing as a coping strategy, almost like I need the attachment to confirm or validate a belief of self that I  may not have in my reality. Anyways, I sense tension, friction and quite literal internal chaos when I attach to something outside of myself, or when I hold on and grip. Familiarizing myself with these sensations has allowed me to recognize this quicker and adjust. I dont know about you all, but when I attach to something outside of me, I tend to lose sight of myself and my truth.  

The next thing I highlighted was the "checklist" of the Yamas that Jen talked about! I am currently navigating some tough decisions in my life and find myself second guessing, lacking clarity or misleading myself to believe I dont know what is right for me. I love tangible supports and this is definitely one of them!! As Jen mentioned in the recording, trauma can cause self doubt or impact our relationship with our intuition and gut. Thats me! Over the last few years I have slowly enhanced my relationship with my intuition, and developed a sense of greater trust with self. But, when I am overwhelmed or my nervous system gets flooded, all bets are off and I am back in my trauma unable to trust myself. Again, why I love tangible supports, so thank you!

Last but not least - what Jen said "addiction to privilege" caught my ears. Im still sitting with this, but what a great observation. I have never thought of privilege in this sense, always knew people were afraid to share power and feared using their privilege to help support and fight for equality, justice for others. But to hear the concept of addiction paired with this, painted a new light of understanding. So thanks Jen! 

So far, I have walked away from every interaction with this course feeling grounded, centered, inspired - all reinforcing that I DID make the right call to engage with PYP YTT. What a great feeling! 

growing in a low socioeconomic environment,I've learned from my mom to utilize every moment and take every opportunity presented to make it count and not waste it.  I have a type A personality always on the go. Trying to fill my every moment. I also learned about sacrificing self and helping others was highly shown and taught. I just recently went on vacation and usually on vacation I schedule every moment. This time. I gave myself permission to be in the moment and not feel guilty of missing anything. I took the time to do nothing and felt great. I have been realizing the last year or so that I haven't not had the balance. In this class. I'm realizing that I have been stealing from myself. Not giving myself time for care. Have been focusing on helping others that I've have forgotten about myself. I am important and trying to find moderation. Letting go of unrealistic expectation. I can't be everything to everyone is important in my yoga journey.

Wow, I really enjoyed watching this session and hearing from folks' takeaways. The tree graphic was really helpful for me to understand the 8 limbs of yoga and the role of yamas, niyamas, and more in supporting the next phase. I felt like a lot of the guidances that come from yamas and niyamas are aspects of my life that i have been focusing on and logic that i found beneficial. The yama of satya is one that I'm very curious about lately - how can i continue to trust my truth, focusing on it clearly, and clearly see how to act accordingly to practice ahima and asteya of the self and wider humanity?  I echo the sentiment that these limbs are so powerful because it's meant to apply differently to each person's journey in the way that serves them best. I appreciate seeing yoga as a multipronged practice that evolves.

I appreciated the participants' comments about as a faciliator, it's not about necessarily leading or telling folks how to heal but rather to provide some tools that they may be able to use to that end. It's a comment that stuck with me and will reflect on.

I really appreciate the reminder that immersing ourselves in self-healing is for the collective human community. Although the 8 limbs of yoga can be framed as an individual healing path, we do not exist on our own in this world – everything we do impacts the people around us. I also appreciate the reminder of that there can be levels of trauma that prevent certain pathways to exist in the context of standing up for groups and fighting for a more just world. I see this very prevalently in our world. It is hard to grapple with hearing the perspectives of people who are not yet able to have compassion for others' suffering or the suffering of the world, but it is an opportunity to practice compassion – I have to remind myself that perhaps if I grew up in the exact same way as the person I disagree with, I might think like they do too. At the same time, there is a dire urgency for our world to come together – to put down the weapons, uplift each other, revoke power from those who abuse it, and nurture our planet. I also appreciate the reminder that trauma is anything that disrupts our natural nervous system because for a while I got caught up in judging myself for my traumas being so impactful on me because I thought they weren't "big enough" to be as big of an issue as they were, even after I was diagnosed with ptsd.