9/19/24 Live Session Recording

i was really appreciative of the question around tapping. I never considered  that could be activating and i am so grateful to be witness the that discussion.

When it come to Svadhyaya self study the question came up as to how do you care for those you don't agree with. Historically for African American we have had to. We had no choice. I think of African  Women Slaves who were forced to breast feed  their captures children instead of their own as those same captures kidnapped and trafficked her children. Or even on a less horrific level a black women working in a job where she is undervalued and disrespected day after day.I

I think we have to turn a part of ourselves off just to survive. I think that self study can be seen as futile by the oppressed. I could be maddening to know who you are and what you want and not be able to express it.  So you just put your head down and survive.

I like the new format for planning a sequence. 

Thank you for the session!! First time I was not able to attend live and I really missed our time together.  I love the reflections about PLAY and how important it is. I bring it very often to me day to day otherwise I feel I get crazy in a crazy world with so much violence, injustice etc. So Play helps me balance and ground and still be very grateful for life. The movement practice gave me a lot of ideas about my own classes. Simple but very grounded and inviting for some movement and connection with the body. I love the conversation about self-massage or tapping, I love to share those kind of tools so feels good to talk about it.

In relationship to Self-Study i love the reference "ones own reading" the path of our own self study and connection to ourselves and yoga. I think thats the key of this human journey and the class its an invitation time and time for others to connect with themselves. Been radical honest with ourselves. Is not easy but its a very rich path, its deep and beautiful too. Thank you for this sharing, I enjoying the conversation and brought me to very special places. To keep in this path... I question why I choose what I choose? From what place and again and again been very honest with myself. From what I eat, I watch, I do, I wear, the way I relate. Thank you!!!! 

Thank you for the beginning session and emphasizing less is more! Being new to the practice and thinking about facilitating the postures is overwhelming and I need to keep reminding myself that I am not expected, nor should I expect participants, to be advanced with these movements. I also enjoyed the group layout to workshop a sequence, really beneficial as I haven't been able to join the live sessions. But even watching it, I was able to workshop my own ideas of what was being offered during the session. I think all of what was offered today ties in nicely together, because I have realized that I will have to continue to learn and study yoga once this training is over to continue building on my practice. For me, self-study is difficult because there are so many things I want to learn about and I get really excited and immerse myself in it for a little bit. Then I get overwhelmed and feel like there aren't enough hours in the day for things I enjoy, so then I get burnt out and stop learning so I can rest. Then the cycle repeats. Also, the things I want to learn about are constantly changing and sometimes it is difficult to choose where to put your attention to. In a world where there is so much to be learned and so many adventures to be had, it makes me sad we have created a society that encourages the opposite. 

Svadhyaya has been very impactful in the past few years as I began reading books that supported me in learning about myself and opening my mind to new ways of seeing the world. I have benefited very much from journaling and processing things in this way instead. Over time my journaling expanded into writing "love letters" to myself, cultivating a practice of expressing gratitude, and writing poetry. Reading and journaling consistently has always been really difficult for me because of my ADHD, and even when I do sit down to read it often involves a lot of mind-wandering and re-reading. So with reading as a self-study, I also have to practice appreciating the truth of my brain in those moments and be compassionate. Sometimes even certain fonts and sizes of the text impacts how likely I am to be able to focus on the reading which is so interesting for me to observe. Nevertheless, I love learning from my books and spend lots of time reading no matter how much my mind is wandering and spend lots of time in bookstores. I love the experience of reading a physical book and writing all over the margins rather than reading online. For me, Svadhyaya can also be found in conversation, sometimes others can help us recognize things in ourselves and in that way it could feel like a small moment of self-study. Taking a yoga class with teachers that have a lot of dharma talking can be an experience of Svadhyaya because it can also be a small moment of self-study. I also think the experience of having something stir sadness or anger in me is also an opportunity for self-study because as I reflect, I can learn a bit more about myself. Even moments after something triggers a trauma response in me can help me learn more about my mind and body. Svadhyaya can be found in many places beyond books.