I felt an urge to explain a little further how I got to the decision to stop teaching yoga; and it’s all down to The Three P’s….
Because I regularly go into retreat I gain:
PERSPECTIVE
…and it’s only when we remove ourselves from our ‘normal’ environment that we can achieve this first ‘P’.
You see your life differently, and with that physical ‘outer’ space away from your normality quite often it’s like looking in with new eyes.
There’s no coincidence that I own a retreat centre and facilitate the offering of this physical space to hundreds of people every year!
And as we realise our PERSPECTIVE of experiences in our outer world, we must also look inward: why do we believe certain aspects of ourselves are fixed, when all phenomena is constantly changing.
Can we adapt to this change?
Why do we do, say, and think what we do? It is all down to our:
PERCEPTION
…of where we fit in the world.
Meditation allows us to stop ‘doing’ and just sit with what is. We watch our thoughts, judgments and desires as they continually pass through our mind. In the beginning we get seduced by the juicy thoughts that demand our attention, but slowly we learn to accept and allow the space that sits in between us and our thoughts: because we are NOT our thoughts.
And when we meditate we are creating ‘inner’ space and this connects us to our PERCEPTION of things and gives us an awareness of who we really are.
Then an inner confidence grows. As we connect more and more to our soft spot/source/essence, we realise who we really are and the external façade that we show to the world starts to blend more and more: external experience becoming in tune with internal truth.
This is then when we must honour our deep authentic voice by living our whole lives congruently and:
PRIORITISING
…our truth in our relationships, work, family life etc…
This then becomes urgent: how can we feel one way and speak/act in an opposing manner?
As I find more work/life balance I realise that I must PRIORITISE my time like never before. What is important to me? What MUST I do and what can fall away? Time is so precious; for play; for work; for practice; for family. There is SO MUCH to do everyday!
My 2015 meditation practice has given me so much clarity; I’ve never sat for so long on my cushion as I have over the last 12 months, and it has transformed me.
Meditation changes your brain, and with so many hours on my cushion I couldn’t stay the same. And if you start a meditation practice TODAY then you begin this transformation too….
With this heightened PERSPECTIVE has come a new PERCEPTION which has led me to new PRIORITIES. And teaching a 90 minute yoga class just isn’t the best use of my time any longer. Anyone who has attended my classes will tell you that I spend just as much time talking life philosophy as I do muscles, tendons and alignment, and to be completely honest with you it’s the philosophy that I WANT to talk to you about!
It feeds me and in turn feeds you, and this is why I must step back from the traditional yoga class to focus my time and energy on where I am headed and where my heart is.
It’s funny the first email I got after my last blog (Bye Bye Old Life) was from a past Inner Guidance guest who is about to become a yoga teacher. And in that instant I saw that by me stepping away, space was instantly created for someone else to take that platform.
Beautiful.
At Inner Guidance I am handing my classes over to other yoga teachers and I still love to practice it myself; in my personal time though, not to teach it.
And as soon as I have made this decision a new class format is forming in my mind!! Watch this space!!
The Old Three P’s:
15 years ago when I lived in Thailand a friend used to give me regular tarot card readings, and it was she that first used the phrase ‘The Three P’s’.
But the three P’s that she was referring to were not the ones I have talked about here; life was very different for me back then with my life dogged by my old Three P’s:
Patience
Perseverance
Potential
And as I write these 3 words they take me back to that time, and I feel so sad for the old Jo who was struggling so much. I knew I wanted to be sober, in love, happy, abundant and healthy but I didn’t know how to gift myself these qualities. And the tarot sessions with Sharon were so frustrating because I wanted to shout at her,
“They are the wrong cards! It’s not fair! I don’t want all this struggle!”
But deep down I absolutely knew that they were correct, that it was not yet my time, I had so much more to work out and inner work to complete (plus I had to stop taking so many drugs!).
So much has changed, I have evolved, and as my sweet little business that I set up in Thailand is set to celebrate it’s 15th birthday in a few months, I really KNOW that now is my time; every single cell in my body is ready; all resistance gone; fears evaporated; doubt non-existent; and the circle is complete.
Guess which card I keep pulling out of the deck that I use daily??…..
WHOLENESS
And there is no word that better describes how I feel.
I have arrived
I am enough
NOthing is missing (I typed that out wrong, went to change it, and decided it looked cool misspelt!)
WHOLENESS
And it is this energy of wholeness that I share with you now.
It is this wholeness that gives me the confidence to walk away from all that I’ve been the last 15 years.
Wholeness lives in my head, my heart, my soul.
And I invite you to discover how you too can get whole, clear, confident, healthy and happier than you’ve ever been before.
I am going into retreat tomorrow.
Ten days to write my book on HOW I got whole.
I’m writing it for YOU.
….so that we can all be free xx
Let me know what you think, but I’ll be responding to emails on my return week commencing 5th October. Have a great 10 days everyone, and see you on the other side!!
And how cool would it be to give YOUrself the gift of a reTREAT? Why not check out the upcoming retreats at Inner Guidance below, and maybe just maybe see you very very soon xx
Copyright: Jo De Rosa September 2015