Fri 6/7-Sun 6/9
Native flute music wafts through the yoga studio. My students lay under blankets in savasana, their final resting pose. Some legs are spread wide to the corners of their mats, others are hips’ distance apart, arms are spread wide or resting close. I move from one mat to the next with scented oil and briefly massage all different shapes and sizes of feet. There is no judgment, we are just as we are.
Back on my own mat, I sit high on my folded blanket and pull out my quotations journal. Just being, not doing. Right here, right now. Buddha said, “The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.” Practicing yoga asanas is of the body, but it is the way to the heart — yoga means to yoke body, mind, and spirit. All of this I know. I read the quote, suggest the bodies lay on one side, and then come up into a seated position, eyes closed, hands at heart center. It is well. Namaste. And then I watch them honor me as I honor them.
I found my calling. I guide people through breathwork to calm the mind, I ask them to move their bodies in one-breath movements, moving up in the inhale, and down in the exhale. The spirit is awakened as the workings of the mind, monkey brain, dissipate. We become all spirit. We are one with God and each other.
For many years, before I became an instructor, I knew this. After more than 200 hours spent in learning Sanskrit, philosophy, anatomy, alignment, meditation and breathwork, I became a teacher. My daughter and I finished our yoga teacher certifications at the same time. In May of the following year, we led a Mother’s Day workshop like it was yoga boot camp, and people complained about the rigorous exercise. I was embarrassed then, and embarrassed still, that I had forgotten what I knew. Like a writer who enters an MFA program and leaves it writing in a less authentic way.
The role of a yoga teacher is to create a safe place where people can be themselves without judgment. It’s to watch and instruct on alignment and provide cues. It’s to notice whether a body relaxes, whether the breath is deep or shallow, and whether the face is relaxed. Always, always mindful, intuitive and compassionate. A changed in attitude, a change in the yoga mind.
The retreats my daughter and I now host are rooted in eight years of our own personal growth. During the weekend of June 7-9, 2024, we will help people find authentic yogic living. We will walk, meditate, journal, dance, laugh, create mandalas, and discuss the meaning of presence, mindfulness, authenticity, judgment, love, joy, abundance, and faith on the beautiful grounds of the Jesuit Retreat Center in Parma. And in the spaces between, we will practice the physical movements of yoga with yin, restorative, and vinyasa flow sessions.
We hope our participants will leave relaxed and restored and with a desire to live like a yogi as they go through life. We think we have found the perfect place of peace and harmony, spiritual tradition, and connection nature. We know we’ve gone back to our roots, with training that enhances without stripping us of who we are. In the process of being present ourselves, we coax our students to be present to their authentic selves. And to a calling, whatever that is for them.
Claudia Taller writes about a yoga state of mind in her book 30 Perfect Days, Finding Abundance in Ordinary Life, published by Igniting Possibilities Press. Find her at claudiajtaller.com/.
One Response to “Living Your Yoga by Claudia Taller”
cindy eging
Always love your articles!!