Lot's of Happys In May!
There are always so many things to celebrate and in which to find happiness. May this May be a happy time for you.
May you find happiness in the more pleasant weather.
May you find happiness in your work.
May you find happiness in your play.
May you find happiness in the hope that we will soon be connecting in person.
May you find happiness in knowing you have grown more resilient in the past year.
May you just be happy and have the causes of happiness.
Learning makes me happy and I am very happy to have spent this past year studying with my teacher, Cyndi Lee. I am getting ready for 8 days of intensive training focused on pedagogy - sharpening my craft of teaching yoga and meditation. It has been work to take myself out of my comfort zone and to trust my fellow classmates. Knowing that I was creating the causes and conditions for happiness, it was worth the time spent in vulnerable introspection and brave moves like letting go of what I thought I knew to try new things.
Cyndi has been teaching us to become more resilient and to look at what we do through the lens of sustainability. I believe I was doing that to some degree before, however, now that I am almost at the finish line with Cyndi's training, I feel like I picked up new means of being open and connected so I can be even more resilient and I can continue to evolve as a practitioner and teacher of yoga and meditation.
It's not easy to be clunky and new at something. It's not easy to do that in front of peers and students, but learning how to sit with discomfort and to learn is an important part of the survival of the species. Isn't it? I have been uncomfortable a lot, and have gained some insights into my own inner workings. I think we all do that when we slow down and start to wobble or be clunky in learning something new. Didn't we all learn some new things this past year?
I think it is good to welcome the wobble and the clunky. It's good to recognize our own humanity and to find happiness in the little things that indicate we are human. Can we find that today in the ordinary things around us? Can we find that in the breath we are in right now?
I taught my first in person session this past week. It was a commissioned meditation session for a local retirement community. Ironically, my first time back teaching in person was with a room full of strangers, yet there was something emotional and reverent in being there. I actually got choked up driving home afterward. I knew if it was a room full of y'all I would have been crying the whole time - overjoyed to see everyone in person again.
I am finishing up my studies with Cyndi in the next week - 8 days of intensive study and mandatory attendance, so I have had to cancel the morning live stream sessions for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week. The afternoon/evening Live Stream classes will be available as usual. I am offering suggestions for On Demand classes to take in their stead so you don't break your pattern of practicing with me. Please see the info graphics below. We will return to normal scheduling the following week.
I will complete all my required classes with Cyndi in June. With that end in mind, I will be on the look out for what is next. I hope that I will be able to find a reasonable space in which to teach a couple of group classes a week. Likely the classes will be one day class and one evening class based on current live stream class attendance. If Live Stream attendance picks up, I will consider more than 2 in person classes.
I watch the attendance of classes to make scheduling decisions. Unfortunately, the Yin Yoga session on Tuesday evenings is not drawing sufficient attendance to justify keeping on the schedule at this time and will be removed from the schedule in June. The Yin On Demand Channel is full of yin classes for you to partake in.
Congratulations to all who have been participating in the How To Build An Asthanga Practice series. We are completing our live check in sessions this Friday with Savasana. They now have the rest of the year to practice the skills, poses and sequences in the How To Ashtanga Portal. As I finish my training with Cyndi and figure out my next steps, I will be working on the development of a Meditation Portal, a Functional Yoga Portal and a portal for learning the best, most fun parts of Second Series Ashtanga because we all need more back bending in our lives! Stay tuned. If you have opinions on any of these portals or ideas for other portals, lay it on me. I'm all ears.
If you are still considering practicing in the How To Build An Ashtanga Practice portal, what are you waiting for? All the sessions are in there for you to access anytime for one year. It's a great resource and tutorial portal to learn and sustain a personal yoga practice and gives you insight into how and what you are doing on your mat in any of the other On Demand or Live Stream classes. Questions? Hit me with them. I love talking about this program. I am getting lovely testimonials from the attendees. It makes me so happy as a teacher to see students finding themselves in the practice and to see how consistency in the practice creates progress!
I send out best wishes for a Happy Mother's Day - whether or not you are a mother, you have one, and you may be providing mothering energy to others, you may be mother to furry beings and you may be a mother in tending to the good of the earth and sustainability.
I wish happy congratulations to anyone graduating this month too.
May ALL beings have happiness and the causes of happiness
May ALL beings have free from suffering and the causes of suffering
May ALL beings never be parted from freedom's true joy
May ALL beings dwell in equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.
Wishing you peace and love. My deepest gratitude for our practice together,
Andrea
Andrea Dyer
mind|body|fitness yoga
www.mindbodyfitnessyoga.com
Over 275 classes on demand | 10 live classes weekly on Zoom