Thank you to our inspirational April Travel Rep, Sacha Bryce for sharing this story.
I am in Ubud, Bali & I am a yoga teacher.
That might not be the first time you’ve heard those two go together…
Bali & Yoga starting to sound like peanut butter & jelly!
I have to share that I felt an unexpected feeling of inadequacy drape over me after about 24 hours of being in Ubud – in the heart of the yoga scene.
The endless selection of mala beads, yoga pants and glowing faces left me with a feeling that I wasn’t quite enough the way I am.
It can be easy to forget who we really are and get caught in listening to thoughts, judgments and comparisons – isolating ourselves from the world around us.
Yoga is not about looking peaceful or having thin legs in tight fancy pants.
None of this being bad or negative but entirely neutral forms– not to be mistaken with the meaning of what yoga offers.
Yoga is the practice of coming back into connection with what we all ALWAYS have within us.
“Peace comes from within- do not seek it without” – Buddha
Everyone’s path is different and will look different – but it is important to remember that we’re all going towards the same thing.
I listened to the founder of the Yoga Barn speak this week amongst a large group of yoga students. He shared that people commonly ask him if he “does yoga”- he said he responds with a smile, a laugh and then walks away.
No he does not attend the asana classes but he said he feels he is always doing “his yoga”- it is just not in the form of downward dog.
As I was listening to him speak I couldn’t help but think how I had the desire to start something as wonderful as him and how I should be making these larger steps towards change. The ego has this quick tendency to want to compare with others. I realized how problematic it would be if everyone in that room, including myself had opened a Yoga Barn!
We’re not all meant to be doing the same things and that is very simple and obvious- but easy to forget.
The seeking for the external forms – whether it is money, beauty or things will inevitably lead to an internal feeling of lacking that can never be filled.
Practice yoga by remembering who you are. Yoga is within.
Enough. You are more than enough exactly as you are (wherever you are) in each moment.
Sacha is a Yoga Trade Travel Representative – living nomadically all over the globe as a student and teacher of yoga. She is passionate about sharing the benefits of yoga as a way of living in connection with oneself and the living world around us.
