What Makes Me a CRAPPY Yoga Teacher
Sutra 1.4: At other times, the self appears to assume the form of the mental modification
How many times per day do you use the “I am” statement…. we literally “I am” ourselves through the entire day, identifying with WHATEVER it is we FEEL in that exact moment….our daily internal AND external dialogue goes something like: “I am hungry, I am full, I am stressed, I am tired, I am rested, I am hot, I am cold, I am busy, I am bored,” and so on…so essentially, we create the language of our lives around UNTRUE statements….and then WONDER WHY we feel at dis ease with ourselves, with others, and with the world around us?
For our whole lives we have been declaring we ARE, whatever it is that we are FEELING and that is blatantly NOT TRUE. If you were your hunger, than you could never be full, if you were your tiredness than you could NEVER be rested, and if you were your boredom than you could NEVER be occupied….maybe we should start walking around declaring what we are NOT, for that would be a much more accurate account of reality. Our conversations might start to sound more like…”I am NOT my stress, I am NOT my fear, I am NOT my divorce, I am NOT the weather, I am NOT my job.” Or, we could simply substitute the word feel…and talk about what it is we might be FEELING like in that particular moment.
The massive confusion around our identities is DIRECTLY linked to believing that we ARE whatever adjective comes after, “I AM.” Not only do we allow ourselves to ‘adjectify’ ourselves, but even worse, we allow OTHERS to do it for us, and yes, WE DO IT TO OTHERS AS WELL! I start believing that Susie’s opinion of me, is me, and that my opinion of Susie, is actually who Susie is. Then, I go around and tell everyone who Susie is and she goes around and tells everyone who I am, so now…Billy thinks that I am a crappy yoga teacher and Susie is a floozy, a newly divorce’ ALREADY on match.com.
Descriptors, opinions, and perceptions are a VERY poor representation of TRUTH, for they are: only MADE UP words and most of the time, we don’t even know their place of origin. So therefore, I AM, is quite ENOUGH. “I AM” qualifies as a 100 percent LEGITIMATE complete sentence.
I AM.
This is ALWAYS true. You can say that statement in the shower, in the ocean, on an airplane, at your dining room table, or in Japan….and it will ALWAYS be true.
I AM.
It seems that the confusion lies in the, in-between, who we are, and who we THINK we are.…if our thinking is left unexamined, if we blindly believe all of our thoughts, if our language does not LEVEL UP, then, HOLY MOLY, we better get ready for some whip lash! Buckle up people because Susie and Billy and your mom and your husband and your younger self and the government and the country and the previous generations are ALL going to tell you: who you are and who you SHOULD be and WHY you will NEVERY EVER be enough!
What if we stopped buying into the MADE UP rules that we adhere to? Like having children or not having children, getting married or not getting married, getting divorced or not getting divorced, being intimate with a man or a woman or both, basing perceptions on the color of skin or race or religion. And that all sounds fine and dandy until it gets personal…like what if you stopped identifying as a republican or a democrat or a feminist or an LGBT advocate?
When it starts to feel personal…you KNOW you are looking and feeling into a part of you that is NOT FREE. Pain is simply an indication of where we need to shine our light. What if you did the thing that scares you most….like, embrace a Trump supporter, or, engaged with a communist. Why? Because now you have the understanding that, “I AM” is as true for them as it is for YOU. And regardless of whether they change their opinions or not, the only way we stop BELIEVING we are made up projections of the mind, is to STOP BELIEVING OTHERS are our own made up projections of our own mind.
Maybe we simply start by discarding the adjectives that we are NOT, in order to UNCOVER who we ARE, who we ALWAYS were and WHO we will ALWAYS be.
And wherever you go, there YOU ARE.
Empower your DOING with your BEING and watch the DIVINE unfold before you.
Namaste my friends,
Andrea Dawn
