Courage-Monday, August 1, 2011

Elat Chayim 

I arrived today at Elat Chayim in Fall Village, CT for the third of four week-long retreats as part of my two-year Jewish Spiritually and Yoga teacher training course.  It is hard to enter into the calm, serene atmosphere of a retreat.  Leaving my family is never easy--no matter how many retreats and conferences I attend, leaving is always difficult.  Also,  putting work and all my to-dos out of my mind is nearly impossible at first and... I still, after after all these years, I still get anxious before a retreat and/or conference.  

I know that it  doesn’t take long to settle down and these familiar feelings will leave by lunch time tomorrow so for now, I will wait it out and try to be present as much as I can.  I have been thinking about what it means to be Present in life.  I know our lives go by so quickly--i just don’t want it to pass me by.  I think it takes effort..effort to be present and mindful of the moment...especially when the moment is one of discomfort and dis-ease.  

With these feelings and a touch of nervousness I walked into tonight’s first meeting of the retreat and we sang Yedid Nefesh, a 16th century Kabbalistic poem written in Safed. It speaks of the soul’s longing and love for God.  We sang and sat in silence for a few minutes, allowing the mind to quiet and the heart to open.  The theme of this retreat is taken from Parker Palmer’s Courage to Teach and we will be exploring and practicing (!!) what it means to teach yoga (or at least that is what I think the retreat will ask of us).  

The practice for this evening was to think of the teachers who have inspired us and the qualities that made them so special. We came up with a list of inspirational qualities of teachers--humor, non-judgement, confidence, humility, were mentioned among many other traits. We presented our answer by stating our teacher’s quality/characteristic and then stood in the middle of the group circle and taught a pose or movement that would lead us to embody that particular quality.   My greatest teachers have taught me to uncover and discover.  Whether it is teaching text or guiding me in a spiritual practice, the most valuable teachers have helped me to uncover meaning and discover new possibilities and potential.  They have helped me to grow intellectually, spiritually, emotionally.  Thinking about inspirational teachers and what they mean in our lives  was an auspicious way to begin our work together.  I am grateful that I was present enough to receive it. 

With Love.