Deep Reflections while in Rishikesh đ§đŽđł
Surrender ~ Evolve ~ Change
At the beginning of each experience, you never know how much you will learn. Usual questions - âWhat am I doing here?â âWhat is my goal here?â â tend to arise until you deepen yourself into the understanding and surrender to a unique statement:
EVERYTHING IS PERFECT ALREADY, DO NO CONSTANTLY TRY AND CHANGE IT OR CONTROL IT!
SURRENDER
After volunteering in small secluded villages, the tourism, shops, noise, devotion, different ways to reach the same destination, and temptations all seem to be a little fake and just part of a big distraction. Rishikesh is a beautiful, stunning place, yet it is all relative according to where you are coming from and your expectations. Oh expectations, you always want to follow us around!
We got here a little earlier to enjoy Rishikesh and take time to transition from being at camp to attending a yoga teacher training in a city. You think you need time to transition and to digest everything you have learned; however, do you really take advantage of that time or do you just forget about your intention and begin to fill in the gaps with social entertainment?
It is really interesting to see the amount of ashrams, gurus, sages, devotional practices, types of yoga and meditation techniques, clothing and gifts stores, fancy looking cafes to attract your senses, etc. Despite this, when you go to the surroundings of the city there is a lot of poverty.
The awareness of us all being part of one big worldwide family allows you to use the âmagic glassesâ to see the soul and not the costume.
The Yoga Teacher Training has been a very widely broad learning opportunity. You have your goals prior to the start, yet life has something else awaiting you. You are focused on the discovery of the yogic lifestyle, asana practice, breathing, anatomy, ayurveda⌠and although you get plenty of that, the biggest discovery you encounter is that of YOURSELF.
Yoga is the connection to the Supreme Soul. Yoga is the art of paying attention.
Maybe at the beginning you pretend to stay a little tough and even believe you already know a lot. It is not until you surrender that your dear good friend called EGO that you can actually take a dip in the waters that reveal the depths of who you are and how you can manage yourself. The layer of the ego is so thick that it takes a lot of courage, determination, consistency, patience and LOVE to kindly cut through it. No need to fight or resist, just observe and adjust. Every journey is different.
Spending 25 days with a routine of starting the day early with deep very veeeeery deep cleansing practices of the body, including the nose, throat, and entire digestive system, and learning different types of breathing, mudras, yoga poses, yogic philosophy, and meditation has been wonderful. It can also let a lot of old habits and emotions, believed to have been forgotten, resurface. I thought the healing of old bad habits had already taken place! Oh well, well, well â surprise, surprise!
No matter where you go in the world, how far you seek, if there are things inside that need healing, do not wait any longer, pay attention to them NOW. It needs love and care, like condoling your best friend. Sometimes when we surround ourselves constantly with people, we tend to lose our own energy and get influenced by others, even in the smallest and subtlest things. On the other hand, when we choose to completely seclude ourselves we can build our own wall of resistance to hide from challenges.
If you choose to retreat yourself, at times, do it with a smile. Keep a balance and come back fully recharged to share your renewed energy. You have to practice in SILENCE who you really want to be, so when you are around others you can fully be it.
EVOLVE
It feels good to recognize that when you are constantly with a group of people your ego grows and takes control of you. It catches you at your deepest weaknesses, including your own physical or emotional challenges, opinions of othersâŚand it makes you forget that:
I am here to learn and explore, to grow and evolve, to experience and realize that I have all the spiritual powers within me, yet without tolerance and cooperation with others the road will be empty. Real transformation wouldnât take place.
The biggest lesson has been that it really shouldnât matter where you are and with who. If your path is clear to you, remain there, and donât feed any tempting, blurry, or distracting thoughts. The physical challenges have been a great learning experience during this training. Coming from being very active in the United States, without having any âissuesâ, to having to stop from practicing yoga due to constant pain. The emotional challenges of opening so many gates also say âHello, I am still hereâ. The continuous hours of learning different topics and interactions were sometimes overwhelming.
It is only when you forget Your Self that you get confused with all these things. Change is permanent, constant, and beneficial. Allow it to happen. Sometimes it is perceived as a negative thing. Without change there would be no universe and we would not be aware of our growth.
CHANGE
Our spiritual journey is stronger than any obstacle in the way. Respect others, accept them, and allow your energy to grow as you stay compassionate and empathetic sending positive vibrations and blessings, without shaking yourself, remain UNSHAKABLE.
As we travel alone, we learn different things from different souls, it is important to maintain our discipline and our clarity. Discipline is not something negative. It is that when you find the truth, you stay TRUTHFUL to it!
Remain strong, free, focused, patient, truthful, honest, and courageous⌠and IMPROVEMENT will be your best friend.
It is NOW or NEVER!
With this video, we want to say how thankful we are for the people we met in the teacher training. We truly learned so much from each individual. We have now become one big family as we all go off into the world, remaining connected through this shared experience.
As the song from the video says â GIVE LOVE!
Namaste and lots of love to you all,
M&M