Monday, April 30, 2012

Matrices, Diversification & Awakening (Part 1)

BOSTON, MA - Walking to work this morning after reading Sianna Sherman's "Letter from the Heart" and reflecting on Elena Brower's "Art of Attention" workshop on Sunday, April 29, the idea of "matrices, diversification, and awakening" came to me. Although the mind can turn this embodied life into a complex puzzle, what is clear to me at this moment is the simplicity of the heart and love on the path of awakening.

I've always found it hard to separate "things" into boxes and disagreed with our "culture's" bias toward "experts" and "silver bullet" cures. I've even noticed my beliefs colored by this (i.e., 'yoga teachers and "life coaches" shouldn't mix'). But I am experiencing coherence in my mind and heart.

What hit me most at Elena's workshop was her bluntness and authenticity on the preciousness of this embodied life. Through a 'short-form' of the Handel Group's "Design Your Life" Life Coaching work, Elena engaged us all in a powerful dialogue and personal inquiry into identifying our dream (ideal state) for three of 18 life areas from the life coaching work. She chose "romance" "career" and "family." I came away impressed and convinced that the "Design Your Life" work as a potent medicine to incorporate as part of one's sadhana to go along with asana, pranayama, mantra, meditation, contemplation, and whatever one has in their yoga toolbox.

My immediate insight while talking with a friend as we were gathering our bags from the storage area was this type of life coaching work was a powerful synthesis of two-to-three separate practices that I had been blessed to be guided to outside of the yoga asana space except it was an accelerated form. Attending Elena's workshop was synchronistic because I had accepted that I have a need for "life coaching" at this time in my life earlier this month before leaving for Denmark on a teaching trip.

(to be continued...)