Gypsy Sister

Hello there! I'm new on the site. I've been living and teaching in Taipei in for the last 5 months and will be posting an entry soon about life, yoga, big business here in Taiwan! Take care!

Right so...hi! My name is Emma and I've been living and teaching ashtanga yoga here in Taipei for the last 5 months. It's been an an interesting journey so far! I've run into people I met in India and Thailand. I've gotten back in touch with people I haven't heard from in years! My yoga practice is changing daily in a way that is completely new to me. I'm learning...everyday I'm learning. Especially from my students. The relationship the people here have with the teacher is so different from the west. The teacher is revered so everything you say is taken as gospel...it's a bit disconcerting but it makes me much more present in my classes!

The company I work for offers all different styles of yoga so along with that when workshops are offered the teachers are invited to attend for free. Fantastic! Well, sometimes fantastic, sometimes not so fantastic. Now I'm an ashtangi but I also feel that yoga is yoga and I really don't agree with style bashing. If one style works for you but another doesn't that's fine. There is no need to bash the other style. So today, the teachers were invited to do a "teacher training" in restorative yoga. Sure why not? I'm open to learning something new. But it ended up being the most painful 4 hours of my life! (slight exageration...) This woman and her boyfriend talked a lot about resonant fields and electro magnetic fields and then had us roll around on the floor making differents sounds to release the fluids of the body....we were told not to use OM as it is "so tired"...hmmm. This lady started as an ashtangi, moved to Iyengar, then kundalini, and so on. But all of them are "crap" and this new style is the "only way". Seems to me she's searching for something and I really hope for her sake she finds it. But to call what she is doing now "yoga" is misleading. It reminded me of something I did in university in movement classes and improv classes for acting. And I think it has it's place and is valid. But I also disagree that it is yoga...it does not represent any of the 8 limbs. She had us sit in a circle at the beginning of the class and asked us to introduce ourselves and tell her why we taught yoga saying it was to create a safe space. But she then criticised everyone's answer! I was like hey sister! I thought this was supposed to be safe? She then told us that all the other traditional forms of yoga were controlling hierarchys and that what they were doing was the only true form based in the science of quantam physics and biology. We have a chiropractor on our teaching staff and he ended up walking out half way thru saying it was all bull$%#*! I was determined to stay until the end but as the 4 hour came to a close and the talking continued I couldn't take anymore. I had to leave! This woman had gotten me so angry! So maybe she was pushing my buttons. Maybe there is a lesson here for me to learn....that just because someone calls something "yoga" does not make it so, so then yoga is not simply yoga. Krishnamacharya says (to paraphrase) "I don't care how you come to yoga just as long as you come to it." So whether you start in an asana class, or studying the philosophies, or thru meditation you begin your journey, all of it is valid. So to belittle another style or individual to make yourself or the style you practice seem more valid I think misses the point completely. I don't think I will be using this "teacher training" any time soon!

Moon day...isn't it great! A day of rest, to check in with the body to see what's working and what's not! Lately I'm in bits! About a month ago I was dropped on my head doing the assisted backbends at the end of the series....let me tell you how much fun that was!! Weeks of chiropractic and massage therapy and I still have pain! I had to drastically modify my practice just so I could be on the mat everyday. But I'm tough - once I got over the desire to kill the person who dropped me - I'm getting over it. So then last week I was practicing in a friend's class and I was working on drop overs. Something didn't feel right. In the third one, I got completely confused as to which way I was going (which can happen to me rightside up never mind upsidedown!) and I ended up crunching my shoulders.....OUCH! Ironically the shoulder I did the most damage to is also the side of the neck that seems to have been released! So once again my practice has to be modified to allow my shoulders time to heal. I can't bear weight on my left arm while backbending. It's getting better tho...last week after I had done it I couldn't reach back for my feet in bhekasana whereas this week I can. I can't reach my left foot in kapot but slowly slowly things are starting to open up. I was doing so well! I had a good 4 months of no injury when normally I am the most accident prone person you have ever met! So I guess I had this coming. It is making me more mindful of my practice and reminding me to honour the moon day and my moon days (which have arrived at the same time). Today was time to reflect and breathe which lately I'm finding really hard. My pitta is very high so my emotions are running wild! Anger is flaring and even I am amazed at it's strength! There are new teachers coming over in the next week to take over the Mysore program from me. At first I was ok with that...hey, I don't have to get up at 4am anymore! But now I'm not so ok with it...why am I being replaced? The students don't want me to stop teaching Mysore yet I'm being pushed aside to make room for the new and teach the evening classes. But this too shall pass. I will surrender to the Divine and she will show me the way. I'm sure it's the pitta...

I was asked this question the other day in that "teacher training". I hate this question especially when you're asked by a stranger in front of a group of your peers. I almost feel like there is a bright light being shone in my eyes and I'm being interrogated vs asked to share. My answer always rings a little forced to me. So while lying in bed last night reading the Baghadvad Gita, this came to me and I wanted to write it down before I forgot....
Why do I teach? Because it brings me joy. Because from the first class I taught I felt alive! I felt like I had finally woken up. I have something to share with others that I truly believe in. You rebut with, "But you can teach english". I say that is a ridiculous comparison. It's not the act of teaching but the content of what is being taught. So I teach with the hope that I will help to wake people up. So that they too can believe in something. So that they too can feel the sheer joy yoga can bring to your life. I just wanted to write that down while it was still fresh...