The wise words of a yoga teacher

Every Wednesday morning I have my yoga class in our local town. Our respected teacher is a very wise man. I believe he is now in his early seventies, but when you see him, you would definitely give him 10 years younger. His body is supple, muscled, well-maintained, but most importantly his mind is peaceful.

I have already learned a lot from him, from his way of teaching, his way of being and from his wise words. Yesterday was no different. I talked to him after class, and I want to share with you the wise words that he shared to me.

What keeps amazing me about yoga is that somehow I always get the right exercises at the right time. I always get out of it what I need at that particular moment.

For example, when we started the courses again in September, I needed to calm down from the September rush. August was relaxing and peaceful, and then in September it was all about getting organised again, trying to fit work, school (kids), sports activities of everyone,  enormous to-do lists back into 1 agenda. And miraculously the first class was about reconnecting to ourselves and finding balance between being and our actions.

Then a few classes later, I was realising that I urgently needed to improve my “grounded-ness” again. That even though I am outside everyday with my horses, I was still not grounded enough. This is also due to the fact that I am mostly connected with the universe from the crown chakra and that I have a very active third eye. Every person using his or her psychic powers regularly is automatically more connected above then below. But balance is everything. Our connection to earth is equally important, so I wanted to work on that. And by “coincidence” (but of course, we know, there is no such thing as coincidence), that week’s class was about grounding, and connection to earth.

Likewise, yesterday, I was feeling a bit tired and I felt I had some inflammations in thigh muscles and shoulder joints. So I went to class, but I was not interested in an active or stretching class. So I decided for myself that if the exercises were to be too difficult or straining, that I would just meditate instead and focus on my breathing. And it so happens to be that yesterday’s class was less straining then usual and that the whole focus of the class was on yogic breathing and on re-connecting all the elements (air, ether, fire, earth, water). Amazing, right?

I can only be grateful & thankful that the universe is providing me with these perfectly tailored experiences.

Now, about my discussion with my yoga teacher after class. I was telling him that I’m facing a situation in which “I don’t know”. Let me clarify that: for someone like me, always learning, expanding my consciousness and knowledge, not knowing is uncomfortable. Although, I realise that the more I know, the less I know. But I have a very intellectual mind, so I love reading tons of books and articles. I love feeding this mental hunger for learning & acquiring more knowledge. When I don’t know something, I look it up and remember everything I’ve found about it. It is fun, but it can also be very exhausting. Because my mind never rests. It’s always busy, and I’m usually thinking about 1001 things at the same time. So meditation, mindfulness (in nature) and sports are a must for me, because those are the only moments when I can find some peace of mind.

Another little “default” of mine, is that I want to lead by example and sometimes this triggers me to try to be perfect in everything. Which is, of course, impossible. Nobody’s perfect and it’s often waste of energy to try to be perfect. So over the past years, realising that our society is limiting us from developing our true potential, that society is using us as slaves and is not respecting our true needs, I decided to live my life my own way. This resulted in focusing more on my own coaching business, living in a healthy way, listening to myself and my body, taking the necessary time I need to be me, to spend quality time with my family, etc. Even if that meant less working and less money, it meant more inner rest and happiness.

But… apparently I’m again pushing myself to my limits as I have done so many times in the past… This occurred to me yesterday, when I was wondering why I had so many (small) inflammation problems. The rational explanation is that for years I didn’t do a lot of sports, so my body got stiff and “lazy”, and now that I’m doing ice hockey every week, yoga as often as possible and some dancing (in the living room 😉 ), my muscles and joints are aching because I’m not used to all this movement anymore. But there’s something else going on… Because the sports do me good: I feel my body likes it, I feel vibrant and alive, I feel very good after these activities. So why is my body protesting? Because I’m holding on to things that I should let go. Because I don’t know where I’m going and that’s frustrating me. Because I “try too hard” to lead by example, whereas it could just be a natural thing.

And this is exactly what my teacher told me yesterday. He said: “People need to slow down. We are living in a society where we feel we “must” a lot. People give themselves 200% at a job that is often not their true path and then they are surprised to be exhausted. With your joint aches, you could go see a specialist, but it would only take away the ache for a little while and then it would come back, because you haven’t dealt with the real cause of the problem.

First look inside yourself and find out what these aches are really about. Then accept it and just “BE”. Yes, it is a good thing that you are now a vegetarian, that you have drastically reduced all animal-products. But don’t focus all your energy on trying to be as healthy as possible, buying organic products, trying to be in balance all the time, having regular massages and treatments. Because you are then just replacing your former busy life with these things, instead of just existing and being. You are trying too hard and you are always in action, in movement. You are always “doing”, instead of “being”.

I now have 70 people enrolled for my yoga teacher classes and all my yoga classes are packed, but I don’t feel busy. I just wake up and I am. I have some rituals every day that bring me in the moment. And then I just go to my class and teach. Because it is my true path and I am just BEING, it doesn’t require an effort. It gives me energy and I don’t think too much about it. I am, here and now. It seems you are confused and lost, because you overthink and you thinking in terms of action and movement. That can be exhausting for you and your body. Come back to your inner self, meditate, BE and all comes naturally.”

He is absolutely right. The pattern of “DOING” is one that I have acquired at a very young age and that apparently I haven’t let go of yet. I also explained to him that it is hard for me not to think in action, when I have these visions all the time, signs from non-human presences, when I literally feel the earth weeping, when I feel all the anger on the planet. And he did agree! He said, “yes, the earth is weeping, but you can only heal her if you heal yourself first.” Be the change you want to see in the world.

So after this talk, I decided to just sit by and wait. 🙂 By this I mean, I will look in myself for the answers and I will not take any drastic or impulsive actions or measures like I used to do in the past. This is how I have functioned so far: something is not right, the flow is missing, so I turn to new actions to get into a new flow again, hoping that it will be the best way for me and that everything will be smooth and successful.

So, even though my head is still bursting with ideas (some examples: I want to join a movement to do more to save our planet, I want to start video series to create more awareness, I want to found a community in which we group artisans and people who want to share their ideas/creations for a better world, etc.), I am just going to BE. I live from moment to moment, taking in what comes and letting go what is not necessary right now. Instead of wanting to convince and convert others of my beliefs, I just stick to my own beliefs and let everyone be. But that’s hard for me. Because I can be very critical and judging, and so when I see people throwing their cigarette but or bubble gum on the street, I am deeply disappointed and angry. When I see people eating 250grams of meat every single day, I have a little rage inside me screaming “How can you eat that, knowing that so many animals are suffering & killed daily (and so much global pollution that goes hand in hand with meat & dairy production) to satisfy your selfish needs!!”

On the other hand, when I Inspire others just by being me, that is very rewarding. And I do see a lot of change around me as well. It’s just that we seem to remain forever in this dual world of good vs bad, whereas actually there is not really good or bad, just choices. And yes, there is dark and light. Light is shed upon darkness to make it bright, but we also need darkness (for example to sleep). There would be no light without darkness.

So here’s my conclusion and advice for you today: BE you, be here and now, just present, acknowledging what is, without judgement, without action or movement, without doing. Of course, we all have our daily activities, but if in these daily activities we can include several moments of just “being” (without doing) then I’m convinced things will become clearer and more peaceful. And we will find a way to live peacefully together, humans, animals, plants, rocks, earth and …. Being and becoming our loving and peaceful self, will enrich mankind. It will elevate us from being a weak & destructive species to a highly connected, powerful and peaceful kind. And this will prevent our extinction. If we continue ostracising our true nature, letting ourselves get overwhelmed by work, technology, fake media, etc. we walk straight into our own extinction. Because, let us be very honest here: mother earth is weeping, but she doesn’t need us humans, WE need HER. So if we continue like this, her anger will be unmeasurable. And since she doesn’t need us, she will not hesitate to trigger our extinction in order to survive and to give a chance to the non-toxic animals and nature. She’s done it before, many times. A lot of species and nations have gone extinct already. So if we continue destroying earth, it is actually ourselves that we are destroying. And even if earth doesn’t react, if we let her die, we die as well. Because we CANNOT live without air, water, trees, earth, fire, ….

And to say it with other wise words:

Love,

Géraldine