Inspiration Pic

Your yoga today: accept yourself as much as your dog does.

Yoga Inspiration

With arms outstretched I thank. With heart beating gratefully I love. With body in health I jump for joy. With spirit full I live. ~Terri Guillemets

Wanted to share my evening prayer last night. I belong to the most amazing Community. Today Gratitude is my yoga.

Yoga Nugget

Nothing is more fleeting than external form, which withers and alters like the flowers of the field at the appearance of autumn.

Umberto Eco

Yoga Inspiration

originally posted in: Yoga Rants and Raves

Somedays...

Sometimes running a yoga studio feels like...

...constantly cleaning toenails off the floor.

...staring at the ceiling wondering what your students see if they don't close their eyes during Savasana.

...comparing yourself to more talented teachers.

And sometimes it feels like...

...you really make a difference in someone's life.

...inspiration is flowing to, from, and between you and your students.

...you are doing what you were born to do!

Meet the Blogger

Greetings readers,  I feel the time has come for us to meet. See, I'm a little shy when it comes to the internet, never really sure how much info i want to put out there. I don't really know why but for whatever reason I've been running this blog rather anonymously, today that changes, I am coming out of the cyber closet! And I'm starting with my name, Amy E Mills. Shocking I know, but when i look back over my blog there are some very personal things here so why not give y'all a chance to relate not to a faceless ghost writer but to me. I hope it's not too much of a shock like when you see a picture of your favorite public radio host.

So that's me, blogger with resident bead head as seen usually with a cup of (usually decaf) coffee. I am Amy, I live in southern Wisconsin (in a tiny town) and I am a yoga teacher and part time blogger.

And since this is a blog we should get down to the actually post for today and since I'm being all honest here are 5 true things about me as a yoga teacher.

1. I never intended to be a yoga teacher.
Nope, I went into my first teacher training with the goal simply to deepen my practice and gain a greater understanding of yoga's history and philosophy.

2. I don't practice everyday.
Nope again. I try to get on my mat but sometimes I get bogged down by my schedule, my emotions and on the off days an illness. And sometimes I have to accept that my yoga for the day is walking my dog or the couple of sun salutes I did between classes or simply trying to bring a little more awareness into my posture for a day.

3. I'm pretty dyslectic so mirroring is really tricky for me.
Yep that whole right and left thing has always alluded me. I flip numbers in addresses and credit card numbers, i write lower case Bs and Ps and sometimes i can't tell the difference between a lower case D or B without major debate. So with my natural inclination so switch things around in my head I went into theater, even more backwards because stage directions are given from the audiences perspective and left or right. So, should you ever take one of my classes you might hear a favorite catch phrase which is, "I'm going to turn my back on you know, not that I don't love you I just can't mirror today." My students love it!

4. Sometimes, when I'm standing in the classroom watching my students practice I get teary because they are so inspiring.
Speaking of students, I have an amazing group of dedicated yogis. I am easily one of the most blessed teachers ever, I know everyone's name and have seen their practices grow and change over the past 2 years. Sometimes it's what gets me through a class.

5. Quite often I have no idea what pose I'm going to teach next.
So True. I have gotten away from using my teaching notebook. This has its ups and downs; I'm not running to the front of the room every sun salute to see what I have planned next. But sometimes I build a great sequence on the fly and then forget it as I am saying the words out load. Sad but true. My students don't seem to mind or notice for that matter and sooner or later I'll hit the happy medium of book vs. improve.

video blog

I saw this on the On Being blog thought it was worth a share here. Everything we do with mindful intention is yoga. This video really drove that point home and inspired me.

Small Change

The signs of spring are showing; bit by bit the snow banks are receding, the calls of cranes are heard as they migrate back north and if you look closely at the tops of the trees you can see the faint haze of color like faded watercolors. The change is so gradual that we may not even take it in fully until one day we wake up and we’re surrounded by green. Not all change happens in this drawn out time line but many things do, especially the creative process.

I was recently listening to an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love about her arduous struggle to find the title for that book. She had finished the writing after many years and was tossing one bad title after another before the right one came along. In the interview she likened this process to a story she heard about Robert Frost and his writing of The Road Less Traveled, in her version of Frost’s tale he had been working long and hard on another poem, diligently toiling away day after day. Then one day he woke up sat down a t his desk and wrote, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” and the rest is history. She said of Frost’s and her own struggle that finding that perfect fit was almost like a reward for all the work that came prior. Well, I hope so.

Since the start of the year I’ve redefined my “job” as far as yoga goes, thinking of myself less as Yoga Teacher and more as Studio Owner. My days start early, up to the studio with the sun to work in my new office upstairs at the studio. One may not think there’s much to be done to up there but the hours seem to fill rather efficiently; whether it’s advertising, an endless stream of email follow ups or the studio itself. It feels like the last four weeks have been packed with countless little “projects” on the building itself. Small things, changes I’m not really even sure anyone will notice so why do it. Maybe I’m holding out hope for that one golden nugget, like Ms. Gilbert and Mr. Frost got or maybe, for me there is no nugget to be had. After all the effort is the yoga.

Just like with asana we make tiny changes to our body’s posture, our teachers walking around pulling your arm a fraction of an inch. Are such minor adjustments really worth it? The short answer; yes. Yes, because it’s the tiny adjustments over time that make our practice move forward. Over time these small details line up sort of until one day we are deeper into an asana than we’ve ever been, or our feet are suddenly over our heads with no fear of gravity. I know these changes are there, whether it’s the new ceiling tiles I’ve been replacing or the longer spines my students show in Parsvokonasana (extended side angle). They may go unnoticed to most but the work is why we do this practice and just like the return of the cranes to the landscape, they can mark the beginning profound transformation.