This is our daily schedule:
6:30 tea and coffee, if you wish (thank you, I do wish)
7am – 7:30 Meditation
7:35 – 9:30 Yoga Practice
9:30-10:30 Breakfast
10:30-1:30 Session (listening and taking notes on poses or philosophy)
1:30-3:30 Lunch
3:30-6:30 Session
6:30 Dinner
The meditation times comes a lot easier to me than most of the other people and I’m thankful for the ritual of “quiet times,” for study and prayer in the Bible. Today, I let the Spirit lead my thoughts and tried to simply observe what He wanted to show me. It was really interesting. I haven’t done that style much since college, but I really appreciate how the Spirit works in that regard, showing me things I maybe need to deal with in my life or convictions, or simply worship or communion with God.
Most people find it really hard to stay still for that long and I only have a slight advantage with no ADHD and my QT (quiet time) practice.
So… yoga is hard! Unfortunately, our main teacher, Jacqueline, broke her wrist slipping on the slippery floors here; so her present assistant, Skylar (a guy) has been leading yoga practice. Being a guy, he already has certain strength advantages PLUS he’s a power yoga instructor (a strength-emphasis style). That, combined with my absence from Paul’s challenging teaching in Florida has made me soft! It stretches my limits! Plus, it’s like doing yoga in a humid sauna (not even kidding!) with the climate here. Happily, though, the heat keeps muscles from getting very sore. I’m picking up a lot to use on the military base classes I’ll be teaching when I come back. :-)
So. the food here is AWESOME!!! It is savory, delicious, tasty, and every other good tasting adjective you can think of! I do not miss meat at all! This morning, we had watermelon, pineapple, yogurt, granola, eggs with peppers, onions, and lots of veggies! Lunch was marinated vegetables, green beans, salad, guacamole and a corn tortilla. Everything has been excellent! I want their recipe book!
This morning’s session, Jacqueline went over how to teach about 5 different poses and how to modify them and how to assist students into them. It was SO beneficial! It’s great to practice direction and explaining precisely and accurately to get a student into a pose. Plus, the assists are really helpful to practice and even gave me help in my pose! I’ll have to practice on some of you later! :-)
Yesterday afternoon’s session was packed with info about yoga philosophy! Again, thank God for my awesome Christian roommate who took some great philosophy classes in college and has helped me tremendously in phrasing what I believe without the Christian words!
Our first homework assignment was to write a few paragraphs about what ahimsa (non-violence) means to us.
Whew! I was so struggling at first! The examples the teacher gave were things like non-violence toward people (no killing), non-violence toward animals (that’s why yogis are vegetarian), non-violence toward the earth, and being kind to others.
Well… my husband is in the military and part of his job is to kill people, so I didn’t want to write about that…. I believe that animals were put on the earth by God for us to master and eat…. I believe I am to be a good steward of my resources, but I’m not a nut about the earth… and being nice to people just seemed lame to write about…
SO… I thought about why is it listed as “non-violence,” why not just “be nice?” I figured that people who are actively violent and have aggressive nature toward others are not desirable in any religion and it’s probably easier to simply NOT be mean. I remembered some (many) Scriptures about being nice, having LOVE and changing ones heart motivation: “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.” Luke 6:45. I thought about filling my heart with love and letting it overflow and then “how do I fill my heart with love?” It’s from God. How? Then, I remembered I John 3 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us… My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” Ahimsa for me would manifest in filling my heart with the love of God and letting it overflow into my actions. We’ll discuss it this afternoon as a group, so we’ll see…
2 comments:
I think you worded your answer perfectly! I hope it goes well and that it is well received in your group.
And, I wish I could taste that yummy food, too!! :-)
Wow McKay this sounds like an amazing experience! I love your line, "Thank you, I do wish." I would be saying the same thing!
You are so gifted at describing your thought processes, it is really entertaining to read!
Post a Comment