When I ended my last blog from the Bikram Yoga teacher training I said \”To be continued….\” I didn\’t know what that meant or if I could continue to write the blog. I landed in New York Sunday night and went back to work the next day. I started teaching yoga a few times a week and I was right back to a hectic schedule of being out of my house at 5 a.m. and not home until 8 or 9 p.m. at night.
Over the next few months I started to think I have the job, the house, the car, the 401k but was this really it? Although it feels selfish to say, and way deeper than I can wrap my head around, my soul was empty. It just wasn\’t enough plain and simple! As time went on, a seed was planted when I started to ponder the idea of traveling and teaching Bikram Yoga. It\’s not an uncommon thing to do in the Bikram community. There are studios all over the world always looking for teachers requiring anywhere from a 2 week commitment to a year commitment. Two weeks traveling here and there seemed reasonable, at first. Ultimately, after seeing the places I could go, I decided to take a leap of faith and leave the job that I loved for so long and pursue being a traveling teacher full time!
The logical and strategic part of my brain, that was screaming NOT to leap, said travel and teach as a research project. A little R&D. Teach in other studios. See how they operate. Meet new students…all in the name of professional research. Truth be told, the instinctive part of my brain knew I needed a change and needed to live from my heart and test the waters.
I ended up committing to Bikram Yoga at Tranquil Point in Tasmania. Ben Boyle is the owner and his email signature is \”Live Your Dream\”. It\’s quite fitting for this point of my life so I thought why not? I booked my plane ticket making stops in Colorado, California and Hawaii to visit friends that I had met almost one year ago to the date at training!
I have been thinking how did I get to this place in my life. Was it an idea? Was it a dream or a goal? More than anything it was a fear. I always go back to the trusty saying a very dear and wise friend told me, \”Fear binds you and fearlessness defines you\”. So many things about life were binding me. Bound by the staight and narrow path of life and good ole routine. Bound by what my bills REQUIRED of me. Bound by what my possessions DEMANDED of me. My father often says \”Do what makes your heart sing\”. Taking this leap of faith is exactly that. It is 110% what I wholeheartedly feel I should be doing.
A few weeks before I Ieft I had a conversation with a student going through some tough things in her life and she wondered if she was doing too much yoga. I said \”of course not. Yoga is your medicine, it\’s what you need right now.\” I honestly don\’t know where that came from, but I generally say what I mean and mean what I say so I didn\’t think much of it. As my departure date got closer I didn\’t know what to think or what to feel. Suddenly, I started doing and NEEDING more yoga. With all I had to do to get ready to leave, 90 minute Bikram yoga classes should not have been fitting in! It was what I needed. It was my medicine. The yoga works, what can I say?
I was a little concerned about the last leg of my trip. The 10 hour flight from Hawaii to Sydney seemed dreadful. It turned out to be the quickest flight of my life! Although, I don\’t think any flight could have been long enough! The closer I got to Tasmania, the further I got out of my comfort zone and that\’s a scary place!
I often say in class breath by breath, fraction of an inch by fraction of an inch, that\’s how you make progress. It\’s true in life too. I don\’t know where this road map will take me. To borrow a line often said by Oprah, one thing I know for sure is, I am so truly grateful for this life.
