This Is Yoga

by Orin Kurtz

I’m supposed to write a yoga teacher blog. But I have nothing to say today. I think I may be at a plateau, and that’s just fine. You don’t have to have something to say all the time.

So, here are a few stories I was *going to* contribute for this blog, before I realized they are no longer about the present. These are stories about great things I learned that are now integrated in my life, and I don’t have to think about them anymore but they’re still with me.

The day I realized I’ve got the yoga bug: It was a 7-degree January day and our hot water was out. So I took a cold shower. My wife asked if I was annoyed. I said maybe I would be if I had some expectation of what a “shower” should be.

The day I learned of teacher training (TT), I immediately said “I’m doing that.” Then I found out that TT was 8 weekends in a row, Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday. I thought, how can I balance that with a life that is already full between career, wife, dog, exercise, music, etc? So I decided I just wouldn’t think about it. Law school was three years and I survived; this is only 8 weeks.

During the first weekend of TT, some people got really emotional. But not me, I was just fine (so I thought). Until I started having amazing, life changing dreams after weekends of TT. Then I realized that everybody processes things differently.

Fast forward to the day, halfway through TT, when I realized I was no longer “engaged” with small things like people’s complaints and other minutae. I realized that my tank was full, there was no space for things that were not along my path. And I was also calm enough to observe things without being attached, just letting them do their thing and pass on by.

Now forward to last week, when a bunch of stuff came up at work and I realized that the next few weeks would be really busy and would require a trip to California for an expert deposition the day before our TT “finals weekend.” I was up all night, stressed out and having trouble sleeping as I sorted through everything in my head. Until I thought, what’s the worst that can happen?

And then come to today, right now, as I’m writing this blog. My wife’s interns are showing up at our apartment, it’s 9:00 am on a Tuesday and I should have left for work a half hour ago, the dog is barking, the music (that I put on) is blasting, and I’m here writing this blog without being distracted by any of it. The noise fades and I’m letting the words flow. That’s yoga.

Welcome to our Teacher Trainee blog! Over the course of the coming weeks, each of our teacher trainees will write a post sharing their experiences throughout the Hathavidya 200 Hour Teacher Training program. Thank you to all of our trainees for sharing with your community! Look forward to new posts each week!