Yesterday I received an email from a colleague and fellow yogi asking if I was interested in piloting and then facilitating a school-wide challenge. “21 Days Without Complaining.” She wrote, “I have often said that it is biologically impossible for teachers to exist without complaining, but I am beginning to change my mind?”

What a beautiful shift. As I sifted through my “to grade” pile during morning prep, I decided to engage in a little discussion. “So I’ve agreed to participate in a 21 day challenge.” I shared with my fellow teachers. “No complaining for 21 days.”

Within 0.42 seconds, it came. The response I had anticipated.

“No. No way. Impossible. I couldn’t do that.” I once used those words about a different endeavour. I ate them about two years later. I do believe, that anything is possible.

And a project was born.

We continued to talk for about 30 minutes and the conversation shifted from “complaining is cultural” to “I don’t mind when people to complain to me” to “but what is the intent of complaining” to “what is a complaint, really?” And the pieces started shifting. My blood got hotter and my face even heated up a little bit. Why? Because I didn’t have all the answers, and I feel uncomfortable when I don’t have the answers. But not having the answers only meant a whole lot of space to explore.

The project.

During level one teacher training we committed to making ourselves better, and to making others better.

I have dedicated a lot of time making myself better, and perhaps this is why. To be an example. Africa Yoga Project created a beautiful poster that I have used as a screen saver for a year now. It says, “The meaning of your life is to find your gift. The purpose is to give it away.”

The project.

“No, no way.  Impossible.  I couldn’t do that.”

I am going to show her how. Not by imposing a set of beliefs, or by preaching with words.

But by choosing to act in harmony with my own.

I invite you to join.

The post The Project appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

My yellow lab Dylan is terrified of thunderstorms. He is the happiest (and ok, probably also the craziest) dog in the world, until he hears that first rumble up in the sky. One sign of a storm and he is shaking and cowering in the back of his crate. I always feel so badly for him during storms. I wish I could explain that there is no real threat and that his mind is just running wild about a little noise.

But I can’t. So he waits out the storm terrified in his crate, thinking the world is about to end.

I’m currently writing this post on a flight from Atlanta to Toronto having just wrapped up a two-week vacation with my family and several friends (I know – lucky me!). Had this been two years ago, I would not be able to write this. My hands would be gripping the armrests. Knuckles white. Fists clenched. I’d be hopped up on anti-anxiety medication with little ability to string together sentences. Every time we hit the smallest bit of turbulence I would be thinking to myself THIS IS IT – and not in a positive way.

Silly, I know, but for a long time flying was a huge fear of mine. I know that someone reading this has this fear of flying too.

Those of you that don’t are probably itching to tell me the classic fear of flying wisdom: 

“You are more likely to die driving to work than flying to South Carolina”

I know. Trust me, I’ve heard this one before. But at the time, the fear was so deeply entrenched in my mind that I just couldn’t look at flying rationally. It didn’t matter what the statistics said or how comfortable the people around me were – just like Dylan, I was scared.

What was my solution? I had several.

Avoid flying at all costs. Don’t travel far distances. Take a nice little feel good pill every time my flight was about to board. Worry endlessly about whether I was going to make it to my destination.

Instead of dealing with my fear, I masked it with pills and hoped for the best or full out avoided flying at all costs.

I was consumed with worry, fear, and anxiety over the outcome of my trip. Over not having control over the plane (although if I did, I’d be even more scared).

Did this change anything? No. Only my experience on the plane and my quality of life leading up to the trip.

That’s what makes fear so deadly. It enters our mind and our thoughts run wild. This irrational fear turns into a gigantic story in our heads. It sucks away at our joy. It depletes our quality of life. It keeps us stuck.

For me, it meant missing out on some awesome trips after University because I didn’t want to have to risk getting there by plane.

For Dylan, it means spending minutes, hours, sometimes even days hiding in his crate because he’s convinced thunderstorms are a true threat to his life.

For many of us, living from fear means missing out on opportunities, avoiding what it is we really want to do and hiding from who we really are because fear tells us it’s too risky.

But is it?

I’ve realized that it’s more risky for me to stay home and miss out on life than to get on a plane.
And it’s definitely more risky for me to live a life I hate because I’m scared of doing what I love.

Where is that little voice of fear running your life?

Is it worth the risk of listening to it?

The post Is it Worth the Risk? appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

It’s a phrase I have used in serious conversation and more recently; I have used it to be sarcastic as well. It almost feels sacrilegious. To be using such a compelling phrase in light. But this week I got it. I felt the power of present like I haven’t felt it before. For four hours this week, I wasn’t in a bad mood.

They were Tuesday and Thursday, from 3:00 – 4:00 and from 4:10 – 5:10.  During the rest of my week I was trying to think my way out of a miserable feeling.  Upset with my 5^th graders for lacking responsibility and respect. Unsure of my financial situation. Physically tired. My jaw, perpetually clenched and my spine shooting up my back like a two-by-four. I ate to satisfy something deep, but not even chocolate could pacify my irritation. And all the while, I tugged at the opposite ends of a constricted disposition, in an attempt to figure it out. To figure it all out. It’s lonely in a me world.

I remember hearing a powerful phrase at the Yoga Journal Conference in 2011.  “We are only truly OK when we are OK with not being OK.”  But this week, I wasn’t OK.

Except for during four magical hours.

Except for when I turned off the transistor radio in my head.

Except for when I got to teach four yoga classes.

When I needed to be fully present. And not only for myself. But for others.

For those four hours I did everything I could to be present and with my students.  I didn’t come from a place of anxiety and fear, but instead I instructed on empty.  I severed the connection between my problems and my present, and we smiled, laughed and we even had fun.  We tried new poses, we went into the unknown, and we connected.

I don’t know the state of my students’ day, but for those paranormal four hours I was refreshed and renewed. And when we closed with Namaste, I felt as though I had been rinsed.

This doesn’t mean that I emerged a new woman, by no means. That was not the intention. I actually like the grumbling and venting me, uncertainty and all.  So much room to grow.

What I did find however, was a sanctuary in time. One I will run to often. Called Now.

The post Four Hours of Bliss appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

The post Why Practice Yoga? appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

In your teaching, do you ever:

Feel like you’re bored with the sequence?
Feel like you say the same thing in every single class?
Feel like you’re in a “rut”?
Feel like people aren’t listening to what you are saying?
Feel like you need to get creative with the sequence?
Feel like you need music to get people excited?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you could be dealing with a serious case of automatic pilot in your teaching. This means that you are just going into the studio and teaching what you always teach.

Right foot forward. Warrior One. Press down through your left heel. Spread your fingers. Chatarunga. Exhale.

Sound familiar?

The first step in getting out of auto pilot is awareness. You have to acknowledge and admit that you are stuck without getting down on yourself about it. It’s natural at times to think that you need to get creative with the flow or put music on to keep students interested. When you feel these symptoms coming on, the work isn’t in trying to change everything and everyone around you. It’s in looking inside with a deeper inquiry and doing more work on yourself.

If you’re on automatic pilot and you just keep teaching AT your students, there is no room to hear what you are saying and see if it’s landing. You are operating from a place that leaves no room for the Art and Mastery of Baptiste yoga: Observe. Listen. Give Tools.

We can all fall into it at times in our teaching. The question is, how do you remedy it?

It requires presence and space.

GET PRESENT

Pause and look around the room. See what you see.
Speak to the human bodies that are in front of you, not to the class that is going on in your head.
Say a cue or call a pose. Pause again. Hold space.

LISTEN TO THEIR BODIES

In the pause, see if the cue landed in your students bodies.
Really watch: did it land?
You want to see your words create a shift in their bodies.

GIVE TOOLS

If your cue did not land, try saying it in a different way.
When you get bored with your teaching, get creative in how you say things, not in the poses of the flow.
By observing, listening and giving tools, your teaching becomes a conversation with your students bodies.

These three tools are a simple and effective way of shifting gears in your teaching. Instead of talking at your students, you have a conversation with them. You observe their bodies speak back to you and continue to give tools as you move through the flow.

To get out of auto pilot you simply have to make an inner shift from teaching for yourself to teaching for others. It is when you come out of yourself and shift your intention in your teaching to be FOR your students, that magic happens. This is when, even in a room full of people, your students feel truly seen.

The post Teaching Tips: How to get out of Automatic Pilot appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

Andrew is 10 years old.

The need for validation is something that we have all experienced. We either observe people needing a pat on the back, or we are the ones in search of a thumbs-up. I chose to write about this topic, because the fact that it irritates me lets me know that there is some growing to do. How can I take this ever-so-present characteristic and put a positive spin on it?

After all, this whole being irritated thing is actually quite hypocritical. These are some of my thoughts during the week:

How many people are going to come to my yoga class?

How many people liked my Facebook picture?

Who is going to come to our party this weekend?

Am I going to be picked for the conference in October?

My dad loves to crack jokes. The thing is, he’s always the first one to laugh, and then he visually sweeps the room to see who has validated his sense of humor. This is something that has always bothered me. I have attached the need to be validated with other characteristics such as weakness, lack of security, and low self-esteem.

I think it’s safe to say that we all want to feel significant. We need comfort and security and often this comes from a dose of recognition. We live in a world where instant gratification is at our fingertips. Perhaps this makes us more needy, more impatient and less able to rely on our own sense that in fact, we are ok, and we are on track. We tend to implant invisible checkpoints along the way. Checkpoints that we put in the hands of others. We sabotage our own ability to validate ourselves, and we give our power away. Just like that. Because we want to feel accepted. We want to feel accepted in a world of competition and comparison. We want to feel like what we are doing matters.

So how am I going to respond the next time Andrew asks, “Ms. D. is this ok?” as he presents me with a near perfect piece of work?

I could respond with one of the many responses I have used in the past, “It looks fine,” “What do you think?” or, “I think you can answer that.” All responses that have a hint of frustration that he is asking me, again.

Or, I can take the work and  drop what I think I know about Andrew’s motives. I can smile and let Andrew know that his work is right on target. I can validate people. We can validate people. We can help them grow.

The post On Validation appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

It’s hard to pinpoint just one thing that stuck with me in this video. So many things that they said and shared resonated with me. With what is happening in my life right now, the part of the video that I really connected with was when Moses said:

“People don’t enjoy life these days. They have everything. They have money, big cars, yachts, big houses – but they don’t enjoy life. You might not have all of that but you are full of life. If you learn how to empower others, yah, that’s what the world needs.”

People don’t enjoy life these days. That’s a bold statement, but one that I’m sure rings true for so many of us. I often fall into the trap of taking things for granted. When I operate from this place, my energy is focused very simply on getting by. I am definitely not thinking about empowering others and making a difference in the world.

I focus my energy on trying to GET THROUGH life, instead of LIVING it.

Moses opened my eyes up to seeing that it’s not what I have or who I know or where I am that determines my happiness. It’s whether I’m full of life, connecting with others and empowering people along the way.

Thank you Catherine, Billy and Moses for sharing so generously.

Regardless of what you have, are you FULL OF LIFE?

The post Stretching Boundaries appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

What qualities come to mind?
Inspirational? Happy? Powerful? Compassionate? Present? Joyful? Peaceful?

I’m going to take a wild guess and say none of you thought: Sad.

A sad yoga teacher? No thank you!

I’ve been feeling frustrated in my teaching lately. I’ve been struggling through my classes. Being with my students has been hard for me these past few weeks. Speaking English (my first and only language) has felt like a process, and a difficult one at that. I convinced myself that something was missing. There had to be something I could do to create a shift in my teaching.

More sleep?
More water?
More asana?
More meditation?

But none of these things were creating the shift that I was seeking.

Then I picked up Baron’s new book, Being of Power, and saw this:

“The breakthroughs happen when [you] shift from asking what [you] need to do to the question of what [you] need to give up.”

In reading this, I realized that instead of adding, I needed to subtract. I needed to get empty.

At this moment in my life, I’m sad. It’s hard for me to admit that. I just experienced a huge loss in my life. My Nana, who was more like my best friend and a huge part of my life, passed away. She lived a long and wonderful 85-years and I am lucky that I had so much time to get to know her. I realize that it is a blessing that she is no longer suffering.

But somehow, that doesn’t fill the void I feel in my day and the hole I have in my heart from not having her here. But at the moment, that sadness isn’t going away. So instead of trying so hard to DO something about it, the work is really in looking at what I need to give up. I don’t want to run and hide from teaching. I know this will not be the last time I am faced with loss – it’s something that unites us all and a pain that we simply cannot avoid.

So how do I move forward from here?

Practice #4: Give it up to get empty.

Baron says, “a big brick we carry around is expectation. In any circumstance where we feel frustration, this is usually at play. Expectations rob us of a sense of peace in the present moment, because they keep us in the divide between what is actually happening now and what we believe should be taking place.”

I definitely have expectations of who I should be as a yoga teacher.
I should be able to look at the positive side of everything and appreciate the time I had with Nana.
I should feel grateful that she is no longer suffering.
I should be with my students and leave the sadness at home.

My life this past month has been a constant battle between who I am in the moment and who I think I should be.

On Monday night, after listening to Baron’s Online Event, I asked myself what do I need to give up?

The answer came to me right away. I needed to give up the expectation that I shouldn’t be sad. I needed to give up the belief that I’m somehow wrong for feeling the way I do. I needed to let my students see the real me, not the happy and enlightened yoga teacher that I’m trying to be.

And in doing this, the frustration lifted. I taught four classes yesterday and felt present with my students.

Is the sadness gone? No. That will take time.

Will the expectations creep back into my life? They very likely will.

But now I have my practice: Give it Up to Get Empty!

The post Give It Up to Get Empty appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

As I write this post, I’m sitting at my desk with two of my favourite books on the shelf beside me: Journey into Power and 40 Days to Personal Revolution. No matter how many times I read them, I am inspired. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that I’ve been very excited to get my hands on Baron’s new book: Being of Power: The 9 Practices to Ignite an Empowered Life. The wait is almost over. His book will be released on Monday, April 15th (but if you’re a keener like me, you can preorder it here). I connected with Baron yesterday to chat about his book, the 9 practices and what Being of Power means to him. 

What inspired you to write Being of Power?

I recognized a need for this book in seeing people at programs and trainings that I was working with. They were needing practices, tools and a pathway to keep their practice, their own growth and their own transformation continually expanding when they would leave programs. This book gives them the ability to have their practice and their growth available to them at any time and in any place. The tools and the practices are now at their fingertips all the time so that they can live their life from a place of being of power.

How did The 9 Practices come to be? Did you develop them through years of facilitating transformation at your trainings or was it something that came to you suddenly? 

I really looked at these practices and developed them from two places.

Firstly, from my own practice and my own growth. I included the practices that I use the most and that are most essential to my own growth as a human being, a yoga practitioner and a teacher. I saw these practices as my “go to’s”. They were the place that I could come back to when I would lose my own power and my center. These are the practices that I personally go to when I need to recover my center or my power in any situation.

Also, I noticed that these were the 9 essential practices that worked for other people when I would share these at programs and trainings. In my work with others, I noticed that these were the fundamental practices to reignite someones sense of inner power, strength and confidence and also give them the ability to move forward and live an empowered life.

You speak of the 9 Practices as a way to update your life. How do these practices “update” our lives?

It’s really a great question. In life we are either expanding or contracting. We’re growing, we’re evolving or we’re going to our default, automatic pilot, automatic ways of just living or surviving life. This leaves us feeling resigned or in the experience of having lost ourselves.

These practices when embodied, lived and put into ones life, have a way of keeping you current, keeping you updated. People who are reading the book for the first time and using these practices for the first time, will have the experience of completely starting new with themselves and their lives. It’s a new beginning. They’ll have the experience of being updated or pressing a reset button. The idea is you keep using the practices. You’re living your life as an ongoing refreshing, with an ongoing newness coming into your life. This gives you an aliveness so that you’re living your life in the here and now into the future. You’re always fresh, seeing with fresh eyes, always learning, always growing and always expanding.

Any practice takes work, we have to commit to it day-after-day. Is there any particular practice out of the 9 that you are really focusing on right now?

Right now, I’m really focusing on practice number 9: set your sight on your North Star. This is really present for me right now, setting my sights on my own North Star. It’s seeing the future that I’m living into. It’s having a vision for my own life – for my personal life as a parent, as a person, as a friend and then into my work life and the work I do in the world. It’s about living into my vision for making a difference in the world, empowering people and causing leaders in the world.

Keeping my sight on my North Star, my vision, what is important to me and what my life is for, gives me a sense of purpose in my own life. In that purpose, I want to be my best self. I want to live from power and be of power and therefore it actually gives me the desire and yearning to utilize and continue using the other 8 practices which enhance and allow for that 9^th practice to be fulfilled. They all work together!

What does Being of Power mean to you?

In the book I refer to Aristotles definition of being of power. Aristotle said “power is the ability to be and let be”. From this ability to be and let be, you get a clean slate or a blank canvas. Being of power gives me the ability to create and be creative in my life and in any situation. If I’m having a difficult interaction with someone, I have the ability to be in the energy of that but let it be. This means I am non-reactive, inwardly composed and give space so I can then create and transform the situation to the way I would want it to be – to have the other person and myself have the experience of being empowered.

Being of power is fulfilling my vision for myself and who I want to be. It’s really about affirming life and giving up those things that deplete life.

You are already known as a powerful teacher and leader. By continuing to implement these practices into your life, where do you see them taking you in the future?

The post Being of Power appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.

These are just a few of the ways that yoga weaves its way into, well, into just about everything. But let’s be more specific.

Disclaimer: The definitions below are brief and by no means complete.

Yoga. It’s a series of forward bending, half-way lifting, high-to-low planking, bone stacking, core engaging movement. It’s shifting your focus, dropping your limiting beliefs, becoming more conscientious about your actions, and it’s about seeing, really seeing what is right in front of you. It’s about alignment. Physical, spiritual and mental alignment. Yoga.

Ironman. It’s a 2.4 mile swim. A 112 mile bike. And then a marathon. Each athlete has 17 hours to complete the race, from 7:00am until midnight and every year, thousands of athletes anticipate the opening to race entry. Quite often, race capacity is filled in just minutes. Training takes place over months and it is considered one of the most difficult one-day races on the planet.

This is how I have seen the union of the two strengthen over time, a strong and powerful marriage of sorts.

Practice swim. Sometimes there are 4 laps; sometimes there are 200 laps. Great swim technique requires that you stretch your body long, tuck your tail, and pull the water with force. Now, imagine your shoulders were your feet. Swim practice is the equivalent to dancing the cha-cha for an hour or more straight. Nothing like a good down dog to stretch out the ever-so contracted shoulders and back.

Race day swim. The start horn belts out and 2000 swimmers take to the water heading for the same yellow or orange buoy. You become a stepping stone, a piece of seaweed, drift wood, you are kicked and punched and suddenly, your breath becomes your lifeboat.  Staying in my breath during the 2.4 mile swim is a must. The minute I lose rhythm I expose myself to breathlessness, and breathlessness, leads to the P-word. Panic. I know it. I’ve tasted it. And it tastes so rotten I don’t even like the word anymore. So, I breathe. And I focus on my personal lifeboat. My breath.

Practice bike. It’s amazing what kinds of games your mind comes up with when you are alone on a bike for 6+ hours. I am chafing. Is he getting better? Or, am I getting worse? I can’t feel my feet. How many more miles? I am chafing. The wind. Oh the wind.  The greatest lesson I can apply when riding for such a long time is, “what you focus on grows.” And it’s true. The moment I can switch the focus from pain to pleasure, the experience takes on a new face. What is the pay off in focusing on pain? Why do we do it?

Race day bike. Depending on the course, you might get to see your fellow competitors face-to-face, or at least from the back while passing (or getting passed). Attitude is everything on the bike. You have the chance to excite and energize the riders, shout words of encouragement and lend a hand if you see an unfortunate rider who is down on their luck with a flat or mechanical trouble. When it’s all said and done, up dog. Nothing like an up dog to stretch what was crunched into a tight aero position for six or so hours.

Practice run. Step. Step. Step. Step. (repeat 170x/minute).  In 2011 I was running down a weathered street in Brazil when I had a great idea. I started to smile and get excited when my better judgement reminded me, Stay in your body … Without completing the thought, I hopped up a curb, tripped and face planted in front of a car full of teenagers.  As they laughed, I cried. A severally twisted ankle had me then worried about the upcoming race in five weeks. The lesson: stay in your body. Focusing on my physical body allows me to run clean. I make sure my shoulders aren’t contracted, I relax my jaw, I breath to control my heart rate, and I watch, carefully, where I am stepping. As I remind my own yoga students often; if it’s a great idea, it will come back.

Race day run.  The swim and the bike are done, and you get off your bike with lead-legs.  You can almost hear the creak of your hip flexors as you swing your leg to dismount.  You are glad to be off the bike but within two minutes, you wish you had it back.  There are 26 miles ahead of you.  It’s just you.  YOU. You against yourself.  Life is constantly giving us opportunities to practice mind-over-matter; and this is one that we pay a $650 registration fee for.  The chance to BE with every ache, and pain. Why am I doing this? She looks like she’s not in pain.  I wonder how old she is?  Why am I doing this? I need water. I have to pee.  Should I stop. Why am I doing this? Somewhere in the internal monologue (or dialogue depending on how many of you are up there) you realize. You decided to do this to find your edge. To experience discomfort and pain. But epiphany strikes.  You realize that in discomfort there is peace, and in pain there is pleasure. You discover that you can choose not to suffer, and that being with discomfort isn’t the same as BEING uncomfortable. And that this race brings you closer to being the BIGGEST, baddest version of you there is.

You celebrate with a sun B.  Because you are a warrior.  Because we all are.

The post I Do. A Marriage of Sorts. appeared first on Baptiste Yoga.