 Patanjali's Yoga Sutra 2.44 स्वाध्यायादिष्टदेवता संप्रयोगः ॥४४॥ svādhyāyād-iṣṭa-devatā saṁprayogaḥ ||44|| Self-study and reflection on yourself (svadhyaya) brings you into contact with the desired ideal. "Engaging in yoga helps us re-member; we embody our ideals." -trans. Libby Cox · "I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well." -Henry David Thoreau According to my Austin philosophy teacher, Dr. Ellen Stansell, the very definition of yoga philosophy is one that has room to adapt for its time. It is a living, breathing organism. With that pulse comes the notion that evolution and change are intrinsic. Yoga philosophy is meant to twist and turn through time and through the human mind, becoming inextricably interwoven with our own thoughts, opinions, needs, and ideals. In my understanding, this is exactly what happened to yoga philosophy in India over the course of thousands of years. Like a roaming wild animal, yoga philosophy wandered through time and across the Indian landscape, grazing on the minds and circumstances of all who saw it. With its tail, this yogic animal pulled behind it threads of deep wisdom, and stories of creation, humanity, deities, life, death, revelation and rebirth, twisting around the feet of everyone and everything in its wake. In short, yoga philosophy is what we make of it. It lives in us. The destiny of yoga philosophy is to change as we change, to move as we move, to move and change as us, tangled up in the process of our own attempts to unravel it. We are already these embodied ideals. Simply allow these ideas to tug on the heartstrings of consciousness and you're practicing yoga. So, instead of writing a concise, fixed definition of yoga philosophy, and in honor of this living, breathing philosophy, may I present my blog. What I think comprises the body, the gems, of yoga philosophy will change as I change, as I live out my days. Every day I hope I remember that I am the embodiment of these ideas and ideals. This blog post originally appeared on Libby Cox Yoga and was reprinted with permission. You have two opportunities to practice with Libby in person at EYS.
4/26-4/28 Friday only option 6-9p or Friday + Saturday and Sunday 1-7p. This workshop is for EveryOne! Yoga teachers earn 13 hours of CEU's with Yoga Alliance.
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Hello yogi/ni's! I had the chance to sit down and talk with the Libby Bailey Cox about yoga philosophy and her upcoming workshop at EYS. You have two opportunities to practice with Libby in person at EYS.
Friday only option 4/26 6-9p or Friday + Saturday and Sunday 1-7p. This workshop is for EveryOne and yoga teachers you can earn 13 hours of CEU's with Yoga Alliance. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did! Mandy: Hi again Libby! Here we are, doing this again, because I forgot to hit record the first time… Libby: Case in point—that Tantra is for householders! M: Yes, what would we do without it! Thank you for coming back online and spending more of your precious time with us. L:You’re welcome! M: We have to start by pointing out that we’ve known each other since 2005. That’s so long! It was when we were yoga teachers, before you were a mother and before you considered yourself a philosophy teacher. From 2005 till now you’ve made a lot of transitions and I’d love to hear about your journey from going to yoga teacher to yoga philosophy teacher. L:Alright! Well, long story short, I found yoga through dance. My favorite dance professor in college was a yoga teacher and yogini. The philosophy aspect came right on the heels of the physical practice, partly because I’ve always been a person who feels strange being person! Almost like I’m an alien trying on a human body, and there’s always been a certain amount of awe around the shape of us, and how we move and how we are beings in the world. When I took my first yoga class with my dance professor, one of the things that really stood out for me was how different I felt from practicing yoga asana versus moving for dance or for an art form or as a performance. The mental and emotional shifts that happened with the yoga were among some of the first questions I had for my teacher and they were always kind of in the forefront. When I was studying to become a yoga teacher, I was also studying to become a Waldorf high school art teacher, and I was particularly interested in Waldorf education because of the philosophical component that Rudolf Steiner, the founder, had. He had a unique way of looking at the world, and of thinking about how we are as beings, as creatures on planet earth. When I started teaching yoga, I already had a teaching background from dance and art, and with my performance background, it’s always been pretty easy for me to speak in public. And when I did my 500-hour yoga teacher training I studied with Dr. Ellen Stansell, and we did a 50-hour independent study together on the Bhagavad Gita. I spent some wonderful time with her—she had just had a baby and I went to her house and we sat together in this sweet and intimate way learning about philosophy and so I got to give a presentation around the Bhagavad Gita and that kind of got the ball rolling in terms of just having the space to be in conversation about philosophy. Not long after that, Yoga Yoga in Austin asked me to start teaching the philosophy modules for their teacher training and ever since then it’s really been by request that I continue to teach philosophy. It sort of fell into my lap in that way. And now it’s a beautiful ferocious feedback loop that I keep teaching, and people keep having more questions, and I keep having more questions and keep learning and so here we are, ten or fifteen years later, teaching yoga philosophy.  Neutral mind means you stay neutral. You are able to make choices, and listen to intuitive flow more readily—no matter what position you find yourself in. -Elena Brower Monkey mind. Thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere. Rushing to judgement, hurrying to react. We all have experienced these types of occasions from time to time. Whether driven by external forces or an inner discomfort, we are sometimes challenged to find a place of stillness and quiet. Consciously cultivating a Neutral Mind helps us to become less of a victim of all these fluctuations, and we gain a greater command of how we show up in the world. Neutral Mind means we don’t take sides. Neutral Mind means just that—we stay neutral. We take the middle road. Or maybe before we choose our path, we are able to stop and take a breath first. In between each inhale and each exhale lies a place where breath is suspended, if only for a fraction of a moment. It is that time when things change direction—the inhale becomes the exhale; the outbreath becomes the inbreath. It is a place of freedom, albeit brief, where we can reconnect with our inner landscape. And by connecting with our inner landscape, we are better connected to our outer world as well. (Have you noticed that yoga is full of paradoxes? It’s like a beautiful box. You open it up and inside, you discover the most beautiful box. Then you want to open that box. Which of course, contains another beautiful box…) When we practice yoga—and also meditation—we are more readily able to connect with this neutral space, and we can even begin to cultivate it. We can find neutrality within a yoga pose; the pushing and pulling, the rooting down and the rising up. We can find the space between, where everything is perfectly balanced. If we consciously hone our observation skills, we become experts at finding this neutral space in other areas of our lives besides on the mat. Can you pause before passing judgement? Can you breathe before reacting? We can learn to spend time in the space between; we can become experts at cultivating neutrality. Staying neutral gives us choices. Pausing before reacting gives us the space and the power to make those choices. Choice means freedom. Written by Andrea Neil, ryt 500, TIYT
 The best way to find a solution to a problem, is to align yourself with the answer. How can you find an answer, if you keep thinking about the problem? As Abraham Hicks would say, “you can’t get there from there.” This is where yoga can be incredibly beneficial; allow yourself to spend time focusing on the body and breath, instead of getting caught on the hamster wheel that is “problem solving.” While not always a celebrated approach by our culture, it is nonetheless effective, and arguably more so than focusing on “hustling” and “efforting.” At first, this might feel counterintuitive. But if you stop, breathe, and feel, you might come to know the truth of this approach. What if you simply flow with body and breath, reestablish the mind-body connection, and focus on living a full, complete and satisfying life? Could you let everything go for an hour during your yoga practice? If you did, you can align yourself with the answers. You also might find it easier to practice this alignment off the mat, as well as on it. It is one-hundred percent true: you never know where the solution could lie. You never know where inspiration might come from. And when the energetic channels of the body are opened through yoga, and the connection is established between movement and breath, you can feel yourself opening up to ideas, solutions, and inspiration. Maybe you can’t even imagine how it might work. Maybe you don’t have to—it might be as simple as yoga. AuthorAndrea Neil- RYT 500, TIYT  EYS is proud to include Melissa Smith as a co-lead for the 200-hour training this year! Melissa is an integral part of the Tulsa yoga community – and beyond. She is also part of the EYS mentoring program and is Executive Director of the Attic Conversations. She’s a busy mom, a practicing yogini, and has a passion that shines through her entire being. We recently caught up with her to ask her a few questions, so we can get to know her better…
Tell us something we don’t know about you yet. I grew up on airports, and my first job was actually being a manifest for a skydive drop zone. My dad is an instructor pilot and flew the jump plane for a little drop zone in Alabama when I was a young kid. When most kids were learning how to ride a bike with 2 wheels, I was learning how to fly small planes, and hanging out with crazy people who jumped out of them. One of my very first memories was sitting on a red, plaid blanket eating a picnic lunch of KFC chicken and watching the parachutes float down to earth. I only worked for one summer at the drop zone (my 16-year-old self may have been a little too shy and soft-spoken to organize a bunch of rowdy skydivers). However, my brother is a tandem instructor there now, and I did my first skydive with him at the place where I had my first job. It was a sweet moment and I look forward to my next jump! Why are you drawn to be involved with EYS? I feel Everyone Yoga School gives a great education in the ancient roots of yoga, as well as how to be a successful teacher in our modern age. Teacher trainees are given a great introduction to yoga philosophy as well as how to lead a safe and effective public class. One thing I really appreciate about the EYS model is that it is not just asana (or poses). Mudra, mantra, meditation, and movement are all taught to give the teacher trainees a well-rounded tool box to pull from, for their personal practice or their teaching practice. I love the fact that the EYS model is non-dogmatic—there is no one way to do things. I love that the teacher trainees get to learn from many voices and perspectives and are given the opportunity to find what works for their unique teaching practice. You can go through EYS and gain the skills to become a fierce hot power yoga teacher or a soft, sensitive restorative yoga teacher—OR BOTH! What are you looking forward to the most for the upcoming 200-hour Teacher Training? I am mostly looking forward to meeting and getting to know all of the new teacher trainees. I can't wait to watch them find their individual voices as teachers and develop their teaching practices. I'm really geeking out on curriculum development right now and am excited to find opportunities to continually improve the way we deliver content. Also, the creative projects - I really love to see the personal flavor that each trainee chooses to share. How do you want to change the world? I want to make the world a more empathetic place. I'd love to have a hand in cultivating kindness, compassion, and acceptance of our fellow humans. I think this starts with education. We teach our kids to be the humans we wish we were, so that they create the world we want to live in. As a teacher trainer, I aim to guide my trainees to be the best version of themselves and teach from a place of authenticity and acceptance.  Stop. Take three breaths. Three slow, full, complete, intentional breaths. Continue. Mindfulness happens in the pause. In the time it takes you to breathe three full inhales and exhales, you are living in the pause, where silence occurs, and we allow ourselves a chance to hit the reset button. That pause is also a place to hear our own voice more clearly. If you listen, you will hear what your heart tells you. Intuition is the best advice you could ever get (even better than your mom’s). In that pause, you have the ability to choose what comes next. Will it be from the heart, or will it be a reaction to what came before? Will it be constructive, loving, supportive? What if you made all your choices in life following these three easy steps? Stop before you respond to another’s words. Listen before making a decision. Pause to hear what the next step is. Guess what? Your heart is always right. Andrea Neil, RYT 500, TIYT Everyone Yoga School is beyond excited to be working with Megan Spears. A dynamic force of nature, Megan was the co-lead teacher for our 200-hour Teacher Training in 2017 and this year is taking the helm as Lead Teacher. We caught up with Megan recently and asked her a few questions in order to get to know her a little better!
Tell us something we don’t know about you yet. One of my favorite sounds is when someone is full-out belly laughing. Another is the sound of walking on dried leaves or gravel. I feel the most like myself when…
Why are you drawn to be involved with EYS? My first teacher training rocked my world in more ways than I couldn't understand at the time. I love helping others develop and learn the foundations of this practice. Additionally, I love who I get to create, plan, and grow with. Mandy Eubanks is an intelligent, humble, and very warm human being. What are you looking forward to the most for the upcoming 200-hour Teacher Training? I’m excited to see the "ah-ha" moments. Every 200-hour training group brings a different energy and pizzazz to the room, which is always fun. Additionally, I always look forward to creative night, an evening dedicated to the trainees sharing their creative expression. It usually involves food :) How do you want to change the world? That is a tall order! I simply want to be my *whole* self as often as possible, aware and loving to all aspects of myself, and support others in their process. I think we, as a collective, can change the world by seeing the good, or the anandamaya kosha, in ourselves, our situations, and others. Also, recycle, vote, and be kind.  Do yoga in order to know what to do when you’re not doing yoga.
-Rod Stryker It’s easy to “really get into yoga.” It’s easy to let it take over your life, to eat, breathe and sleep yoga. And then decide you want to be a yoga teacher, and then you even dream about yoga. Yes, it’s easy to love. It’s also easy, therefore, to get a little carried away… even by something as awesome as yoga. All things in moderation, balance is key. So what about all the time in your life when you’re not doing yoga? Guess what – you can still do yoga. Our physical yoga practice prepares us for the rest of our lives. Sure, when we practice we connect movement with breath, we reconnect with our higher selves, so that we may be fully present off the mat as well as on. But yoga also helps us make new connections, both physically and mentally, and those new connections create new opportunities. Our yoga practice can help us become clear about who we are, what we want, and how we want to move through the world. That is the true essence of the practice.  Everyone Yoga School is so happy to have Jeanne Doss on our roster of amazing teachers this year! Jeanne will be a co-lead for the 300-hour advanced teacher training program, starting this June.
Jeanne has been teaching yoga for over twelve years and has had many teachers along the way, including Kripalu-influenced Jonathan Sudhir Foust, Carolyn Sudha Lundeen, and Michelle Dalbec. She has also studied with Mandy Eubanks, Victor Parachin, and Shakta Kaur Khalsa, to name just a few. Below are a few questions we asked Jeanne recently, so that you can get to know her and see how amazing she is. EYS: Tell us something we might not know about you. I am an actual Okie from Muskogee! In the summer between high school graduation and my first year in college at OSU, I was a tour guide for the USS Batfish, a WWII-era submarine located in Muskogee. EYS: Why are you drawn to be involved with Everyone Yoga School? I believe in continuing education, especially as a yoga teacher. There is always more to learn, and when you are helping people, you can never know too much about the human body and how it works. EYS: What are you looking forward to the most, for the upcoming 300-hour training? For the 300-hour training, I am excited to share the wonder of giving to others. Teaching yoga is not merely our ability to "perform" the postures; it is about teaching people to know their own bodies, embrace themselves, and stop the war of body hatred or punishment through exercise. EYS: How do you want to change the world? I can only change the world one person at a time by making a difference in caring for them, and sharing my passion for yoga. People need hope, and I want to be a "hope builder." Welcome to EYS Jeanne, we’re so happy you’re here!  Yoga is really the art of waking up. -Adriene Mishler Some of us go through our whole lives asleep. Some of us wake at an early age, others of us are late risers. But when we awaken isn't all that important; everyone has a different path to travel. The simple question is, are you yourself awake or asleep? We could have a long, metaphysical conversation about whether our reality is a wake state or a dream state – but maybe we’ll tackle that in a later discussion. For now, let’s assume our reality is a state of wakefulness. Are you awake? There are many reasons people choose to stay asleep. It is easier to be numb. It hurts less to see the injustice or inequality that sometimes makes up parts of our reality. It is easier not to expend the energy it takes to reach our full potential. But some believe that we are given this chance at being human to have the opportunity to reach our full human potential – to manifest goodness, to enjoy the ride. To marvel at the sunshine, the birds, and all of the green growing things that surround us this time of year. Yoga can help us experience our wakefulness. It can wake us back up to our own bodies, our own Selfs, and connect us to each other and the world at large. Now who wouldn’t want that? If you’re looking to deepen your yoga practice, to deepen your connection to others, and wake up just that much more, check out the teacher training programs at Everyone Yoga School. We make waking up fun. Andrea NeilI am a writer, a reader, and a yoga instructor. I balance all of this with plenty of coffee, chocolate, and naps. |
about our AuthorsThe Everyone Yoga School blog is written by guest authors who are former students, instructors, and passionate yogis with the sole purpose of sharing the yoga experience in the live and hearts of everyone. Archives
April 2019
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