Yoga In The Dark May 05th,2017

Ever wonder why I teach my classes with the lights off?

A key role of your yoga teacher is to lead you back to your authentic self.

Your authentic self is the part of you that doesn’t comprise your core values for the sake of acceptance, approval, recognition or a promotion.

Turning out the lights, and encouraging you to close your eyes is meant to reconnect you to your true self and your soul’s guidance. The more I can facilitate you looking inward, the more powerful your transformation can be.

One of my favourite teachers, Max Strom, would always say, “close your eyes so you can see more.”

Everything you want to change in your life begins with an inner transformation. Your inward journey is your most powerful one.

Your days can feel so fast paced at times that it isn’t until you’re “forced” to be still on your yoga mat that you finally catch up with yourself.

I often have this image in my mind of there being two parts to us (this isn’t too dissimilar to the witness/observer view of a meditator).

One part of us is wise and has great insights and answers for us, but the other part of us is scared, stressed and running so fast to check things off their ever growing to do list, that they never get to benefit from this wisdom.

Can you slow down and let the wise part of you catch up?

A lot of what you do day to day might just be “busy for the sake of busy.”

It’s an easy trap to fall into for two main reasons:

1. Busy keeps you from feeling uncomfortable emotion you’re going to have to process if you want your life to change. You can’t run from it forever….sooner or later it will catch up with you. You can start processing it by sweating it out and breathing it out in your practice. Your yoga is a far more powerful detox than you realize. You cleanse your body but at the same time you’re cleansing toxic emotion.
2. Busy feeds your sense of self-importance. Society rewards us for being busy and it feeds our egos…this is a dangerous game to play. You sacrifice a lot, including your most precious relationships, when you let yourself be ruled by your ego.

There are not many times in your day where you’re given permission to just sit still and be. There are many points throughout your yoga class where this happens. When you finally slow down and get quiet that wise part of you can share its wisdom with the stressed part of you….that stressed part could be the death of you (or the death of your true self) if it doesn’t slow down.

Close Your Eyes to See More

Slow Down to Accomplish More

To get updates on the launch of my upcoming online program, Heal Your Heart, click here

Sat Nam

Gloria Latham