Devotion As Submission

I feel like I'm talking about this all the time but it's still such a huge topic for me. Although I don't subscribe to a religion, I consider myself spiritual. I have the live and let live philosophy and it makes life so much easier. You can avoid so much drama by just letting people be, letting everything just be. But yoga is the piece that adds the juicy bits to that straightforward way of being.

I discovered yoga nine years ago. It was Baron Baptiste who could hold my attention back then and not because he was hot, although that didn't hurt. He just taught a class where the rug was pulled out from under you over and over again and all your bullshit was called out and he wasn't beating around the bush about it. I had (have?) a lot of bullshit.

I used to teach Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga and I firmly believe in the power of something as physical as yoga taking someone to a place so completely not physical. For me, the more challenging the posture, the more it hurt, the more I was in. That physical discomfort forced me to find center, find my breath, stop the chatter in my head and focus and then, if it's a good day, melt into it. Just give over to the pain and let it have me and just maybe, I find some peace there.

I made a joke once that isn't a joke at all really. I think yoga teachers are sadists and students are masochists coming back for more and more. On a side note, I believe the opposite of every truth resides within that same thing - or in this case - person. Did that make sense? 

I was talking with a friend not too long ago and he said something that has stuck with me. Hopefully, I get it right because he wrapped this all up so nicely. He said something like - or maybe I should say I understood something like: "devotion will be the expression of your submission." Those words are some of the loveliest that have ever been strung together in my mind. He managed to bring two very important parts of my life together and just summed it up so neatly. It's still something that requires some exploration from me but I get goose bumps thinking about it. 

Anyhow, my post has turned into rambling again, but I think that's part of it. Ramble and talk and read and listen and really hear and maybe you can uncover another layer and get closer to the core.