Tuesday, November 13, 2012

2013 Amber Spear Wellington Workshops Preview


This is just a small pre-announcement that my dear friend Amber Spear has decided to run 3 workshops in Wellington on the week ending of March 8-10 2013. I will provide further details soon but for now I want to provide some personal context regarding my association with this very special Yogini.

Earlier this year I took quite a leap of faith, joining Amber on her Bali retreat. I arrived in a strange country, never having met Amber nor any of the other participants attending. I may have arrived as a stranger but I left knowing I was now part of a family. I was filled with a sense of gratitude towards Amber for her open heart and spirit. If not for her none of this would ever have happened. A Globe-travelling Yogini and native of Australia (but with a connection to NZ) Amber visits all parts of the world sharing her love of Yoga and constantly seeking to expand her own horizons. She is a brave and courageous soul who brings a lot of good into the world and I admire her greatly. Definitely, she has made my life a better place and helped me on my on-going journey to be a better person.

It is my sincere hope that her workshops will be well supported while she is here, in a very real sense of the word I'd like to see the Wellington Yoga community in general, and more specifically my own Yoga Whanau really step up to the plate and make her visit the success I know it deserves to be. In addition, and having experienced a lot of Ambers teaching, I know her workshops will also be suitable to curious non-Yogis willing to try something new. I guarantee everyone who attends will be glad they did. Amber does not teach like me, and she will share new insights and offer new challenges outside the scope of my own classes. I see this is a wonderful thing and an opportunity not to be missed.

Monday, November 5, 2012

The General Theory of Yogic Relativity



A new Hot Bikram Yoga studio has opened near to where I live. Yesterday I thought what the hell I'll go check a class out. The teacher was very good and I learnt some new things. at the end of the class she told me I was a very difficult person to teach because clearly I have developed my "own way" of doing things. She said she appreciated that I was a "good listener" and was willing to quickly adapt to her instructions. I did not tell her I was a teacher but I did say I am an improv Yogi and have been doing my own practice for many years. My view is when in Rome do as the Romans do but doing a class like this where there is only one right way of doing things (and therefore an infinite number of wrong ways) only continues to confirm that such a path can never do more than intersect with my own. Honestly I don't think it is wrong to deal in absolutes because some people need this sort of clarity in their lives. I've seen such a process create very beautiful people so I know it can't be wrong.

Many years ago I did a class in L.A. with a teacher called Saul David Raye. He said something near the beginning of the class that I decided to make a part of my own classes. He said "please understand that everything I say is a suggestion and an idea. It is never an instruction or a command". Maybe because I was surrounded by other Yogi's who felt like me, this class was a unique experience and perhaps one of the most special classes I have ever attended.

I am at a place now where I feel there is room to co-exist with systems and ideas that apparently conflict with my own basic truths. This is why I call myself a Libertarian. It seems, two (or more) different answers can both be right, it all depends on the relative state of the listener. I think this is a good place to be because it opens you up to learning beyond the line of sight of your own gaze.