If you have love, share it. WHATSOEVER you have, share it, spread it all over; let it spread like the fragrance of a flower going to the winds. ~ OSHO
This week it’s exactly a year ago that I went to Ibiza for Kundalini yoga teacher training. Exactly a year ago my transformational journey started and I realize now – it’s a never ending journey. A thought, which is exciting and discomforting at the same time. Exciting, because every step on this journey inwards is a chance to learn, to get inspired. To get surprised. By your own body. And by your own mind. It is a chance to get closer to something bigger than the previous two, your true self.
It’s an discomforting thought too. Because normally, when you start a journey you expect to arrive somewhere, to get there and to relax. When you are on a journey inwards you kind of know – you will never arrive. Or maybe I should be less negative here. Most of us won’t. Not in this lifetime at least.
But there is something utterly wonderful about this soul safari: even if the journey is a very personal one – you are not alone. En route you meet many wonderful souls you would never get to know if you played it safe, staying in your “comfort zone”. Playing safe means that you continue living your life like you used to, not asking questions and not considering that you may never find answers to them.
I came to Ibiza scared like a little lamb. I couldn’t say why. Maybe a part of me didn’t want to come out of the comfort zone. Didn’t want to change. Even if I was going thru a hard time, my situation was what I have known. It was scary to change it. The traveling day Dado brought me to the airport and made sure that I’m really going to stay in the check-in line. A part of me wanted this training so badly. And the other part wanted nothing else but to escape.
The first meeting of the teacher training in Ibiza started with a sharing session. Our last meeting was a sharing session. And everything in between was one big sharing session too. And that didn’t happen by accident. Our training teachers consciously created an atmosphere in which we felt safe and ready to work on ourselves but also ready to help and uplift each others.
In our daily lives, we are all kind of hoarders. We hoard everything. Love, time, money, food, books, clothes, even experiences. In our individualistic societies we have unlearned sharing. How did we come so far? Is it because we don’t have enough time for ourselves so we don’t want to share it? We don’t have enough love, so we don’t want to share it? We don’t have enough money so we don’t want to share it? We don’t have enough knowledge so we don’t want to share it? Our teacher, aware of where we come from, made the environment ready for us to re-learn to share again.
We learned, I learned, how to share again. And what it means to share with each other. It is not a charity. You don’t share because the other lacks something you have. You share out of the joy of sharing. We shared our sleeping dorms, the breakfast, the sun. We shared Sadhana, Kriya’s and meditations. We shared our stories. Our experiences. Our insights. The food. We shared the work in Seva (selfless service) groups. We shared our feelings, our fears and hopes. We shared joy. Happiness. Tears. We shared hours and hours of practice. The heavy parts of it and the blissful ones. We shared a lots of laughter. Tons and tons of laughter. Believe me, sometimes I had more sore muscles from laughing than from hours and hours of yoga. We shared the sunrises and sunsets. We shared our breaths. The teacher’s oath. Every moment.
That sharing made us know and trust each other. That sharing made us care about each other. And it made us love each other. It made us grow. Cause you grow when you share. The receiver is your mirror. You should be grateful to him. Not the other way around.
Our teacher set up and held the space for us. She shared her knowledge and the knowledge of her teachers. I received so much in the first week of the teacher training that I felt reborn. This first week was a perfect kickoff for a very long run into a new way of living. I started this journey out of need for a personal growth, never thinking of becoming a teacher. After the first week at the training, I became conscious of what teaching yoga really means. It is a form of a selfless service. Sharing.
While wanting to share my experience with you, I realized that this idea of a never ending journey is not as discomforting as I initially thought. As long as we are aware of our interdependence, we will share and grow with each other at every stage of it. I know it sounds cliche, but in the end it is all about the journey, not the destination.
We Breathe Yoga – Sisterhood
