It's amazing, when you plan something out for almost a year, but yet you still have no idea what to expect. I really had no idea what to expect from School Yoga Institute, in fact, I never even took a look at their website before I showed up at Aqua Resort at Redonda Bay, Nicaragua. Luckily, I had a year of preparation before I showed up, and I needed it. Yoga school was more than just a physical exercise and method of teaching. Yoga school was a spiritual experience, a constant questioning of your true self and the world around you. One of the hardest things to do is to really look inwards, to drop your cultural belief, your love of your living body, even drop your love for people, in order to ask yourself deep questions: Who am I? Where do we come from before we are born? After we live? Who are we before we are given a name? Can nature talk?
So many internal emotions came up for everyone at yoga school. Most people weren't expecting to break down and cry or make so many friends, face their deepest fears, and let go of the burdens that they carried. But everyone did laugh, cry, get upset, frustrated, and even throw their burdens into the fire (literally we threw stuff in the fire representing things we needed to let go of.) We learned about spirituality from many fronts, even shamanic spirituality which is something I have always respected and wanted to learn, also one of the many great surprises that School Yoga had in store for me. Below I am going to put some quotes from my journal at yoga school. Three weeks may not seem like a long time, but 24 hours a day of self reflection can seem like a lifetime of learning. I will quickly thank the facilitators and the participants in making this experience one of the most remembered life experiences I expect to have. NAMASTE!
"And yet to be able to distance myself from all of it, with months on the road and end up on the gently sloped hill that gives itself away to a virgin beach, surrounded bu people who are open to experience things as they come in their interpretations."
"I'll never understand the selfish, greedy people of the world, so concerned with self entitlement, that they don't realize we are all related to one another."
"isolated island meditation, I had to open my eyes to make sure I wasn't alone."
"cultivate the stillness."
"total lack of concentration, total lack of lack of thinking...a great flow snapped me back into the mode."
"took a big siesta in a hammock after lunch, zoned me out big time!"
"immediately you could tell satsung was set up differently, candles lined the edges of the yoga shalah and music was tranquilly playing on the speaker, tribal music. A chakra dance..."
"...gathering everyone around the fire...we invoked the spirits of the directions...gave thanks to mother earth and father sky...we offered our talismans to the fire, destroying a memory or feeling, intention, ego, jealousy, death, we dumped our secrets into the fire."
"The journey not the destination - "if you don't know where you are headed any path will take you there." "
"...in the calmness, that forms a wave, that incredible silent energy that builds in a wave before it crashes, harnessing that silence gave me the feeling of preparing for a duck dive as the wave grows larger and larger before your eyes, the silence as you take a breath, and dive under the pounding energy of the ocean, the wave passes with a soft whoosh, as you glide silently back to the surface."
ORIGINAL POEM
"Sitting on a barnacle covered rock near the sea, watching the tide slowly pull away from me, Listening to the chirping of a sea bird, following it's movements, caught on every word
Sitting in deep contemplation on this long journey looking to let my thoughts flow freely As the energy of the ocean fills and surrounds dropping the cultural barriers that bound
The waves slowly fill in the empty spaces I see past lives, but recognize the faces The animals crawl, swim, and fly I let me thoughts slowly drift by and by
Seated on a barnacle covered rock near the sea All these things that are myself and me." THE END
"what a fun beautiful day filled with lightness."
"INEFFABLE, Gift show!"
"Maria had a kick ass gift. literally. YES! I didn't knwo she had that much energy. :)"
"Snow White and the 7 yoga instructors...there was Guru, Doc, Turiya, Prana, Bliss and Santosa, it was a riot had by all."
"got two amazing barrel rides, right off the gecko!" -while surfing
"Last day, taught vinyasa this morning, was really fun, liked being able to go through the flow, physically with my student, at my pace, ended savasana with the panchamama song, was perfect."
