Lately there’s been absolute yoga media frenzy. My response to a NY Times article claiming that yoga can “wreck your body” went crazy viral, receiving thousands more hits than anything I’ve previously written.

Good yoga teachers are not Krispy Kreme donuts. They can’t be mass-produced on a conveyor belt. Far too many lovely but inexperienced yoga enthusiasts become teachers before become time-ripened students–resulting in too many teachers attempting to teach what they have not yet even truly assimilated themselves.

I know because I was one of them. I offer myself as Exhibit A.

I trained to teach over a decade ago, before the current Anusara curriculum was in place. Eager beaver that I was, I cut right to the chase and signed up for teacher training before I could tell my root chakra from my elbow.

Bad plan.

I had yet to become time-ripened in my practice. I chose a training because it was geographically convenient and fit into my schedule. My cheeks are burning as I type this:  I enrolled in an Anusara yoga® Teacher Training without having ever even heard of Anusara yoga.

I’d never knowingly encountered tantric philosophy. I had no interest in community, and zero idea how to align my poses. Instructions to do things like, “Put my shoulder blades onto my back,” confused and frustrated me. I didn’t belong in that training. I didn’t belong in any teacher training.

I belonged in an Immersion. Only, it didn’t exist yet.

I cried over the course of that training—a lot. Upon graduating, realizing the depth of my ignorance, I immediately enrolled in a second training. I had a lot of getting up to speed to.

Don’t be like me. Since I trained, the Anusara curriculum has been far more systematically laid out. Our training curriculum is now rigorous enough to set the bar for the yoga community at large. If you find yourself practicing in an Anusara class, you can be confident that you are with a well-trained teacher.

We don’t crank students through Teacher Training. We’ve evolved The Immersion for students–and even teachers—who want to deepen their practice and dive to the very depths of their being. Diving to the depths of your being doesn’t happen overnight. It requires some time.

The Immersion is the doorway to the Anusara method through which every serious Anusara student walks. From soup to nuts, it introduces–or deepens–the philosophy behind the practice, elucidates the optimal ways of going about practicing, and of course includes lots of actual practice–for which there is no substitute. Immersing is designed to help assimilate the various snippets you’ve already picked up in class into a bigger, cohesive picture–as well as to fill in the missing pieces.

Have you been secretly wondering exactly what your teacher means by tantra?! Are you curious about The Bhagavad Gita–starting with the correct pronunciation? Ever try reading a yoga text on your own? How’d it go? Don’t feel bad if it didn’t go so well. Yoga texts should always be studied in community with a teacher who can offer insight into them.

Want to become a teacher? Immersing is the first step. Some Immersion graduates–having actually ripened in the method–go on to learn how to teach. Some don’t. That’s exactly as it should be. (Teaching yoga is a terrible way to get rich. The only good reason to teach is a deep call to serve.)

Speaking of teacher training--I will not be offering a Level 1 Teacher Training at either of my home studios in CT this year. Instead, I will be collaborating with Elements Yoga and Blackbird Yoga to offer a year of Immersions for every kind of student, and Continuing Ed for teachers. Together we will be devoting our combined resources to offerings of deliberate, unrushed programs designed to immerse you in your juiciest, most essential self.

2012 is the official Year of The Immersion. In addition to Immersion I, II and III, get ready for a brand new Immersion–a Mythology Immersion (!) debuting this fall, where you’ll have a chance to get your deity on. Details to be announced soon. For teachers wanting to refine—there is crazy good Continuing Ed this April with Level 2 Teacher Training.

2012–it’s gonna be a rad year.

XOB

PS: (For eager beaver types who are dying do Teacher Training, don’t despair–we’ve got you covered first thing Jan 2013.)

New Years’ Resolutions, anyone?  Make any?  Break any yet?

I have gone back and forth making resolutions over the years.  I’ve made them.  I’ve kept a few.  I’ve broken more.  I’ve ignored them entirely.

Resolutions are a paradox.  On the one hand, it’s absurd to think we will wake up on the morning of Jan 1 and somehow be an entirely new person, with new resolve–as though the past had been surgically removed.  On the one hand, Jan 1 is just a day like any other day.

On the other hand, there is something so hopeful in the idea of ritual fresh start, a chance to begin again. Every day, every moment, every breath is an opportunity to begin anew but–mostly–we forget that  Scheduling an official reminder on the calendar is a lovely idea.  We should probably do it more often.

Here’s what I’m mulling over regarding any New Year’s Resolutions I make this year:  are they made in the spirit of self-love, or are they actually self-loathing in disguise?

An example of self-love would be taking the time to research, plan, schedule and actually book the retreat I want to organize within the next 12 months.  Cuz I want to.  An example of self-loathing would be turning it into such a big deal that I make my worth as a yoga teacher–or even as a human–dependent on it.

Handstand in the middle of the room–blow through my tendons because I am going to do it no matter what, dammit?  Self-hatred.  Stick with a consistent practice guided by what is actually happening in my body?  Self-love.

Healthy food plan–because I feel better when I put live, green food in my body? Self-love!  Sign me up.  (Why, yes, thank you–I would love a green smoothie!)  Do it because I think my body is unacceptable or disgusting or less than divine exactly as it is? Self-hatred–pass.  Resolutions formed of self-hatred are not my cup of tea. Not anymore.  I am sniffing those suckers out.  Not only am I philosophically opposed to them, they don’t work. 

Yoga is an excellent tonic for it but self-loathing is insidious and often deeply rooted.   My neighborhood has been largely cleaned up but there are still some bad blocks.  Occasionally, my mind is an unsafe place to walk at night.

Come to think of it, maybe I do have one resolution for 2012:  identify and rip from the roots whatever self-loathing is left lurking around my ‘hood!

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?  If so, what have you resolved for 2012?  Is it a form of self-love or of self-loathing?  Are you sure?  Are you REALLY sure?  How do you know?  Leave a comment and let me know. 

I simultaneously slammed on my horn and the brakes.  The yellow cab froze.  He had cut right into my lane and missed hitting me by an inch.  Then he shot forward, cutting me off, and adding insult to injury.

REALLY?!  Really, you fucking asshole?  You REALLY need to drive like that?  I don’t normally think of myself as someone with road rage but this time I burned.  My inner monologue kicked into gear.

What an asshole.  What the fuck is wrong with people?  I don’t drive like that.  I am such a considerate driver.  I NEVER cut people off.  I ALWAYS let people in.  People suck.  They shouldn’t drive that way.  HE shouldn’t drive like that.  Asshole.

I simultaneously patted myself on the back and crucified him for a while.  Also, yes, I am a yoga teacher with a potty mouth.  Embrace the paradox.

Then–because I have been doing a lot of Byron Katie Work–I caught my false belief:  People shouldn’t drive like that!

People shouldn’t drive like that?  Is that really true?  Is it a thought worth thinking?

No.  It’s not.

Do you know how I know with 100% certainty that it’s not true?  Because (some) people do drive like that.  Thinking they shouldn’t just puts me in the ring with reality and I can’t win an argument with reality.  Boxing reality just bruises me.  I’m the one who suffers.

I should (and do) drive considerately because–of all values–I believe kindness to be the very most important one.  I want to be a kind person.  I am invested in it.

I never cut people off so they shouldn’t cut me off!  I am a considerate driver so others on the road should extend consideration to me!

Is that really true?  Are drivers at large obliged to extend me consideration because I have decided to drive considerately?

No.  That’s not actually true.  Holding other people hostage to a deal that I have made without their consent is a poor plan.

The payoff of questioning my false beliefs is that I stop losing arguments with reality–which means far less suffering.  Rooting out the false thought is a far more effective technique than continuing to think it, and yoga-breathing my way through the resulting rage.

The payoff of practicing kindness is that I get to identify myself as a kind person, and that feels really good.  I should be the kind of person I want to be.  Other people should exercise their precious freedom to be the kind of people they want to be, and drive accordingly.

Even when they drive like that.

Try questioning your beliefs and see what happens.