Our Ego is Never Our Amigo!

Arriving in Paris a few days prior to when my actual TT course begins has given me some much required time to settle, find my feet and of course, get them on my mat to help ground myself before we begin training.

So yesterday I ventured to the studio, Bikram L'Espace, which will be home for the next month, to take a class. What an incredible start to my journey here!..

The studio is beautiful and calming, Frederick the owner is an incredible teacher, he took the class mainly in French but still, I learnt so much from him from just one class. Sometimes language is no barrier for the energy somebody transmits. 💫

It was a challenging, focused, hot and sweaty class that had me testing all my concentration - A new studio, new people, teachers and a dialogue that wasn't in English.. testing to say the least! (and lets not talk about the added sunburn-factor!) 🙈

I had to go inside, to find my focus, to remember my breathe. The fundamentals really - but a challenging class like that always has us returning to that. 

B r e a t h e. 🙏🏻

Its always the hardest classes where we learn the most. I learnt something about my ego yesterday. I'm by default, a natural perfectionist, something I try every day to quieten..  and today I had to really let it go, to remind myself that a teacher is never judging you... even if you're a pupil here about to train to do what they do... 

We still have to be honest with ourselves and know our limits. Who are we trying to impress by pushing ourselves beyond a beneficial limit? I am about to embark on a month of practicing nearly two of these 90 minute classes every day, 6 days a week... So its important to listen to our bodies, to be kind, to be humble. Perfection never exists. 

We must not worry ourselves with what someone else thinks of our practice, we have to learn not to obsess about what the final pose looks like.. its always about the journey getting there.

Theres a great quote that I heard from a wonderful teaching friend of mine Christian Scaraglino that always stays with me - Our Ego is Never our Amigo!

.. and its so true. We all have to learn to remember that from time to time.

Little lessons like the one I learn when I find myself beating myself up for falling out of a posture, or when I find myself 'performing' my yoga instead of truly practicing it (blame the years of dance training!) it takes real strength of self to really go within, to connect with your Self and practice simply for you. 

At Evolation, they teach 'Yoga for the Self', which leapt out to me when I saw it, thinking YES! Thats exactly, to me, what yoga is and should always be about. 

Its not about being super bendy, or impressing your friends, or making cool photos for Instagram (though yes, we all love those too!) I am reminded of the beautiful yoga-saying - 

'Yoga is not about touching your toes, its about what you learn on the way down and who you are on the way up.' 💫

With love, Namaste x