My Lessons From The Yoga Mat + From The Book That Changes Peoples Lives!
by Debbie Tonge
Way of the Peaceful Warrior (the book that changes lives). I found this book to be exactly as the title states. It is truly inspirational and has many, many lessons in it when even after reading it twice and taking notes I feel that there is still so much to learn from it.
The overwhelming lesson that made me wake up and take note was the power of NOW and being focused on being present in the moment. To concentrate and make each moment special and HAPPY as ‘happiness is the only power that counts’. I strive to be happy, act happy and take this to work with me as I am aware of the effect this energy can have on the patients that I come into contact with and my work colleagues. As a CT operator I am very conscious that my patients are either nervous of the procedure, the unknown, and or the potential results of the examination. I feel that by chatting to them and helping them keeping present and taking one step at a time calms them down and helps them cope. To see a smile, sometimes a tearful one, gives me great happiness that I have managed to bring comfort to someone even for a brief moment.
“There are no ordinary moments”.This quote always brings back the scene in my head of the retreat after we had watched a beautiful sunrise, and then walked to the grassy patch for our yoga session. We started off walking purposefully, awareness of every step . A very simple task but I found it to be deeply enriching and realizing that every step is and feels different and if you just slow down enough to take note. This moment has stayed with me and I have used it many times afterwards to take the note of the moment I am in.
Over the past month I have been blessed to have my family and all their dogs around me and I feel that I have really been able to have quality time . I had the power to let go of things that were not important but would impact on the moment. These words popped up to make me stop for a moment, almost like a snapshot and be so grateful and appreciate the love of and between my family. Certain smiles, expressions were captured in my heart. “Way of the Peaceful Warrior helped me acknowledge these special moments as they would have been there before but now I was actually paying attention.”
“Life has 3 rules:
1. Paradox – life is a mystery, don’t waste your time trying to figure it out. A really strong lesson for me as by nature I am a “worry pot’, my mind can stress about the past and the what ifs of the future. “The mind is an obstruction, an aggravation’ and that you need to let go of your minds atttachments and just go for the ride freely. By focusing on being in the present I have found it to be a huge help and feel calmer and happier. This will be a great tool to apply when teaching yoga as I know I will question whether I gave enough in a class, did people benefit from it and to remember to go into a class, to do the best that I can and then not waste time analysing every minute of the class.
2. Humour– to be able to laugh at ones self even in moments of unease does make a difference. In my early days of yoga my balance was horrendous and I always seemed to choose the wrong times to fall over and with no grace . Humour did help and was a good test for everyone elses focus. I still need to work on having a sense of humour in times of adversity.
3. Change – know that nothing ever stays the same. Learning to enjoy each moment as they are never the same, each walk on the beach, each sunrise, each family holiday, each yoga practice. Learning to accept change, grow with it and keep learning. ‘the secret to change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new’. Change can be difficult and to apply this when teaching by accepting constructive feedback by changing a routine or manner with a sense of humour.
‘Attention is the intentional channelling of awareness’. The more yoga classes I attend the more I begin to feel and understand to take a moment to set an intention. As far as I understand it means to channel your awareness inwards and to set a focus for that class. Dan used his breathing technique to warm himself up when sitting on the rock outside. During the past few classes I have focused on doing this with the concentration on my ujayi breath and found a big improvement in how it does warm up the body. I try to constantly pay attention to my breath, slow and controlled during yoga poses that require effort. Starting to find that with regular practice I do become more aware of it or aware that I should be doing it. “Breathe so quietly that you will not disturb a feather under your nose” – this slows your breathing right down. I have tried this during savassana and found myself drawn into a state of peace and relaxation, where I could focus on observing, without judgement and just let go.
‘Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence sitters of the the world afraid to take a stand. It’s for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die’. Very powerful and motivating phrase. Initially its easy to laugh this off and say well that’s not me but then I stopped and really thought about it and its relativity to this precise moment of starting the yoga course and it brought attention to focus on every class attended and did ‘I do the best that I can’ or was it a mediocre effort. Its about making a choice and being responsible for the consequences. I intend to keep this as a motto for every class I attend or have to teach.
“Most of your mental and emotional problems could be minimized by simple attention to proper eating” Personally I have experienced this for myself and can feel the effects when I slip off and eat “ bad” foods. By leading by example I hope to encourage and guide in a kind way to finding better energy levels by eating correctly . I have approached one of my young work colleagues to be my student for someone to train. I want to shout at her “wake up” and stop hiding behind your body and to use the practice of yoga to find her inner beautiful self. I am hoping that by feeling better about herself it will keep encouraging her to eat correctly. Lots of work ahead of me as she is very good with the excuses but at least she no longer eats a Mcdonald burger in front of me.
‘Wake up! Wake up! Soon the person you believe you are will die, so wake up and be content with this knowledge‘. I find these words exciting as I sense that by the time I have finished this course they will be very true and I look forward to letting go and enjoying the journey and learning and taking note of all the steps.
‘The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination’. Happiness is within each of us and the message to stop striving for something that we think we need to achieve to find happiness but to stop and realise it was always here and is with us . This statement incorporates all the other lessons from the book. To me it means to be happy in the present, be happy with what I have, not to resist life but to do the best that I can, to pay attention, to lead a life of compassion and kindness because in giving you will receive …… and then we can all be happy!
Life can be simple if we just have to let it happen and go for the ride.
Debbie Tonge works as a CT operator and is currently completing her Yoga NRG Level 1 Teacher Training. For more information on Yoga NRG Teacher Training email support@yoga-nrg.com
(Below: Debbie and her husband Brian at the YogaNRG retreat, Stradbroke Island 2014)
For more information on Dan Millman’s visit to Australia in March 2015 click here.
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