Step inside the hollow tree…

These reflections came in response to a request for an article on Spiritual Leadership for the Canadian Unitarian…

Precious revelation of spiritual leadership came to me on the yoga mat.  Running a small yoga studio and teaching many classes each week while moving through the ending of my marriage had been both profoundly challenging and deeply healing.  One evening after class a student quietly approached me to say, “I know this has been a difficult time for you, but you are present with such grace for every class and I see it’s possible to find some peace even when things are hard.”

Humbled and blessed by her words, I recalled how often I’d invited everyone to take a few extra breaths between postures because I was finding my own.  I remembered how the service of teaching had given me respite from my spinning thoughts, calling me to pay attention just to this one breath, then the next, and the next.  I knew that over and over again I had shared with others the words I most needed to hear:  “There is no place else to be, nothing you need to fix or change to begin this practice.  Give yourself permission to be here just as you are.”

Months later, I spent a week at a second Yin Yoga training, exploring how we show up as teachers.  We asked questions.  Am I putting myself on my own path or am I learning more about someone else’s?  Am I running toward or running away?  Am I willing to look again, to not be right, to not be the one who knows?  Am I willing to approach everyone and everything with honour and respect?  One of our teachers spoke of the Dalai Lama, saying, “He’s making a difference because he’s showing up in the world as he is.  He’s showing up from his heart.”

I began to consider that spiritual leadership is not about losing all of our baggage, doubt, and uncertainty so that we can bring an all-knowing, never-erring presence to our communities.  I started to grow into the concept that spiritual leadership is more about serving with awareness and humility as a compassionate witness to our shared human experience, indeed that we come into leadership the moment we dare not to be ahead of others but rather to be awake and present with them.

When I returned as a religious educator to the First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa last fall, I brought these evolving insights with me and I am watching how they shine a light on connections with others.  I am learning that resisting the urge to dispense advice and instead listening, asking questions, and reflecting back creates openings to consider new options.  I notice that my holding less tightly to some details allows others to share their creativity and resources.  By extending the invitation to speak honestly about what we are able to offer at different times given what is happening in our lives and with our families, I participate in the development of sensitive, compassionate community that gets things done but doesn’t burn us out.  I see that leadership lies not in knowing it all and having it all done yesterday, but in showing up attentively and nurturing a space where people can contribute and share authentically.

Ram Dass writes, “Your work is to practice contentment and surrender…Even when bad times or painful things come up, let yourself be with them as fierce grace.”  To me, this is the work of spiritual leadership:  letting go of the need to know everything, becoming alive to seeing what is, and both witnessing and responding to each moment with the compassionate awareness of the heart.

My response to a question posed on Tumblr…

Hi, just started following you. I used to do yoga frequently but I allowed life to get in the way.. how can I get started again?

i’ve been sitting with this question for a bit…seems like it would be easy enough to suggest ways to connect with local yoga classes or to set aside time each day to meet yourself on your mat.  in very practical terms, the best advice i’ve seen on how to fit an on the mat practice of yoga asana into a busy day is to look at how much time you want to spend on the mat and then look at your day to see what you could let go of that no longer serves you in order to free up that amount of time. but i have a feeling your message is asking something more.

so, i read your words again and thought about allowing “life to get in the way.”  what if life is your yoga practice?  the series of postures that we think of as yoga is just one limb of our practice; it is how we come to those postures, how we move through them that makes time on the mat yoga rather than stretching exercises.

when i consider that every moment is a kind of posture – washing the dishes, answering this question, filling the grocery cart, sharing dinner, hugging, struggling with emotional reactions, falling asleep, paying bills…then i ask myself, how can i embody Love, mindfulness, grace, compassion, humility, gratitude, benevolent curiosity, a willingness to learn in this moment?  if i accept the invitation to make every posture a prayer, what does that look like as i move through the day?

i don’t know what your spiritual perspective is, but i connect with a sense of sacred energy existing in all things, with an openness to see that Love is our true nature.  i see our practice as a remembering of who we are rather than as a self improvement program.

in practicing every day yoga, this prayer is meaningful to me as a call to awareness and intention:

divine spirit of Love
may all my speech and idle talk be mantra
may all actions of my hands be mudra
may all eating and drinking be as offering oblations unto thee
may all lying down be prostrations before thee
may all pleasures be as dedicating my entire self unto thee
may everything i do be taken as thy worship

i’m always learning and that leaves a lot of space for forgiveness, practicing self compassion when my actions are not in harmony with devotion to a practice of mindfulness and truth.  yet, as patanjali’s yoga sutras tell us, the practice of yoga begins NOW.  now is every moment, so it is never too late to get started again and again and again.  perhaps your yoga practice is as close to you as your own breath in this moment.

namaste.

Dear Friends,

This message comes to you with much gratitude for all the ways each of you has helped to create a safe and loving place here at Hollow Tree for our shared yoga practice and caring community.  I have been blessed over the past three years to serve yoga students here in Arnprior: it has been a great journey of learning, discovery, and meaningful connection.

As this journey continues, my daughter Sheilah and I are forging a new path for ourselves with plans to move to Ottawa at the end of August.  We are very happy and excited about the possibilites this change opens up for us.  I intend to continue teaching ‘on the mat’ yoga on a smaller scale, keeping my website as a blog to share reflections and let you know of workshops and classes I will be offering in the area.  I am hopeful that the adage, “when a door closes, a window opens” will hold true for the yoga community in Arnprior, that with my departure a space is created for other wonderful teachers to appear.

This past year has been one of much change in my personal life.  Nesting up here in the Hollow Tree has provided a time of being, allowing, integrating, shifting, transforming.  Thank you all for the support you have offered with positive feedback and insights, enthusiasm for happenings here at the studio, and the simple yet profound grace of your presence.  Both Sheilah and I are feeling well rooted in ourselves and ready to rise up in joyful appreciation and embrace of the new opportunities in store for us.

Our class schedule will continue as outlined on the ‘Schedule & Fees’ page until August 26th.  I look forward to our time together in the coming weeks, to sharing with you the experience of Yin II at Omega, and to being in this place where we are right now.

With love and blessings,
Susan