Moving Forward: How Do you Know If You're Making Progress in Yoga?

May 10, 2018

 

I welcome and celebrate forward movement in yoga. Like melted snow rocking its descent down the mountainside, yoga is a dynamic journey with purpose, direction, and flow. It’s a continual unfolding of the truth inside.

Without the momentum of moving toward greater levels of authenticity, freedom and independent happiness, we’re likely to feel that we’re just spinning our wheels in yoga practice (and teaching).

We crave results, signposts that tell us our practice is actually working for us in the tried and true arena of REAL LIFE.

It’s the gifts of our practice that propel us forward.

Greater consciousness in relationships is rewarding. 
Purposeful living is invigorating. Shedding limiting habits of mind generates power. Naturally expressing kindness, respect and generosity toward others is deeply satisfying.

How do we ensure that these kinds of shifts happen regularly and consistently? How do we keep moving forward in yoga?

It’s worth remembering that progress in yoga comes most readily when we’re applying the integrated approach that Patanjali laid out for us right from the start. THREE elements working together fuel the engine of our practice.

Often, when we are having a hard time making yoga happen consistently, when we’re feeling stuck, bored, or complacent about our practice it’s because one of these three elements is missing or lacking.

The alchemical equation for forward movement in yoga is:

Tapas + Svadhyaya + Ishwara Pranidhana = Yoga

Put another way:
Practice + Teachings + Offering = Transformation

In other words, yoga IS NOT just what we do or the effort we make. Its what we do WITHIN THE CONTEXT of a very specific understanding and mindset, and a GOAL, ultimate freedom and lasting, independent happiness.

🧘🏻‍♀️🧠💗

Yoga is what we do, yes, it’s action (tapas),
Fed by an inquiring spirit, nourished by awakened wisdom (svadhyaya),
and,
Offered with a heartfelt dedication back to our own personal sacred principle whether that’s God, energy, nature, source or our highest vision for ourselves. (Ishwara Pranidhana)

🧘🏻‍♀️🧠💗

Are you ready to propel your yoga forward and unleash the full power of its potential to transform you AND transform your teaching?

Our intimate, intensive, & transformational Retreat for Women Teachers this August will not only honour and feed this sacred rhythm and the dynamic flow of practice, we’ll optimize these three elements to support YOUR journey and YOUR perfect next step in the process of joyful expansion.

It’s the integration of practices and teachings that make for lasting, deep-seated inner shift, every time. So breakthrough becomes not just a one-time event, but a continual, daily unfolding of energy, like the flow of a waterfall down the mountain. It has momentum, it generates power.

The perfect group for this sacred endeavor is coming together right now.

m.me/barrierisman
http://www.barrierisman.com/teachers-r…/

BARRIE RISMAN 
 
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