EXPERIMENT AND EXPERIENCE- WHAT WENT WELL, WHAT Didn't

 “The importance of knowing your destination, following your star, correcting your course and tuning in to what is most important in your life”. Jonathan Foust, “Best Year Ever"

As life does, the circumstances of the past 5 months have brought about big changes. Inspired as I listened concurrently to Jonathan Foust’s talk: Best Year Ever, Parker Palmer’s audiobook, On the Brink of Everything, and Ajahn Amaro on “Less is More”  I made a note that these conjoined were to be my newsletter theme for February 2020.
Using his template, here is my own Year in Review:

What went well this year?

1. Continuing Education, AKA Teacher Training has unlocked a few mysteries, brought about new abilities and inspired my teaching. Doug Keller’s workshop on the “Back Functional Line, Tom Meyer’s Anatomy Trains Anatomy for Yoga Teachers, the Muscle in Motion App, my work with a physical therapist for my years-old shoulder injury all gave me so much personal value I did the best I could to pass it on.
2. Classes are for the most part consistently attended, with the Pain and Injury Classes most sought after.
3. The monthly emailed newsletter has been well received, with some saying it has been of value to their practice.
4. Weekly social media posts are keeping the Google search rankings high, which is helping our Community stay vibrant with new practitioners.
5. Decreasing the amount of days per week/ classes per day I teach relieved my sense of drain.

“Experimentation is how we learn, and a lot of experiments fail. If you live your life experimentally, the failures will be personal, and some will be spectacular. And yet, as every scientist knows, we often learn more from experiments that fail than from those that succeed.” On the Brink of Everything, Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old – Parker J. Palmer

What didn’t go so well this year?

1. Attempting to teach yoga philosophy.
2. Doing one thing at a time, finishing what I start before starting something else.
3. Signing up for too many online trainings.
4. Attended even fewer live, in-person yoga classes.
5. Ended relationships with both my long-time yoga mentor and my strength trainer.
6. Still haven't found a cohort of yoga teachers.

Gotami asked her nephew, "How do I give myself guidance as to what is according to the path or to my habits and preferences? I have a lifetime of conditioning- I can’t always trust my own thinking. How do I discern what is the path and what is not?”. To which the Buddha responded, 'These qualities lead to ease, not to struggle; to being entangled, not to being hampered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to undisturbed, not to entanglement; to vitality, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome': You may categorically hold, 'This is the way, this is the guidance, this is the skillful action.'" Ajahn Amaro on “Less is More” Gotami Sutta: To Gotam

What am I working toward?

1. Finishing what I have started, especially training-wise. Relaxing the grasping and clinging, fear of losing what I have now or not getting what I want in the future.
2. Getting out of my practice bubble by taking occasional classes and workshops.
3. Learning by following my bliss, leaving alone the well-trodden path of expectation.
4. Staying in tuned with what brings on emotions of overwhelm and too much-ness.

​After listening for maybe the eight time, I sent Jonathan and online message of my gratitude: “Jonathan Foust, your timing is, again, uncanny. I am working through moving away from the tradition I began with, finding myself feeling untethered but also being true to myself and my students. I have listened to this talk several times and read your Year in Review several times. Thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom. Actually, I can't thank you enough. 🙏” Jonathan responded, Thank you for letting me know, Michelle ... this is a pathless path .... one step at a time. May your journey be blessed.”