Walking into the building to hear my beloved teacher, Kamini Desai, share her newly created presentation, Rewire Your Stress Patterns*, I am greeted by a friendly face handing me several handouts. To my surprise, I discover that I’ll be speaking after Kamini.

My mind jumped to the patterned dance of, “Why didn’t I know?’ and “‘I’m not prepared’, ‘What will I say?’ and then, surprisingly, quickly settles into curiosity. I approach the organizer, get more details, and see this as an opportunity to share insights about Yoga Therapy and the SWIHA program that I have the honor of directing.

During Kamini’s presentation*, rather than make notes about what I’ll say, or race through options and approaches and clever segways, I choose to focus on her message. I’m so deeply engaged that when I am introduced, I’m mid-conversation with the person sitting next to me.

Taking the stage, I tell a story about my Yoga Nidra visualization just a few hours early that included me speaking to a large group of people. And then, wow, here I am, doing exactly that.

On the drive home, a critical, self-judgmental, ‘that did not go well’ voice seems to be on loud tape rewind and second guessing my choice to not prepare and instead listen. I notice an absence of external validation and dive a bit deeper into self-doubt. But as I take some breaths, I shift into observer mode, recognizing that this “What is Yoga Therapy’?” gets asked often. Validation, I remind myself, comes from within. For years I’ve answered the question but not as thoughtfully and cohesively as might be supportive.

That evening, I drop into stillness, make some notes, and the next day record an explanation of Yoga Therapy that briefly captures the essence:

Yoga Therapy is powerful! It invites flexibility on various planes of our being – spiritually, emotionally, mentally and sometimes physically. While each experience is unique, there are common threads that weave each session together which I shared in the video. WATCH HERE.

Thanks to the power of the teachings, practices, and seeing the reactive perceiver mind was running amuck so choosing [eventually] to tap into witness mind, I was able to observe what my ego-mind was doing: rehashing the past. Clarity emerged. Sometimes, clarity means letting go, and other times, it invites action. In this case, it led to creating a more cohesive and supportive response for the audience.

Yoga Therapy invites us to move beyond reactivity by diving into the root cause, not just the symptom, leading us to a place of non-reactivity and deeper healing.

Curious? Join me for a first time complimentary I AM Yoga Therapy™ class on Thursday morning. If you’d like to schedule your first ever one-on-one session with me, mention code ‘FIRSTTIME’ to receive $25 off your first session.

*Kamini’s presentation can be found here. I encourage a watch, starting at minute 6:17! It is full of insights and begins with the External + Internal = Outcome equation and helps us understand the patterns of stress that we can influence by first recognizing the origin(s). Kamini’s Yoga Nidra app, iam Being, is my go to invite harmony to the nervous system and I highly recommend.