I have something to say!

Listen up people of yoga-land. I have an important announcement to make. I am not now, and never have been interested in competition. I have never played competitive sports. Hell, I don't even like board games. It feels odd that I have to make such a declaration but unfortunately, even in yoga-land people are still people.

The fact of the matter is that yoga is a spiritual practice for me. It's not a job, it's not a career, and it most certainly is not a competition. Whatever it is that I do I give 100%. Not because I want to be better than anyone else but because that's just the way I do things. That applies to my yoga practice.

Each time I have the privilege, and it is a privilege, to lead a class I give 100% whether one person or 25 people show up. I give 100% not because I want to be better than the other teachers at the studio. I give 100% because I feel each person who chooses to share their time with me deserves it. The most important thing I've learned in my role as "teacher" is that teaching is fluid and alive. Leading a class is just as much a learning experience as it is a teaching experience. 

I don't have time to worry about what my peers are doing in their classes because I'm too busy paying attention to what's happening in my own class. When I'm sitting on the teacher's seat I always acknowledge, with gratitude, my own teachers. That includes each and every person who has chosen to roll out their yoga mats in front of me. I acknowledge, with gratitude, that I am only God's instrument. I teach in service to God. Therefore, I give 100% of myself. This is not a competition, it is a spiritual practice.

I feel inspired to share my spiritual practices with others so I lead a "workshop". The topics I choose to offer as workshops are inspired by my own personal practice. I am not looking at what others teachers are doing and then presenting their ideas as my own.  Whatever it is I choose to offer is an offering of my heart. Everything I do is an offering to God. Therefore, I give 100% of myself. This is not a competition, it is a spiritual practice.

My personal mission statement is to teach every class with the following intention:
* an open heart
* gratitude
* humility
* reverence
* integrity
* open to learning

I pledge to live my life authentically. That means that I offer 100% of myself in everything I do because that's just who I am. I will not make excuses or apologize for that. I have no time to compete with my peers because in each day I am striving to do better than I did yesterday. I have no time for competition because I am too busy living my own life fully to worry about what other people are doing.

I will leave you with this powerful quote from the Bhagavad Gita that I have adopted as my motto:

"It is better to do your own duty, however lacking in merit, than to do that of another, even though efficiently. It is better to die doing one's own duty, for to do the duty of another is fraught with danger."

Live your own life fully and stop trying to live someone else's.....