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Vipassana, India/Nepal, YTT

The following appeared in the 889 Yoga Newsletter + Blog at the beginning of June. In a bit of a rush, I was asked to write about my trip and my reasons for registering in the 889 Yoga Living Yoga Program, our inaugural teacher training program featuring Simon Park, Nicky Poole, Riki Richter, Marla Meenakshi Joy, Josh Cohen, and Scott Petrie.

As a member of 889’s Concierge team and yogini-in-training, I feel privileged to be able to offer you some tidbits- more of a personal story than anything else, about our upcoming Living Yoga Program.

In the Baghavad Gita, it says that “Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.”

Let’s consider for a moment all our attachment. Our fears, our desires, our likes and dislikes; the layers of armour we’ve built in our bodies. How do such patterns affect the way we interact with our world? What is the best way to cultivate love and acceptance of the Self, so we can connect with our environment and offer more kindness and connection toward others?

Questions like these have come been dominating my thought bubbles lately, and it would seem my life is presenting me many opportunities for me to explore them.

Between June 20-July 1, I will be taking my first Vipassana course; a 10-day silent meditation retreat in which you are encouraged to abstain from all outward-focused activities, including reading, writing, and eye contact. To maintain the integral purity of this Thai technique, students are asked not to incorporate any other discipline such as yoga, chanting, and mantra. Part of me doesn’t believe I will be able to restrain myself from fidgeting my way from seated meditation into Savasana, but that’s part of the challenge- to question our attachment to always being comfortable. This fall, as a student of the889  Living Yoga Program, I will have a chance to delve deeper into this practice under the guidance of Josh Cohen, a meditation teacher in the Vipassana tradition.

After the Vipassana course, I return from Toronto for a few yoga classes and then on July 4th, I will make my way over the clouds to New Delhi, India to meet  12 beautiful beings from Operation Groundswell, with whom I will be traveling with for the next 9 weeks. From Delhi we make our way to Manali to acclimatize, then to Leh in Ladakh. After 4 weeks in India we will cross the border by land into Nepal to spend time on homestay in Jampaling Tibettan Settlement. The various projects we engage in will depend on the activity of a group that is already there with Operation Groundswell. Though I have no specific expectation of what this journey might bring, I have traveled far before (Kenya) and from that I know a change will come. Travel seems to feed the soul and inspire the mind in a very specific way.

After this adventure of independent-style travel and yoga practice in the Himalayas, I (or rather, some evolved version of myself) will return to 889 not only as a full-time team member, but as a Living Yoga learner. The schedule is flexible enough to allow me to work while studying, and I get to do all this within the very community that has (almost literally) become my home over the past 10 months. This past year has been a tough one for me, and circumstances have forced me to love more, take more risk, find my voice, and to live more happily and at ease than I ever thought possible.

 I keep thinking it is a gift that things have happened this way, and the feeling of affirmation I have received from the community here at 889- the curious questions and the expressions of excitement for me- they have come as a pleasant surprise. I have always had trouble making decisions, and the moment I decided on this trip, I stopped being scared of making the ‘wrong’ choice. At that moment, a lifetime of possibilities opened up as the Universe seemed to say “There’s the Liz that I know… I’ve been waiting for you!” If this sounds like a good feeling, I would encourage you to invest in your life by traveling or enrolling in 889’s Living Yoga Program. Join me in the classroom, on the mat… for learning that will empower and inspire you, feeding your soul, grounding each journey to come.

Love, light, and courage,

Liz Connolly [email protected] www.monsoonsandmountains.tumblr.com