Finding a suitable space to teach yoga in a new city is quite a challenge and I feel really blessed to have found a hall to rent in our suburb Buddina, in fact its just down the street in the Kawana Guide hall. For over 10 years I had the privilege of being a student and teacher at Darwin Yoga Space, an amazing place and wonderfully rich yoga community so starting something here in a new place where i have just one good friend and a few family members was pretty daunting.
The whole process of starting anew gave me pause for reflection on lots of things but in particular I started thinking about space and what was the bare minimum I needed to start classes and begin to teach. So I have a hall now how to make it a yoga space.... I started with sweeping the floor a simple task but one that puts me in the space and has always been part of preparing the room and so preparing myself to teach. I hadn't really thought about that until I picked up the broom in Kawana and it transformed me back to Darwin Yoga Space. How many times I swept the floor there and marvelled at the space - the sense of it, the residual energy of everything and everyone that has gone before. There was a comfort in the routine almost a sense of coming home I'm still connected to that - that space its my heart .
I realised all i needed here to begin again and create a new space is to open my heart and welcome the students. They say that the teacher holds the space for the students and in a sense that's true but its the students that bring their energy to the space, who create the community, who practice the yoga and really its the yoga itself - that union of body/ mind/ spirit that creates the space. Whether alone or together any practice of yoga creates a yoga space.
I love being in nature whether its ocean, forest or desert the external space deeply affects my internal space it resonates, supports and soothes me. There is a deeply sacred space within us all we just need to find a way to tap into that space to open and expand it and to be in touch with it. I feel blessed to know that being in nature and practicing yoga does that for me and when things aren't going too well I can find the support and nourishment I need there. I encourage you to spend time reflecting on your space - what works for you, what soothes and nourishes you and try to bring that more and more into your daily life.
The whole process of starting anew gave me pause for reflection on lots of things but in particular I started thinking about space and what was the bare minimum I needed to start classes and begin to teach. So I have a hall now how to make it a yoga space.... I started with sweeping the floor a simple task but one that puts me in the space and has always been part of preparing the room and so preparing myself to teach. I hadn't really thought about that until I picked up the broom in Kawana and it transformed me back to Darwin Yoga Space. How many times I swept the floor there and marvelled at the space - the sense of it, the residual energy of everything and everyone that has gone before. There was a comfort in the routine almost a sense of coming home I'm still connected to that - that space its my heart .
I realised all i needed here to begin again and create a new space is to open my heart and welcome the students. They say that the teacher holds the space for the students and in a sense that's true but its the students that bring their energy to the space, who create the community, who practice the yoga and really its the yoga itself - that union of body/ mind/ spirit that creates the space. Whether alone or together any practice of yoga creates a yoga space.
I love being in nature whether its ocean, forest or desert the external space deeply affects my internal space it resonates, supports and soothes me. There is a deeply sacred space within us all we just need to find a way to tap into that space to open and expand it and to be in touch with it. I feel blessed to know that being in nature and practicing yoga does that for me and when things aren't going too well I can find the support and nourishment I need there. I encourage you to spend time reflecting on your space - what works for you, what soothes and nourishes you and try to bring that more and more into your daily life.
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