In order to learn, we have to fall. In order to accept that we're going to fall, we have to surrender. In order to surrender, we have to have faith. In the process of learning asana, we experience faith in form of trust...initially towards the teacher, and eventually towards ourselves.
While rebuilding my house, I relearned that "you have to do things in a specific order, and if you skipped a step along the way, you will most likely have to go back." This is what I had heard my teacher say when I was first learning asana and later learned it as an integrated part of learning the different series of Ashtanga Yoga. You have to learn to do Surya Namaskara A to learn to synchronize breathing and movement. You learn to do it for one set of Suryas, and then you learn to do it for another 5 sets. Then you learn to carry that through into standing postures, seated postures, and progressively complex asanas. With each asana, you encounter a new obstacle and you gradually acquire the skills that you need in order to meet that obstacle, and then find ease in overcoming it and moving past it. So slowly, you build a home or a stable space to live in within yourself. One step at a time creating steadiness and stability at each step.
It is thanks to my teachers Barbara Verrochi and Kristin Leigh that believed in me and encouraged me to wake up early and come to Mysore practice. They supported me until that belief moved inwards, and this is what I continue to do today for my students. I believe in them.
It is thanks to my parents who always pushed for curiosity and believed in me despite any given circumstance.
It is thanks to Eddie Stern that believes in me as a human, for treating me as an equal.
For Sharath, for the years I spent assisting him, he would closely watch and tell me to watch like an eagle; and to drink a little bit of coffee here and then. It is thanks to those times spent watching him that I understood the importance of humor, empathy, compassion, and a little bit of sternness when guiding people in the path to their own independence. I understood something very subtle about this practice by assisting him, and its really infused all of my teachings, and this is compassion. At the end of my first assisting experience, I asked him if he had any suggestions for me. His reply was, "So much love is there, you keep that."
And this is how I teach. I have the freedom to choose that there's no right way and there's no rigidity or rules, but there is only devotion and dedication.
Sukham means good space. With practice, we make the body and the content of our mind a good space. Yoga helps to transform the mind into a good container for positive, encouraging thoughts. The practice teaches us what it means to have courage, understanding that it's okay to not be perfect, to have to stay in one place until something inside settles, to do less. To be so exhausted that the mind seizes to take charge, and the subtle intelligence of our being becomes louder and more accessible. And then there's this sense of peace that arises where you realize that you are part of all, and that all is part of something greater. Through this process, we understand that our body is a recipient and that each thought, each action, and each word either fills or empties this recipient..
When I came to yoga, I was in search of a good space. I didn't know yet, I was too scared to admit it, but I needed to empty my recipient. I needed to find some peace of mind. I needed to experience what it felt like to not judge myself. It wasn't until I made my first trip to India or the first few trips to India where I realize that this process wasn't about pleasing the teacher or having a pleasant experience...it was about finding a pleasant space deep within. I discovered that the mastery was of studying self and refining the quality of the mind. Through concentration, I could quieten the constant inner judgment and that with the breath, I could choose what thoughts to allow to fill my inner space.
And so, slowly, slowly, I began to clean out the bad space and created the room for a good space within myself. With every pose, I would gain a little more inner spiritual strength and this would help me to feel strong and steady within myself...less attached to the external, to rely on self-worth, more accepting to myself. More receptive to what surrounded me.
Everyday I know I have a chance to fall, and yet I see how I can also pick myself back up. You try over and over and over until you learn. And so in that process, you learn to have faith in the teacher, then in the practice, and then in yourself. You develop a deep sense of trust and devotion to the practice because you see the process. You begin to feel one with everything around you. As a teacher, I hold space for my students to go through that journey for themselves. To understand that they have everything they need within.
And that is yoga.
Bibi Lorenzetti is a Level 2 Authorized Ashtanga Yoga Teacher & Holistic Health Coach. She received her blessing to teach Ashtanga Yoga in 2014, from the Sri K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, India, where she has had the honor of assisting R. Sharath Jois multiple times over the years. She teaches at the Shala Yoga House in New York City and is currently in the process of building her own Shala in Newburgh, New York: Ashtanga Yoga Newburgh (AYNBRG)
Bibi was first introduced to Ashtanga Yoga in 2010 by Kristin Leigh and Barbara Verrochi. She has completed the third series of Ashtanga Yoga under Sharath Jois's and Eddie Stern's guidance. Over the past 8 years, Bibi has become a sincere believer in the profound beauty and many benefits of this method. Her teaching is rooted in her own disciplined and dedicated practice.
She intends to share the transformative and healing practice of Ashtanga Yoga with her students through accessible, intelligent, and precise instruction. Bibi guides her students to use asana as a tool to cultivate a stable body, and a steady mind.