I never even knew who Mark Robberds was until I went to Mysore for the first time in 2014. He's from Australia and spends most of his time in the Southern Hemisphere teaching yoga, surfing and playing Kirtan.
Yeah I know sounds pretty good right? Anyone who is on the email list knows that I was really inspired by Mark but not in that I thought I need to be doing what he is.
More in that he is just someone who is living his life as authentic and true to himself as possible.
"There is nothing more important you can do than becoming fulfilled. You become a sign. A Signal." - Joseph Campbell.
I'm totally convinced that the practice helps you figure this out. It's one of the things that's helped Mark but there are some other key insights you will hear/read in this interview.
Also if you haven't already signed up for the email list click on the image below. I get into all this stuff pretty deeply.
How do you end up Becoming a Travelling Yoga Teacher?
I got right into yoga while I was living in the Great Barrier Reef, living up there, and I just got this strong calling to go to India to find a master. And I was led to Pattabhi Jois. Then, that kind of...that's a bit of a longer story, but that changed my destiny. Because I came to Mysore in '99, and then, in 2000, I started assisting a teacher, my teacher in Sydney, at Yoga Moves, Eileen Hall. Then that was it.
From then on, I started teaching, I say teaching, I was like, learning to teach.
The desire to travel had been there since I was a teenager, even probably younger. This real desire to have adventure and see the world. When I discovered yoga, I didn't really think that I was going to be a traveling yoga teacher, that was the furthest thing from my mind. I really realized that the main things I wanted to focus on were learning, also practicing, and studying.
I realized that in order for me to develop as a person, as a teacher that I needed to have more life experience. So March 2005, I decided to leave Sydney. I actually had a pretty good job there teaching, and Eileen wanted me to become like, the studio manager. So there was a big opportunity there for me, but I really felt like I needed to go out into the world to learn before I could really grow as a human, and have more to share as a teacher.
Basically, I had this big breakup in 2004, with the girl that I was living with. You know, I went through this period of heartbreak and sadness, and kind of had a lot of soul searching. And it was at that time, my Mom gave me this book, The Artists Way. And so, I read that book, and I did all of the exercises in it, and that was what really brought out what my purpose in this life was, is to pursue what I'm doing. The yoga, the travel, the surf, the music, and all of that.
The Yogi's Way
There's a lot of different exercises that you do in that book. One of them is writing every day in a journal, and also you have to do these exercises where you write letters to yourself, as like, an eighty year old to yourself now and describing all of the things you know, like talking to yourself in a sense, giving yourself advice.
So it's like that thing, where's that wisdom coming from? It's coming from within.
There's a saying, "There's no such thing as a bad surf". You go surfing, you'll always feel better afterwards, even if it wasn't what you were expecting, just getting in the water and swimming and paddling or whatever, you'll always feel better when you get out. And even yoga practice has a similar sort of quality. Even some days it doesn't feel that good, or you feel like you had a bad practice, but somehow, you feel better after that.
Your practice might not be as good on those days, but at the end of the day, what are we practicing for? Really, it's about finding peace of mind, that's what I would say is the main reason to practice, is it makes you feel happy.
Want to learn more about Mark Robberds?
He has a great Instagram account where he posts regularly which you can find here @markrobberds
Like his Facebook Page here
Visit his website to see upcoming work shop here
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