Valentine Love

A three-part series for Valentine’s Day, about my favourite subject – love. In three parts I’m going to share with you about my love for my teachers (and the teachings of yoga), first loves and finally my love for love itself. So strap yourself in and let’s go!

PART 1

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, I lifted my gaze and looked up at the beautiful, enormous chandelier hanging directly over my head. I could hear the breath of several hundred people all around me and the voice of my teacher, Sharon Gannon through the sound system.

‘Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Mahesvarah…’ she sang in her melodious, slightly operatic voice that I love so much.

I was at a Yoga Journal Conference in Palm Springs, California.  The year was 2002. I was 22 years old. I’d travelled all the way from London for this moment.

It was the first time I’d hear this mantra and the vibration of this chant would remain in my heart for the next twenty years and beyond.

Practitioners of Jivamukti Yoga all learn this very special mantra which you will still often hear me recite at the beginning of any teaching endeavour.  The mantra is nicknamed the ‘Guru Mantra’ and helps us to remember two important things: 

1)    Every single situation and person in your life has the potential to be your teacher.  The word Guru simply means ‘bringer of light’; all the events and people in your life can bring light if you choose to see them as part of your karmic journey and growth. 

2)     As yoga teachers we exist in the context of a lineage. We’re not sharing information in a void. There is a golden thread of teachers and teacher’s, teachers stretching back through time that we can lean on.

The invitation within this mantra is this: next time you’re feeling overwhelmed or annoyed or experiencing suffering, remember the people who have inspired you. Remember the people you love. Remember that the situation you are in right now has the potential to bring light to your life if you choose to see that possibility.

Even very troubling experiences like illness, divorce and grief hold within them the seeds for new growth. Lean into the support from the wise-women and elders within your own personal culture and heritage. Lean into the beauty of the land and natural world around you.  Lean into the support and good wishes from your teachers and guides.

Lean into love; that is the message of the Guru Mantra.

While we are on the subject of teachers, here are a few things I know about good teachers:

• The teacher doesn’t have to know they are your teacher. Of course, you can formally ask a teacher to accept you as a student but sometimes teachers come in disguise and the relationship doesn’t have to be explicitly stated.
• Some teachers last a lifetime and some for a only season of your life.
• Some relationships will have you move between role of student and teacher (for example parenting).
• Your body is a great teacher.  So, too, is your intuition.  Ignore them at your peril!

Above all, remember that with great love all is possible.

PART 2

Most practitioners of Bhakti Yoga (the yoga of wise love) are very good at falling in love. The love part usually comes easily to us, its’ the ‘wise’ part that might take a bit of work. 

Over time and a lot of trial and error, I’ve learned to apply my love with increasing wisdom and discernment. These days as well as all the humans that I love (kids! partner! friends! teachers!) I also have an active practice of staying in connection to the love I feel for Source or Krishna or God (the name doesn’t matter). That’s actually the most important relationship in my life if I’m honest.

In the spirit of remembering first loves, I wanted to tell you about my very first yoga teacher. I believe that yoga was part of a past life thread for me.  My first teacher was Donald Cartwright, a kind and learned man from the Bahamas.  He ran a natural health centre in the small village that I grew up in and I had my first job there. I was still at school but I worked weekends and afternoons in the clinic and herbal medicine shop. Donald and his wife Rosemary were my first bosses.  From them I learned about herbs, natural healing, ethical business and of course yoga. I still clearly remember Donald gifting me my first yoga book. The leotards are a bit dated to say the least, but the content is still excellent! 

The photo above is of Donald and Rosemary in the shop, my heart feels so warm when I look at this photo.

Donald passed away a while ago and his wife, Rosemary left her body more recently. When I heard that Rosemary had passed it felt like the real end of an era for me and part of my evolution into the role of teacher myself. A passing of the mantel of sorts. I wrote in my book ‘Mindful Living’ about the process of ‘growing up’ into the role of being a teacher. Just as we develop an identity separate to our parents as we grow up, so too as teachers we develop our own sense of self and way of reflecting the teachings, as we mature.

Rosemary and Donald were my yoga parents and they wanted me to blossom in my own autonomy. They were the best teachers possible.

I learned so much from Donald. They were excellent people to work for and excellent human beings all round. They were healers and revolutionaries. They gave me an introduction into a world that has been the foundation of my entire adult life.

May they both rest in peace.

PART 3

Years ago, when I ran Samadhi Yoga studio here in Sydney (in the beginnings-of-the-internet era when the fact that we had a website was kind of fancy) I loved gossip magazines.

Back then social media wasn’t what it is today and I loved having a sticky-beak into pseudo-famous people’s lives without them knowing, through the magic of print media.

At some point as a ‘spiritual practice’ I gave up gossip magazines, because there really is no defending them as anything other than utter trash. However recently when I was having a moment of smugness about this, I realised I still get exactly the same fix from reality TV.

Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t watch much of it. I don’t have time because as you know I’m an avid reader with five kids and a business to run. Usually I’d rather read a book than watch TV anyway.

But I do love Bachelor (although the new season with three bachelors is silly. I’m a monogamist by nature and I want only one Bachie please.)

And Married at First Sight is my absolute favourite.

I’m so invested in everyone staying together and true love prevailing that it breaks my heart when they’re all bickering and bitching a few episodes in, but I can’t look away. My partner often googles the outcomes and is under strict instructions not to spoil everything for me … I just love, love.

And on that note, I’ll wrap up my three-part love series. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve loved writing it.

🌹

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