Autumn is the Best

Well summer is winding down and Autumn is just around the corner. As much as I love summer time, I am really looking forward to Fall. I like windy Autumn days with sunshine, leaves and a warm cup of tea. I love being all cozy during Autumn with sweaters and socks and if I had a fireplace I would use it! I like moving into September because with the busy travel schedule I assumed over the summer some regular things fell by the wayside and it is time to get back on track. I have two courses starting up in September for the Yoga Therapy Program I am slowly chipping away at, getting me that much closer to finishing. September means getting back to a routine, and sometimes routines can be boring, but sometimes the stability can feel really nice. Right now I feeling the latter of the two and looking forward to the structure of the coming months.

It also means I can get back into my yoga practice on a regular basis as it has been all over the place during the summer months. I enjoy the transition during this time of year to a quieter, more yin like state of being and feeling. Summer is so busy and it's been super fantastically awesome with some much time spent with friends that it can be hard to say goodbye to summer. But I feel really excited moving into September. Also we move through Autumn, into winter and then into 2012 and into spring that means its just that much closer to the cross country move. To have a large goal ahead of myself, something to work towards, really feels right. Transitioning from a busy city life in Vancouver to a more balanced life in Halifax is something I look forward to. I find myself craving more time with nature and more time doing things with my own two hands (including my urge to sew, can fruit, make jam, create art and garden).


I am eager to begin my participation in group yoga therapy classes as both a student myself and as a teaching assistant this Fall. It will be interesting, nerve wracking, educational, fun and eye opening. I like that it will bring me a little bit outside of my comfort zone. Each time I come back to my yoga mat these days I feel such a deep connection with myself that its so wonderful. My words don't even do it justice here. It's a great reminder to keep at it, even when I feel lazy, to keep coming back to the mat. Over the summer my practice has been irregular but this past month I have had a much less demanding teaching schedule so it has allowed me ample opportunity to attend more classes and be the student. This has been immensely satisfying and much needed too. I will always be a student of yoga. I enjoy the opportunity to share with so many teachers in their teachings and to experience all kinds of yoga, teachers and classes. I feel a deep calling to really commit to my yoga practice because I am just 10X better when I diligently follow my practice. I guess that is why they call it practice, because it's helpful and it feels good.

Back in the Saddle

I have totally been slacking on the blog front (seeing as my last post was from October of last year). It's only been in the last month or so, after having some time off to explore Eastern Canada, that I realized how fast and crazy I had been moving along for quite awile now. It was a wake up call to be on vacation in Nova Scotia and have a fairly quiet schedule and realize at one point...I said to myself what is that I am feeling? Oh right that's happiness! It is a fine balance somewhere in the middle and even though I had thought I was there, I was pretty far from the middle as it turns out.

So spent a week enjoying the simple pleasures of sleeping in, laughing with friends, walking, watching movies, more laughing and eating home cooked meals every day. I realized I could get used to life like this. A slower pace, less hectic and less noise. It's only after having come home to Vancouver that I noticed (and Bernard too) how noisy it is all of the time being in the city. I love Vancouver but - it's time for a change.

Part of me coming home and other than being a little overwhelmed with the city at first, realizing and experiencing how much I need time to be a student of yoga just as much as I need to teach yoga as well. It's not as much of a need to teach yoga exactly, it's just that I really enjoy it, and it makes me feel good, pretty simple. But my teaching schedule has really been scaled back, on purpose by me, and it's been so absolutely lovely. Don't get me wrong, like I said, I love, love, love teaching yoga and won't be giving it up anytime soon. But after less classes to teach, means more time for me and more time for me to actually go to a yoga class on my own and be the student. And oh how lovely it is to be a student, I have missed making the time for it! I got myself to 3 classes last week and I will be hitting atleast 2 this week as well. It's so great! Seems incredibly silly that I hadn't been making a point of making sure that this doesn't get missed.

It does feel nice to have a little more perspective, have a little more time to enjoy life and to have a goal now. Living in Vancouver is fantastic in so many ways, but the cost of living is pretty insane and it's quite challenging to get ahead financially - so making a move East is sounding so very inviting. It will take some planning, some research, some work, I know this...but ultimately Nova Scotia is calling my name. Having a new start and having myself been re-acquainted with my love of yoga has been so fabulous, feels like my words are not doing my feelings justice here. Anyways going to make a concerted effort to make another go of my blogging here. Yoga and non-yoga related. But yoga is such a big part of my life and it continually brings me home (in more ways than one) that how could I now talk about it here?

Sara


"So I learned both to accept myself and to aim beyond myself" - Stephen Spender