To say my experience in Yoga Therapy training was pivotal in how I live my life would be an understatement. Here’s a few of the “ah ha moments” I took away from my journey of becoming a Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy (PRYT) practitioner.
Words matter. Like a mirror reflecting back your deepest secrets, what and how you say reveals much about your inner beliefs about yourself. There is a technique in PRYT were the practitioner feeds back your words to you, which is done in the training as well. I started to notice trends of word usage that identified lack of confidence in myself and a tendency to soften the message. For example, “If you don’t mind, have a seat”. Rather than saying, “Please have a seat.” It’s subtle, but profound. Taking a moment to reflect on our word choices can lead to great insight.
Trust that you know what’s best for you. Despite what anyone else may tell you, you are your best coach. No one knows you better than you do. Sometimes the wisdom is buried a little, but it’s there. There is a Chinese parable that speaks of a man who was going to buy a new pair of shoes but forgot to bring the measurements so he went home to get them. Upon returning he found the store closed and did not get the shoes. Someone asked why he didn’t just try the shoes on, and he replied, “I would rather trust the measurements than trust myself.” This parable speaks to how often we trust some external indication of what may be right rather than trust what internally feels right. In PRYT you are encouraged to take time to connect with your inner knowing and search for answers from within, and in my experience, the more you do this, the more you trust that you do have the answers.
Direct experience is always best. It’s easy to fall into the trap of, “I’ve seen that before so I know all about it.” Well, no – unless you’ve directly experienced something for yourself, you don’t really know. For example, as yoga instructors we can learn that certain poses affect certain areas of our body. Camel pose, we learn, arches the back, stretches the front body, and is a great chest opener. This can all be very true, but until you are in this pose for yourself, you can never know how it exactly feels, and what it is doing to you. Each individual is unique in mind, body, and life experience, and because each moment is new, our experience in a yoga pose is truly unique and different each time. And so it is with the training to become a practitioner. Through the process of experiencing PRYT for ourselves, we learn the value of direct experience and the uniqueness of our individual experiences. Effectively, we learn not to impose direction or to assume what is best for our clients; rather, we learn to be open to the possibility of any experience, as it organically arises in the individual.
Much of what I was doing (or not doing) was based in fear. In PRYT we are given the opportunity to explore whatever is showing up in the session – thoughts, statements, body sensations, memories, images, etc. Staying in the space of an experience and taking the time to reflect on it can reveal new insights. Here’s an example from one of my earlier sessions. I was lying on my stomach and the practitioner took a hold of my hands, gently pulling me back to lift my chest off the ground. She asked me to tell her when I reached a spot that felt like my edge. Soon into the lift I told her to stop, but as I settled into the experience I realized I’d asked her stop well before my physical limit – I could have gone way further. This realization sparked an insight into a tendency I have in life to limit myself. And underneath this was the realization of the fear of not being enough (or in some cases, a fear of being more than enough). Taking time to experience what we notice in our bodies/minds, and pausing to sit with it, can peel back the layers of armor to reveal an inner truth.
It is possible to release deeply held habits and patterns. Sometimes life gives you the opportunity to get a glimpse outside yourself to learn about a pesky habit or way of being that you’ve developed. For example, in one of my yoga therapy sessions it was revealed to me that I hesitate to state my needs directly out of concern of burdening another. Not surprisingly, I started to notice this tendency showing up all over the place in my life and I wondered, “Am I ever going to stop doing this?” Fast forward a couple years and I was able to recognize this “self-imposing” issue sooner (as it was happening) and challenge myself to speak up for my needs. The more often I recognized it occurring the more I could pause, reflect and choose a different way to be. There is no shortcut to this kind of change, but PRYT sessions provide a base and an opportunity to check in as you explore and grow.
Whether you choose to receive the therapy or take it a step further into the training of becoming a practitioner, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy is, hands down, the best method of self-discovery out there.
