All we need to dissolve the darkness

Originally published- 03/23/2016

On ego and healing.

In my first year or two as a physical therapist, I often felt deep frustration when patients didn’t improve. These patients were a small minority, but the feeling echoed loudly in my heart.

I was in it to heal.

Thankfully — for my own longevity and wellness — I came to a simple realization: my job is notto heal everyone. I cannot unwind the decades in an hour. I can only do the best job that I can do from a place of maximum love and compassion.

All else is ego.

As a bonus, my patients are doing better than ever (and we laugh together so much more often).

When we look at the world around us and feel desperate about the darkness, we also have to remember this: our only job is to do our best and to love.

A personal mission to “save the world” , or a personal suffering based on the generalized suffering in the world: these flow from the same egoic vein.

We can only do our best, and love.

“One light is all we need to dissolve the darkness” – MC Yogi

If you need repetition of this message (as I do), deep listening to MC Yogi’s album, Only Love is Real, is a form of pure love meditation (moving meditation if you dance!). MC Yogi and his dear artist wife, Amanda, are extraordinary teachers embodying love – and they come to DC on Thursday. I’ll be playing hooky from my regular Thursday classes to be there. Feel free to join us. Or come to Wanderlust Snowshoe, where I’ll assist their amazing festival classes for the second year in a row.

The opportunity to shine a little light is also why I’ve organized a fundraiser to bring more yoga to Haiti. My friend and fellow yoga teacher, Lizandra, moved to Haiti about three years ago and started a nonprofit teaching young Haitians to teach yoga to kids (multiplying the benefits!).

Lizandra had a spinal cord injury, and by persistence and love, her recovery has been remarkable.

Her Haiti fundraising has been (understandably) on pause, so I am very happily stepping in to help — please join me in honoring this thread of Haitian yoga AND the tremendous force that is Lizandra, by registering for my Ayiti Yoga fundraiser. (You can also register on Eventbrite)

Saturday April 16, (2016) 10am-12pm
Potters House Coffee Shop & Bookstore

Categories: : Yoga philosophy