Posts In: authentic life

by Olivia Cecchettini Hughes

The Tao of Wu

by The RZA

Editor’s Note: Congratulations and welcome back to Olivia who took a break from this monthly column to get married!!! We wish you all the best on this new journey in life. ~ Yoga One

Summary: The Tao of Wu is written in a light conversational style that’s easy to read and hard to put down. What keeps this book out of the light reading category however, is the depth of spiritual insight within that stayed with me for days as I processed and digested it. After I finished reading, it kept me buzzing for a few days: a sign of a really good book!

Part spiritual manifesto, part autobiography, The RZA openly shares his wisdom, guiding principles, and experiences as founder of the Wu-Tang Clan and as a fellow human being. The Tao of Wu follows his journey from growing up in a violent neighborhood of New York City to deeply embracing Eastern Philosophy in Shaolin, China.

Why I Love It: I was completely blown away by this inspiring spiritual memoir which was unlike any other I’ve read. Combining street knowledge, pop culture, eastern culture, spirituality, and rawness, this book was one of my favorite reads of 2017. Highly recommend.

I love that The Tao of Wu breaks through and breaks down stereotypes. I think stereotypes, labels, and boxes are human devices to keep the world small and simple. Yoga has always helped me bear witness to my own judgments and allow them to shatter in the light of authenticity. It’s only when we truly SEE and LISTEN to one another that we grasp the beauty, wisdom, and amazing insight diverse people have to offer.

Suggested For: I’ve been recommending this book to everyone! Seriously. For the hip hop lovers, I gained a better appreciation of RZA’s work – specifically the depth of his lyricism. If you ever wondered why The RZA, aside from being the Wu-Tang Clan’s chief producer, is heralded as the group’s leader, The Tao of Wu will make that unmistakably clear.

For the spiritual seekers, this book is a more personal, more philosophical follow-up to The Wu-Tang Manual. The RZA pulls from a deep school of thought that reflects the inner work he has achieved. I found his writing to be forward thinking and courageous in its authenticity.

Even Cornel West gives it a thumbs-up: “RZA is a towering artist and deep thinker who has much to teach us. I salute his courageous vision and compassionate witness – as manifests in this book and in his life.”

Olivia Hughes
Contributing Writer

Olivia’s yoga journey began in 2003. She is certified in Vinyasa, Hatha, and Aerial Yoga and holds a Masters degree in Spiritual Psychology. She believes the mind, body, soul connection is sacred and encourages her students explore and expand within their own bodies and consciousnesses.

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by Olivia Cecchettini

The Teacher Appears: 108 Prompts to Power Your Yoga Practice 

by Brian Leaf

Summary: We choose who to see, what to wear, what to eat, how to exercise… Every moment offers us the opportunity to choose our response, yet often many of us run on auto-pilot as though sleep-walking through the day.

Wake up! Come back to your breath, come back to your conscious self. Recognize that you have the freedom to choose. Exercise that gift.

The Teacher Appears includes inspiration from teachers like Sean Corne, Govindas, and Shiva Rae, but also uniquely challenges the reader with the inclusion of questions. These questions prompt mindful introspection; a simple, yet powerful, tool that contains the beginnings of meditation.

The more tools we have to “stay awake,” the more we can choose to live with intention. Yoga is one of those tools for me and this book provides 108 examples, suggestions, and inspiration to put intention into practice.

Why I Love It: Part journal, part book, The Teacher Appears is the kind of book you don’t read from cover to cover. You can pop it open at any page, even when you don’t have time to read an entire chapter. One small passage could shift my mindset into a more positive place, changing the course of my day.

As a yoga teacher, I loved reading about the experiences of other teachers. To teach yoga often means surrendering your ego, your likes and dislikes, to show up and speak from the heart to whoever is there. It is an act of service. The stories of other teachers on the same path encourage me and re-affirm my commitment to teaching.

Recommended For: Those with the goal of living intentionally. This book could add depth to your life, not just your yoga practice. And you don’t have to be a yogi to enjoy The Teacher Appears because its message is based in self-awareness, which is a skill that benefits all walks of life.

This book encourages readers to take daily activities and make them sacred. You can learn a new way to move in your body. To share your gifts. To feel the fear, but do the thing you want to do anyways. This book may help you tap into the authentic part of yourself and let you know you’re not alone. I hope you enjoy it!

We love this piece from Rainbow Yoga on What Makes a Great Yoga Teacher!

Rainbow Yoga regularly leads weekend-long kids yoga teacher training courses at Yoga One (and around the world!) They will be back at Yoga One, August 4th – 6th, 2017 leading their 3 Day Kids Yoga Teacher Training. Join us for this great adventure in learning!

This article originally published on RainbowYogaTraining.com

by Gopala Amir Yaffa

What makes a great teacher? Well, that’s like asking what makes a great day!

There are so many ways to make things rock as an awesome yoga teacher, but here are some quick pointers you can try.

Be Awesome

First, what makes an awesome teacher is simply being an awesome person. But in addition to being awesome, you need to let it shine so that the world can know how amazing you are! So whatever your coolness is, let it shine!

Who are you? What do you want to be?

The best way to learn is to teach; and teaching is sure to help you become a better you. When you teach, you need to be your ideal self; an expression of love, knowledge and kindness.

This is not to say that you should be fake. Just give it the best of you every time.

Be Real

At the same time, you have to be authentic to where you come from, who you are now and your challenges and struggles at the moment. We teach best from our own genuine failures and experiences.

If your life has been and is always perfect, you will have nothing to teach. It is often the most broken people that make the best teachers. They have overcome enough challenges to understand and relate compassionately to other people, they have real experiences and wisdom from the inside to share.

You don’t get the lotus without the mud and the more mud, the better the flower. Teach from the inside, from those life experiences that have transformed you.

• Don’t be afraid to show your own limitations, it will help your students feel more comfortable with theirs.

• Don’t pretend that you know something you don’t or you will miss an opportunity to learn something new.

If you are not Indian, don’t try to be one by wearing Indian clothes and speaking Sanskrit. If you are not all Om Shanti and relaxed, don’t act as if you are… people will know if you are faking it, and really not all of us need Om Shanti yoga – some of us need to be shaken to awaken.

“Be the best version of yourself rather than the second best version of someone else.”

Trust that you have meaningful gifts to give to the world that someone will need. Nothing is good for everyone, and everything is good for someone.

Offer your authentic gifts from your heart, they are sure to be a great service to someone.

Be New

There are a million yoga teachers out there, so don’t be like everyone else. Make it your own. Make it new!

What are your passions? What are you really good at? What have you been working on already for your whole life that has made you who you are today?

You don’t need to forget about all of those when you shift into teaching yoga. Life is an evolution rather than a revolution, and everything you will build from here on has, in one way or another, a foundation on what you have achieved and experienced in your past.

Combining your passions is a great way to come up with something new.  The possibilities are endless and this is how people came up with ideas like:

Kids Yoga, Partner Yoga, Senior Yoga, Aqua Yoga (yoga in the water), yoga and weight lifting, Doga (yoga with your dog), yoga on exercise balls, Yoga Fight Club (yoga and martial arts), Yoga Canvas and Cabernet (yoga, painting and wine drinking), Yoga for Surfers, Yoga for Golfers, Equestrian Yoga (yoga on a horseback), Naked Yoga, Acro Yoga, Aerial Yoga (yoga suspended from the ceiling by straps)… and there are many many more!

Yoga is not set in stone; it has been evolving since ever. Even the most “traditional” yoga teacher trainings have very little in it that was called yoga a hundred years ago.

Don’t be like everyone else! Have some style! Dare and live a little! Experiment!

Be Now

Start teaching right away! Don’t wait until you know everything before you start teaching, because no one knows everything.

Don’t wait until you are perfect before you start to teach, because no one is perfect. You learn as you go. You evolve with your students.

Waiting will just make you stagnant and dull your energy. Get out there and share yourself with the world now!

Be The Change

Whatever your new yoga is going to be, what is your job description as a yoga teacher?

In my opinion it is making people happy! You are AMAZING – we all are in our own special way! And you are going to change the world, one person at a time… and not by talking, but simply by being the awesome you that you have now freed.

Are you ready?

The real question is, is the world ready for you? Well… it better be, because you are going out there today to rock it!