Why was I in Vietnam? I was anxious to revisit the country where I was a War Correspondent in 1969 and I had been invited to teach at Sivananda Yoga Resort in Dalat, Vietnam.
Although I was under the weather most of the time I was in Vietnam, I had a great trip. The yogis were enlightened, the students eager to learn, the country beautiful.
And it turned out I had a big lesson to learn.
Ho Chi Minh City
1) I worried myself sick! For no reason! And I ended up with pneumonia! In spite of worrying for months about it, the classes I taught at Sivananda Yoga Resort in Dalat, Vietnam, while sick as a dog, went fine, students told me they really liked them. And Swami Sita, who had invited me to teach told me when she saw how sick I was that the point that she knew I needed to come back to Vietnam and however I would teach would be okay (and she had been to my classes at Sivananda Yoga Farm in Nevada City so she knew my natural teaching style). Such a yogi!
I had worried about teaching and the lesson is there is never, ever any reason to drive yourself crazy worrying about what will happen in the future because worry does not make things go better and it depletes your ojas (vital immune strength) making you weak and vulnerable. My vulnerabililty is my lungs and respiratory system.
2) The more we think the outer world is creating our life-experiences and try to control it to give ourselves security and comfort, the worse those experiences are, because we are not operating from our power center and may make bad choices. Our own self-judgments are most often false, put there by someone in our past who was trying to limit our power. All that matters is how we feel about ourselves, that we feel centered, authentic, are listening to our bodies, following our passion, aware in the present moment. What others think of us, how they judge us, is none of our business. It reflects them, not us.
3) We are fine just the way we are. We are enough, we are adequate. Always. We are who we are, and the more we try to change or pretend, the worse our experiences are. I salute our flaws, our uniqueness, our efforts, our quirks. We are all fine! You are fine! I am fine! What is, is. So let’s accept it and get on with our lives, see what changes we can make, where our passions lead us. We will be much more effective if we accept what is in front of our eyes. And deal with it.
End of lesson!
