From all the inner strengths that we can cultivate I believe that learning is one of the most important. Learning will keep us alive, awake, informed, free, responsible, mature, joyful and in permanent positive growth through intimate inquiry.
In this context I´ve been aiming to define education, as it is one of the sources of learning (not the only one!).
Education is often associated to the delivery of knowledge from one person that is more knowledgable in any area to one that is not so knowledgable in that area. So far, I basically agree and would be confortable with the idea that education is an upgrading of our current knowledge (in any area).
Still this was short so I had the chance to see two of my most beloved students from United Kingdom here in Ibiza recently. Gina and Chris (real names, they will read this newsletter!) are professors at Oxford and Henley universities respectively and I very much admire and appreciate our rich and intelectual conversations. I decided to share this definition of education as an upgrading of knowledge and they each gave some ideas that helped me.
From Chris I took the idea of education as freedom and from Gina de idea of education as a waking up.
So here goes a definition of education that comes from adding up our perspectives (it does not mean that Chris and Gina will completely agree with me!).
Education is an upgrading of knowledge that wakes you up (shakes your system!) and gives you freedom (in form of power to be genuine, skills to engage in life with wholeness and inner sensations of well being and easiness).
Why do I want (again) to talk about education? It appears to me that a good yoga learning environment should offer concentrated education (like and aromatic essence). This means that you can take home and to your life many things that will serve you forever (how to breathe, how to stay inspired, knowledge about your body, awareness of your own awareness, tools to master the mind, contemplation and concentration skills, creative thinking and a long so on).
Now I know why I love teaching yoga. I have an excuse to offer education in a context that includes the body. What I want to offer goes far beyond the body, so why use the body and yoga? In my opinion both of them make the perfect path to create a physiological state that promotes learning. The steady flow of the breath plus the directed attention promote optimized brain organization and this creates the perfect landscape for taking in impressions that will stay with us and give us long term knowledge.
With this knowledge we give ourselves de right and freedom to reformulate the way in which we think, feel and look at the world. We honor therefore the obligation we have of becoming experts in the art of living well and happy, as well as we honor our physical and intellectual capacities stimulating them in an intensive and respectful way.
I think that with this my glass of reflection is full. I will not bother you until the next newsletter :-)
Ahhh... I hope these ideas help us to understand and love even more our adventures on the mat!
You can continue reading my bilingual newsletter in this link: Newsletter July
