I believe that life is a cumulative experience. I feel and have seen that life does not fully show up for us unless we show up fully for her. I haven't seen any real success in anyone that hasn't put his or her life in service of the higher human goals that include justice, love, healing, education or ecology. It just doesn't happen fully because life is lived from the perspective of the individual needs and purpose dissipates in survival and competitive behaviors. The self-regulation proposed by yoga and other disciplines is meant to help us understand that we are meant to feel safe and connect through our common humanity and essential transcendence.
To live under the light of wisdom, connection and compassion we need to wake up from the illusion of separation. If we continue to see each other as essentially distinct we continue to live under the optical illusion already mentioned by Einstein and so many spiritual traditions. We will have a half-life, a half-love, a half-body, a half-awareness... Because we are missing what completes us: everything around us. This doesn't mean that we have to show up for others in an incomplete way. We show up complete within our capacities, to meet others with their completeness and share a higher complete experience of life, the one that includes me and everybody else.
Mental health is related to the amplitude that we can give to the meanings of inclusiveness, diversity and oneness. For this, we need to feel, rather than fight. As we feel more we get closer to the input coming from our bodies, which includes the information from those around us. This is how to build empathy, and from empathy stems compassion. We can't wish well to others if we can't feel them. And if we are only able to wish good things to ourselves, again we are incomplete.
I have been supporting personal growth for others for 15 years, through the tools of yoga, contemplation practices and scientific research in the areas of mental and physical health. I started doing this for myself when I was 18, guided to my first psychological and spiritual inquiries through yoga, meditation and human potential therapeutics.
Re-writing our stories and belief systems is very important in the path to discover why we are here and what we can offer. Alignment between our values and our actions reduces cognitive load and supports optimal human performance (both physically and mentally). I consider myself a yoga trainer expert in the fields of teaching skills, ethics and healthy alignment, but life has been pushing me to explore in the last years some specific skills like supporting school teachers, business people and a wide variety of professionals in the exploration of mindset, vitality and purpose.
When vitality is low I always know that drive is low and that purpose might be misaligned. The mind is not so different from the body, there is an alignment that is healthier and more prosperous in the long term.
Short-term visions don't have enough power to bring clarity and strength for our lives, long term can create a vision and a mission that awakens drive and intrinsic motivators.
I invite all of you to explore my essential ingredients for human performance:
- Motivation
- Purpose
- Impact
- Love
- Connection
- Service
As I shared in my last Mindful Vinyasa training with the students that joined this immersion, we all need mentors. I am a mentor, but this does not mean that I am your mentor. I have been for a long time informally mentoring people and doing it very intentionally and formally in the last years. I see that this figure is so needed today because we need to grow and thrive with values and clear minds.
Look for someone who has achieved some of the things that you are willing to achieve (balance, skills, knowledge, regulation, mastery) and who is a few steps forward. Let them see you, and see yourself through their eyes. A mentor should be someone you trust, who is compassionate but challenges you in a way that is inspiring and positive.
If you find someone to guide you, you are telling your brain that you don't know everything and you are ready to learn and change for the best, and this wakes you up for the relevant transformation. All successful athletes, academics and business people have mentors and coaches. I learnt in my teens that this was a space for growth and that finding the right support in each stage of life is important. I can see how having this for myself has given me success (joy and wellbeing), strength and balanced life.
A mentor brings knowledge and life experience in a blend that shapes wisdom and inspiration for others. We all bring what we have. I am very thankful that I studied Sociology for five years, that I was in the fashion industry for a decade, that I had a father with a severe mental illness and that I have built my life as a yoga educator under the umbrella of lifestyle medicine, meditation, neurobiology, business ethics and human performance.
Here are the things that I offer as a mentor, that I invite all mentors to practice and that I think are of value and you should find when you work with someone to support your dreams and strengths:
- Compassionate inquiry
- Leadership and communication skills
- Creativity and innovation
- Interpersonal intelligence
- Secure attachment/presence
If you feel stuck you might be flying too low and too alone. Fly high in good companies, give yourself that gift, give it to the world.
Of course, if you don't have a mentor or are unclear on where to find it, you can work online with me as other clients do for personal and professional development and support. I am right now open to take 2 to 3 more people for the next months. I recommend biweekly sessions for three months for specific transitions and goals, or a monthly session for general support. The sessions are recorded and given for study and revision. Personal practices and study materials are given in the session concerning the areas that need education, transformation or insight for your inwards and outwards journey. Email follow-up is part of the process when needed. You can bring in anything, all is welcome.
No doubt that this is a great subject for a newsletter to celebrate autumn life; leaving the leaves behind, allowing the naked branches to prepare for the new ones.
Best wishes, dear friends and trees.
* From the November 2021 newsletter
