RADIANCE COMING THROUGH THE CLOUDS
by Natasha St-Pierre Quillacq
It is 18:30pm. My husband has just left on intervention ; he is a firefighter. My son, Bixente, is sick and tired; he’s difficult tonight. I look around. The house is not at all ready for the arrival of my parents-in-law tomorrow. There is laundry on the rope outside. I have to get it back in quickly, as the sky announces a storm in a short time.
Bixente is hungry. I have to quickly prepare him something to eat. He pulls on my sweater saying mom, mom, mom.... my phone won’t stop beeping, emails arriving. I must quickly find a moment to call the office and answer all those emails. This is when the cat enters the livingroom with a mouse in the mouth... alive!
I could go nuts, I'm not far from it. But I remember that's why I'm doing yoga. Take a step back. Take heart. I remember the Patanjali sutra 1.20: shraddha-virya-smrti-samadhi-prajna-purvakah-itaresham. For those of us who are not born into states of higher consciousness, this sutra explains why we must cultivate self-confidence and conviction to help us maintain our persistence and strength, and to remember our direction to reach our goal with a concentrated mind. Have a clear perception.
That's why I do yoga. Not for a picture on Instagram, although nice. Not only for those pleasant moments to stretch my body on my carpet, not for those little moments of calm that meditation brings me, but also to face the daily life of a woman, a mother, a wife and a friend with as much serenity as possible. I assure you right away, I do freak out sometimes, but that night I stood firm and calm. It rained on the clean sheets outside but I just put them back in the machine. That night, I went to bed tired but zen. I'm sure you can understand the small, but oh so sweet, victory that it was.
I discovered yoga 17 years ago. Aria, a friend, brought me to one of her classes. At first I practiced for the physical side. To gain flexibility, strengthen muscles, work my cardio.
Then, at the end of 12 years of practice, I neglected yoga. I never really gave up, but I was not so diligent. It was when my son was born that I really returned to my mat but differently.
I did a 500-hour Hatha Yoga training and got my teacher's certificate. Then I did a lot of workshops. The science of yoga and its philosophy took a big place in my life. My spirituality had been awakened. I discovered Bhakti Yoga. Iyengar Yoga, Vinyasa, Yin, Ashtanga and Nidra Yoga. In addition to all these diverse disciplines, I also studied ancient texts.
My son was born with a congenital heart disease. He was operated on at 4 months old. He's fine now. But his complex beginning was challenging. The science of yoga has allowed me to find in me the serenity, the strength and the wisdom I needed. I learned with yoga how to maintain my faith.
For many of us, practicing yoga means doing physical postures once or twice a week, or even every day. While this approach may have many benefits, such as better health and greater vitality, the true power of yoga only manifests itself when we engage in yoga as a way of life.
But of course we have to start somewhere. When, years ago, I started with 1 hour of Ashtanga yoga a week, it was enough to calm me down. It helped me to let go of the stress and tensions. Yoga is universal and applicable in all situations. Even the physical postures (asanas) have a spiritual purpose and must be practiced in full consciousness. Each yoga technique — from postures to purification practices to meditation — is a tool to discover the constant happiness of the ultimate Self or Spirit.
Am I practicing every morning now? No, with a young child who has, just recently, been sleeping throughout the night, and busy working life, I do not get up at dawn to pray and meditate. And, you do not have to do it either. Sleeping makes me feel better at this point in my life.
I meditate in planes or taxis. I practice postures in the afternoon or in the evening, once Bixente’s in bed. I create space in my life for all aspects of yoga, but I remain an active woman of my time. The complex tradition of yoga, five thousand years old, guides us to a very simple goal: happiness (ananda). Yoga tells us that to achieve lasting happiness, we must discover our true spiritual nature. But not at the expense of our health. We are not monks. Yoga can bring light without having to devote all our being and all our life to it.
There is a comparison that I like a lot. The tradition of yoga compares this circumstance to the brilliant sun, which is always radiant but periodically hidden from our view by drifting dark clouds. Yoga helps us eliminate all obstructive (mental) clouds so we can enjoy the sun from within. It is a vast program of reeducation through which we learn, step-by-step, to live in the light of our true nature.
Yoga has soothed me and allows me to go through my life as a woman of today more serenely. I do not know if I would have turned to yoga, in its entirety, without my son’s illness.
In any case yoga, today, allows me to live happily, may it be for ever after.
Natasha Quillacq St. Pier
RCYT-500
by Natasha St-Pierre Quillacq
It is 18:30pm. My husband has just left on intervention ; he is a firefighter. My son, Bixente, is sick and tired; he’s difficult tonight. I look around. The house is not at all ready for the arrival of my parents-in-law tomorrow. There is laundry on the rope outside. I have to get it back in quickly, as the sky announces a storm in a short time.
Bixente is hungry. I have to quickly prepare him something to eat. He pulls on my sweater saying mom, mom, mom.... my phone won’t stop beeping, emails arriving. I must quickly find a moment to call the office and answer all those emails. This is when the cat enters the livingroom with a mouse in the mouth... alive!
I could go nuts, I'm not far from it. But I remember that's why I'm doing yoga. Take a step back. Take heart. I remember the Patanjali sutra 1.20: shraddha-virya-smrti-samadhi-prajna-purvakah-itaresham. For those of us who are not born into states of higher consciousness, this sutra explains why we must cultivate self-confidence and conviction to help us maintain our persistence and strength, and to remember our direction to reach our goal with a concentrated mind. Have a clear perception.
That's why I do yoga. Not for a picture on Instagram, although nice. Not only for those pleasant moments to stretch my body on my carpet, not for those little moments of calm that meditation brings me, but also to face the daily life of a woman, a mother, a wife and a friend with as much serenity as possible. I assure you right away, I do freak out sometimes, but that night I stood firm and calm. It rained on the clean sheets outside but I just put them back in the machine. That night, I went to bed tired but zen. I'm sure you can understand the small, but oh so sweet, victory that it was.
I discovered yoga 17 years ago. Aria, a friend, brought me to one of her classes. At first I practiced for the physical side. To gain flexibility, strengthen muscles, work my cardio.
Then, at the end of 12 years of practice, I neglected yoga. I never really gave up, but I was not so diligent. It was when my son was born that I really returned to my mat but differently.
I did a 500-hour Hatha Yoga training and got my teacher's certificate. Then I did a lot of workshops. The science of yoga and its philosophy took a big place in my life. My spirituality had been awakened. I discovered Bhakti Yoga. Iyengar Yoga, Vinyasa, Yin, Ashtanga and Nidra Yoga. In addition to all these diverse disciplines, I also studied ancient texts.
My son was born with a congenital heart disease. He was operated on at 4 months old. He's fine now. But his complex beginning was challenging. The science of yoga has allowed me to find in me the serenity, the strength and the wisdom I needed. I learned with yoga how to maintain my faith.
For many of us, practicing yoga means doing physical postures once or twice a week, or even every day. While this approach may have many benefits, such as better health and greater vitality, the true power of yoga only manifests itself when we engage in yoga as a way of life.
But of course we have to start somewhere. When, years ago, I started with 1 hour of Ashtanga yoga a week, it was enough to calm me down. It helped me to let go of the stress and tensions. Yoga is universal and applicable in all situations. Even the physical postures (asanas) have a spiritual purpose and must be practiced in full consciousness. Each yoga technique — from postures to purification practices to meditation — is a tool to discover the constant happiness of the ultimate Self or Spirit.
Am I practicing every morning now? No, with a young child who has, just recently, been sleeping throughout the night, and busy working life, I do not get up at dawn to pray and meditate. And, you do not have to do it either. Sleeping makes me feel better at this point in my life.
I meditate in planes or taxis. I practice postures in the afternoon or in the evening, once Bixente’s in bed. I create space in my life for all aspects of yoga, but I remain an active woman of my time. The complex tradition of yoga, five thousand years old, guides us to a very simple goal: happiness (ananda). Yoga tells us that to achieve lasting happiness, we must discover our true spiritual nature. But not at the expense of our health. We are not monks. Yoga can bring light without having to devote all our being and all our life to it.
There is a comparison that I like a lot. The tradition of yoga compares this circumstance to the brilliant sun, which is always radiant but periodically hidden from our view by drifting dark clouds. Yoga helps us eliminate all obstructive (mental) clouds so we can enjoy the sun from within. It is a vast program of reeducation through which we learn, step-by-step, to live in the light of our true nature.
Yoga has soothed me and allows me to go through my life as a woman of today more serenely. I do not know if I would have turned to yoga, in its entirety, without my son’s illness.
In any case yoga, today, allows me to live happily, may it be for ever after.
Natasha Quillacq St. Pier
RCYT-500