Ever since I was young I have been involved in activities to better the world and help people. My passion in life is to see people be healthy and happy. As a yoga teacher I experience the joy of watching my students struggle, let go, grow and evolve in their practice and off their mats. I am grateful to have the opportunity to share my love of the practice with others. Today this feeling was taken to another level. After 4 years of being introduced to the Mary Lynn Fitton and the Art of Yoga Project, an amazing organization working to heal and positively influence the future of incarcerated girls, I finally have become an ambassador to the cause and offered my teachings in a donation based class. 6 beautiful goddesses came together at Soula Power Yoga to unite, support, and energize AYPs mission and take on the challenge of an advanced class with ME! I have to admit I wasn’t quite sure what the advanced class was going to consist of but I had faith in my dedication to the cause and it guided me forward. From this place of dedication came these three affirmations: “I am Strong. I am Powerful. I am Free. “The rest of the practice seemed to simply unfold like magic and what resulted was a beautiful flow building on the foundation of surya namaskar B and with each cycle adding in one more pose. Tapas radiated from our bodies into our sacred circle and out into the universe. In the warrior 2 asana we embodied a powerful warrior and repeated “I am powerful”, harnessing our power we moved and winked and laughed and gained energetic support from our neighbors to eventually find ourselves in crow pose… and repeated “I am strong”… the strength grew and sustained us in our dance and gracefully took us from one pose to the next and then to warrior 3, balancing here on one leg we repeated “I am free” and we were.
We all have an inner child that yearns to be free, be heard and be witnessed. Our inner child brings us play and joy and pure happiness. Today, we connected with that childlike energy and sent it out to all the children in the world that have disconnected from their inner child. I am thankful to the universe for supporting me in guiding this practice and unraveling it for me as we moved. I could have had the perfect sequence written down and delivered it but it would not have compared to what revealed itself to me in the moment… and that is the beauty of yoga. It is this trust in spontaneity and trust in the self that keeps me teaching and learning and growing. Sometimes the best experiences in life are those that are not well thought out and planned, they just unfold. Thank you AYP for letting me be an ambassador to your cause and thank you goddesses for supporting me.
For more information on the Art of Yoga Project visit www.theartofyogaproject.org .
MettaLove —
Ritu Riyat
