Two Sides of the Same Coin

Patricia Sullivan is in town teaching a workshop on the sacral belly. She opened the workshop by showing us a skeletal model of the spine and pelvis. I'd never looked at the sacral bone; is quite a fine piece of machinery. She then proceeded to show us how it moves. Whoa! Hold everything! I'd always heard that bone doesn't move. I couldn't wait to get on the mat and in my body and check it out for myself. She offered a simple exercise in quarter dog where you isometrically spread your hip bones apart and scoop the tailbone under. Low and behold, I felt my sacrum move. It was such a big ah ha that it almost knocked me off my mat. We checked in the other direction by pressing the front of the hip bones towards each other and tilting the tailbone up. Holy cow quite literally. Here I was in cow stretch totally having a religious experience in feeling my sacrum move. My whole universe shifted as I blew through a firmly held belief I'd held for so long as Truth.

As we proceeded through the practice initiating movements from the sacrum, I experienced a whole new groove in the practice and new places I've never been before.  I began to wonder if I was teaching my body to move differently, or if my body, in particular, my sacrum was teaching me? Who's the student and who's the teacher? And in the end, does it really matter?

Its interesting that all this came up when working with the sacrum. This area of the body is home to the second chakra, the chakra of relationships. As I am learning new places in my body and a new relationship with myself, I am learning that all the relationships in my life have spiritual value. From the most casual to the most intimate, they all are teaching me to grow in awareness.

Smack in the middle of all this teacher/student confusion in my head came a rather inpromptu opportunity to teach yoga to a class of PKE MBA students at Pepperdine University. I graduated from the program in 2001 and still carry many of the lessons and the relationships from the program in my hip pocket and draw from them all the time. One of the most powerful lessons I learned there was not so much about how to read a balance sheet, create a business strategy, or develop a marketing plan, although I find them quite useful, but one of the biggies for me was simply how to breath. I learned that from Dr. Wayne Strom in one of our first Pepperdine classes. You might say that Wayne was my first yoga teacher cleverly disguised as a business school professor.  Dr. Strom is one of the giant teachers in my life and a role model who I've held in high respect since the first time I met him.  It was such an honor and an incredible experience to come back to the PKE program in the role of a teacher. As a yoga teacher, of all things. With Professor Strom! It was such a surreal twist of fate it almost took my breath away!

In spite of arming myself with a class blueprint plan, as I was driving down to Pepperdine I was sort of nervous about teaching. It started with 'what if I forget the sequence, what if I jumble my words" and started heading south fast to 'what if they hate me and Wayne sends me packing in a straight jacket". It is a peculiar brand of anxiety that only prayer can relieve and I didn't stop praying until I walked into the university. It was truly a 'let Go and let God' moment. 

One of the most interesting personal highlights was experiencing the blurred lines in the student/teacher relationship. It was the elegance and grace with which Wayne greeted me and turned over his class to me. He sort of melted into the background as I stepped forward to teach yoga. But Wayne's not the type of guy that ever really disappears. His light is so strong and so powerful that just being in his presence you just can't help but to stand in your Truth and be who you really are. As I was teaching yoga I was simultaneously taking this lesson in; it was a constant energetic flow of student/teacher and on a more real level, humans interacting with humans.

The main point I wanted to get across to the PKE'rs was through the gentle practice, to give them the space to let them feel into their bodies, feel what it feels like to be themselves, and honor whatever comes up. The practice was a backdrop in moving and breathing into different shapes, or asanas, and many of the students had never done that before.  As a teacher I was moving in space in my own way in a place where I've never been. From time to time during the practice I'd glance over at Wayne whose mere presence seemed to suggest the very lesson I was seeking to teach.  Just be yourself.  In the warmth of his spirit, I found this surprisingly easy to do. 

It occurs to me that whether its a sacrum, admired professor, doctor, lawyer or indian chief that all relationships serve to help me become more conscious and grow as a person. Its easier to see, however, if I release my compulsion to judge what happens and who has value and instead focus on honoring the people and the task directly in front of me. If I show up in life and honor all my relationships, doesn't that always make me the student? 

Just as I've learned to sincerely bow my head in reverence in the practice of yoga to all my teachers, and my teacher's teachers, I am learning to bow energetically to all those in my life in a sense of connection. Bottom line, its all God.