The Yoga Healer
Discovery can be a gift in life, sometimes happening precisely at the moment you need it most — as long as you keep your heart, your mind and your spirit open to new experiences.
I am writing this from a yoga retreat at Mount Madonna. It’s no accident that I decided to attend a yoga retreat the weekend before I held my very own. And what a rejuvenating weekend this has been for me! I feel calmed, inspired, renewed … precisely the effects I want next weekend’s retreat to have for my attendees.
I remember the moment I knew conducting my own retreats was to become a part of my destiny. It happened in far-off Bali at a retreat I attended last October some time after a group of us had visited a traditional Bali healer. These practitioners are not healers by happenstance. In fact, most claim that they did not choose this path in life. Instead, they felt they were “chosen” for this work by having discovered their gifts in the course of healing themselves.
Balian healers do not advertise, draw attention to themselves, nor even like to be recognized. They believe this can invite jealousy and bad feelings.
During my session with my healer, he poked my toes with a stick. He wordlessly examined my ears, my neck, my head and my shoulders just by rubbing them, asking not a single question in the process. His eyes were closed.
When he finished his examination, he said to me, “You wear a mask when you work.” Then this very skinny 90-year old man flexed his arms like a body builder and made an exaggerated, phony smile. Again, there was no verbal exchange. He didn’t know my line of work.
He finally asked, using broken English and charade-like gestures, that I take my tongue out from behind my top teeth and swallow deeply. I thought it was a strange request, since I had become aware some time back that I habitually do this when I am being photographed.
I did as he asked. I took my tongue away from my teeth and gulped demonstrably. And then he said, “Your smile needs to come from your tummy. Swallow your smile and make it come from inside.”
I thought, “Wow he’s right!” I realized that often when I’m overworking , I put on a phony smile just to make it through my day. But it wasn’t until later that evening as I was journaling about my day that it hit me: I wasn’t just there visit to the healer. I was there to experience breath, movement, meditation, and connection with others. The feeling of clarity, peace and calmness permitted me to feel and to let go of old stories. It was as if the earth moved – and not just on its axis. The next day there was actually a 6.8 earthquake! But more than that, it was as if my mind shifted. I suddenly knew that creating retreats was part of my calling — my dharma — in life.
Have you ever had a moment that served as a catalyst in your life? I hope you’ll share it with us next weekend. Because you never know when just hearing about your own life experience can have an effect on another’s.
And so I am at a new and exciting crossroads, just a few days away from my inaugural retreat — the first, I hope, of many. I look forward to taking you on this voyage with me and I am honored that you have put your trust me as your tour guide.
