Finding your inner guru - be your own teacher

How to be your own teacher!

I start class with an invocation we were taught at my first yoga teacher training. An invocation to the teachers and the teacher's of the teachers and your own inner teacher.

om ajnana-timirandhasya jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena tasmai sri-gurave namah

A translation: I offer my respectful obeisances unto my spiritual master, who has opened my eyes, which were blinded by the darkness of ignorance, with the torchlight of knowledge.

Inner guru or dancing figure Cambodia. Photo by Margot

Who and where is this guru?

Does it matter how we define teacher or a guru? 

Are they an expert, an enlightened person, or someone who challenges us in a way that makes us tease out our own limiting beliefs?

Either way we look at it this, by using the above definition we are placing the guru outside of us or external to us and while there is no doubt that there are many amazing teachers outside us who are very powerful and who hold great wisdom and knowledge they are not the only source of teacher power.

I guess the reason I really love the invocation above is it reminds me that their are teachers everywhere and my best teacher is inside me...there is a deep untapped well of wisdom inside I just have to clear away the layers clouding my inner guru. It is like there is a beautiful shining diamond that is hidden in a rock and it needs uncovering and polishing to shine, polishing until it is crystal clear. Have faith not fear is what popped up last night in the dark blackness of a sleepless night wondering and worrying about things I cannot change.

Like a drop of water be crystal clear. Drops on a lotus leaf. Photo by Margot.

I say it it all the time, I know listen to yourself... be your own teacher... listen to the inner guru.

But how???

Here are some way I use to help me to access my own inner guru (though sometimes she is very hard to find).

1. Talk less, listen more.

Trust the non-verbal part of your brain. Give this part permission to express itself. We all have intuition but how often do we cloud it with past experiences or creations of what might happen...what if? Where is this non-verbal brain I hear you ask...your body. Embody awareness and your body will know where to go and what to do. And yes this can be a little uncomfortable at times but worth the effort.

2. Unplug.

FEAR, yes it has to have capitals as this emotion is huge, enormous and follows me like a shadow. Fear comes from worrying thoughts...that's right those very ones that kept me awake last night and make my body tense and sore. Thank goodness for yoga hey! Worrying thoughts come from our verbal brain and they come as word, complete sentences and even whole storied. They create feelings and develop into emotion that can then get stuck into your bones, joints, and flesh. Deactivate them they do not come from a base of true information more from latent impressions stuck on replay.

 A painting by Rod Valentine.

3. Relax into the moment.

Just be here and now. Be in the peace. Be peace. Relax into this moment. Oh it is lovely letting it all go and keep telling yourself relax into the moment, be in the space of peace in your, in your body. Trust in the wisdom of what is inside.

Bracken star...because we are all stars. Photo by Margot.

 

4. Trust yourself

That's right do what is good for you and unplug those thoughts that make you feel like you are letting people down or that people won't like you. This is a fantastically liberating practice the practice of saying 'no' to activities or invitations that don't nourish you. Empower yourself and do what is right for you. Be true. and then...your intuition will speak and you will hear. Recently I heard 'rest', 'slow down' and 'reflect'.

5. Have faith in the universe.

In a way an extension of trusting yourself and the question: If I don't will the world fall over? Answer: No..how great is that. Essentially you have surrendered to the divine to the universe or another way of looking at it is letting go of attachment to any particular outcome. Now that may seem difficult after all we are programmed in many ways to make and execute plans/projects as part of our life schooling but the world won't fall apart if we change our perspective on how we go about doing this.

Let those worrying thoughts float past like clouds in the sky leaving a vast blue expanse of space and peace.

Om shanti, shanti, shanti, Margot XXX

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