Immersion aches and pains

So I just finished part one of my three part Anusara Immersion...wow! I haven't been this sore in a while. Desire interviewed me today on camera and I blamed my soreness on muscular energy=) If you don't know what that is you will certainly be learning more about it in my classes. I am a fast learner and I love to kind of seal my learnings by teaching it soon after.

Another question Desire asked was what I was taking away from this weekend. I talked about these constitutions called "gunas" and how learning about them really made me think. So as there are three "A's" in Anusara (attitude, alignment and action) and three doshas in ayurveda, there are three gunas. The "tamas" (sp?) gunas is the most dense, inert constitution. That applies to those who prefer restorative flow, are more still, patient, steadfast. Then there is the "rajas" gunas which is the action. These are the people who go all the time, the coffee drinkers, the hot flow fanatics. Finally there is the "sattvas" gunas which is the light. This is ultimately the balanced state for which we strive.

Maybe that was more information than you needed but in order to explain my feelings about the subject, I felt a little background was necessary. So immediately upon hearing something like this, one usually begins some self introspection, right? I certainly did. Also, once I felt I had "diagnosed" myself, I immediately began to think about how could I "fix" myself?

That's when I heard something really great. Somebody mentioned how this process was about knowing oneself better and perhaps working towards a sattvic balance but at the same time, shouldn't we also be loving towards ourselves not always being a home improvement project? What a relief! Just when I was about to make a plan to bring out my rajas side (more pleasing to the western world) and reduce the tamas.

I realized my haste to want to be ok and immediately noticed that I do this not only throughout classes, this immersion, etc., but in all facets of my life. Why do I need someone else to tell me that I'm ok?

So if you are reading this and plan to come to my class this week, I do of course plan to share about these gunas in class (maybe not too technically though) but my real message has to do with compassion for ourselves.