The Quest for Inner Yoga

So this weekend saw the beginning of a two year journey – the first session of an advanced Hatha Yoga teacher training course. It was also a returning for me, back to a place that I spent four years living and growing in, after one year of being away.

It’s strange to re-visit a place you were once in after a break…the description, “same same, but different” comes to mind. Same place, different me. But of course, the memories and the feels of the old you come washing over you. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to return to Southampton, I thought I had outgrown the city after being there for 4 years of university. But for one place, one yearning inside my soul, I knew deep down that it was inevitable I’d be there again.

Four years ago, I found The Yoga Sanctuary and after my first practice in that space, everything inside myself resonated with a deep “YES”. It felt right, it felt like truth, it felt very much like a coming home.

And it was absolutely no different stepping into The Sanctuary on Sunday – I felt like I had just immediately slipped back into a place my heart knew and loved so deeply. Although the space, the interior is beyond beautiful and serene, I know I love it for a different, deeper reason. I know that aligning myself with the teaching at The Sanctuary, is aligning myself to my own truth, my own growth.

22 truth seekers came to sit together on their mats, all from different places with different stories, but with one collective yearning – their ‘Bhakti’.

“Bhakti”, meaning devotion, love – the strong force of desire within that is calling you forth, and you feel it in every cell of your being. We each got to explore and share our Bhaktis, the reasons that were bringing us all together under one roof. Each Bhakti was unique and beautiful – to grow, to learn, to deepen, “to have the courage to be imperfect”, “to be straightforward”, “to be real”, “to want what life wants for me”, to find that pure place of bliss within that we knew existed for the benefit of all. Truth reverberated in the room, and it was clear that it was totally inevitable that we would all somehow end up here together, sharing our desires to deepen into our journeys with one another and with our incredible teacher, Steve.

It really didn’t take me long to realise my own Bhakti – my own purpose for choosing this path. I felt very much that over the past year, I had learnt an immeasurable amount about myself. Through joy, through love, through pain, through healing, through all the lessons and wonders life of course brings to us all. I knew that I was there to continue on my journey inward. I knew that I was ready to continue dropping – shedding, stripping back. Bringing my own “stuff”, everything that’s in my own way, to the table and releasing it. I knew, and I know now – that I am on this journey to be raw, to be real, to open – to continue to keep moving into a place of pure truthand authenticity. And I know that it is from that place, that I want to be of service.

I want to bring to others the wisdom and the science of Yoga, that continues to humble me and which has led me to seek and live a deeper life. I want my days to be of benefit for all those around me and to be able to live with access to the full capacity of my energy. And for that, I know that I need to show up and do my Sadhana – my daily practice, my deep inner work. And that commitment I am completely, utterly, wholly ready to make.

“Start doing the small and meaningless, and life gets big and meaningful”

Here’s to the next chapter of a beautiful unfolding. Life, I am all yours.

All love

Adéle x