November 2022 Reflections

Dear Friends,

You don't need me to tell you that it’s been a trying 2.5 years. From a global pandemic, to national civil rights movement, Yoga Tree and YogaWorks shutting down their studios, devastating wildfires, political turmoil, loss of personal freedoms, the events of this year have caused major shifts for us both personally and collectively.

While our roads and paths have shifted differently because of our unique situations, almost all of us have been separated from community and our typical touch-points of human connection. Our work and levels of financial stability have changed. As Covid rocked our worlds, we were all forced to find new resilience and it meant that we had to bear much bigger burdens. A lot of us are still working with new layers of anxiety, depression, and that scatterbrained feeling of being in 2.5 years of fog. If we aren’t dealing with this personally, we probably know someone who is hurting.

While I would never wish for a pandemic, or forced separation from so much of what we all love, I try to take comfort in what I have been given during this strange and scary piece of human history:

Time and Opportunities

I am watching my daughter Quinn grow up in a way that I never thought I could. Because I teach closer to home and have a small commute, I get to have dinner with my family more often than not. I have spent more time in my home than I have in years.

It recently occurred to me: If 2020 - 2022 has taught us anything, it's that all challenges bring opportunities.

The lessons I have learned on the mat - both as a teacher and student - have never been more applicable, helpful, and necessary than they've been in this year. I want to keep passing those on.

With that in mind - I am excited to share that I have been working with Rachel Barge and her amazing team at Leap Grow Inc - making updates and upgrades to my website and my yoga offerings in a way that feels like an authentic expression of my yoga teaching. A place where you can find information about my classes, workshops, retreats, and trainings.

Jane Goodall has this great quote - “What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

I am grateful that I have the support of Rachel and her team at Leap Grow to help support the difference that I want to make on this planet.

In 2022, it feels like I am standing on another precipice of big change. The yoga landscape has radically transformed over the past 2.5 years. And yet, I strongly believe in the power and resilience of the community we have built together over the past 16 years. We found our way onto the zoom screens and back into the Green Yogi studio over these many pandemic months, and we will wind our paths together in person, with all of you hopefully, sooner than later. Please check out my new website for opportunities both in the studio and outside the studio to connect with each other.

I look forward to seeing you in the path - Pete

August 2022 Reflections

Dear Friends,

Every year around this time, I begin to prepare for my fall teacher training. I spend a lot of time talking to students who might be interested in joining us for the six-month journey.

We talk about postures, and pranayama, and what the training weekends will look like, but mostly we talk about this yogic path as a way for students to find their authentic voice, and dig deeper into who they are, and, maybe, who they want to become.

As it turns out, most of us need to do quite a bit of work as adults to unlearn things from our past that do not serve us anymore. This includes the environment that we were raised in, perhaps the religious or spiritual practices that we have been exposed to, and the generational stories that have become a part of our psyche. It covers everything from how we interact with our friends to how present we are when we show up for our jobs or commitments.

Teaching has been my greatest lesson in vulnerability, and in realizing some of the deeply rooted fears around sharing who I am and taking risks. When I decided to teach full time, there were many family members and friends who thought I should continue to work in pharmaceuticals and play it safe. Making that leap was one of my first real steps into walking this world as the most authentic version of myself.

Later, as I grew as a teacher, my challenges changed. I had started to really shed the stories from my younger years, and yet I still struggled with how to share these parts of my life with my students in a way that resonated.

Teacher training has helped me to be more open with my real authentic voice. I am still learning how to drop the facades, and let go of my need to be liked. My students teach me new avenues for change all the time.

This year's preparation for the training is especially poignant for me, as we journey (hopefully) onto the other side of the pandemic and find our way back to some type of normalcy.

The teacher training offers an amazing opportunity to reconnect back into our sweet yoga community. People have spent the last 2 years stuck in their home with limited connections to the community outside their house. Shared experience through the training is a powerful thing that help support our path back to wholeness.

If it is true what Jung said, that the privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are, then perhaps it is the privilege of many lifetimes for me that I get to witness my yoga students come into the yoga studio and become their own authentic, unique and amazing selves.

You absolutely don't need to be a teacher to start the quest for your authentic self. This happens every single time we get on our mat, or sit on our cushion, or even take a few mindful breaths. When we turn our focus inward and take a time out, we make room for what naturally bubbles up inside of us. Yoga helps us pay attention - it reveals part of us to ourselves.

And if you are worried that it is too late - fear not. I' am still learning, and evolving, as a new parent at 53.

F Scott Fitzgerald perhaps said it best:

For what it's worth:

it's never too late to be

whoever you want to be.

I hope you live a life you're proud of,

and if you find you're not,

I hope you have the strength

to start over again.

I look forward to sharing this next chapter with you, wherever you are in your journey to get closer to YOU.

If teaching or deepening your practice sounds like a path you might want to walk down this year, our next cohort begins on September 24th, and early bird pricing ends September 4th. If you are interested CLICK HERE for an Inquiry Letter or please feel free to email us at training@petegyoga.com

Warmly - Pete

June 2022 Reflections

Dear Friends,

Berkeley is in summer mode. On walks with Quinn and Stephanie, sunshine warms my skin and the fragrance of a neighbor’s jasmine lingers on our block. At the same time, there is heaviness in the air. We feel the reverberations of violence in our wider community, the families grieving unimaginable loss, the lives brutally taken in Tulsa, Buffalo, Uvalde and the overturning of Roe vs Wade. The list of suffering is long and dark.

Despair, grief, fear, anger, sadness, depression, anxiety—these are all feelings that arise when we experience collective moments like these. But we also need to stay awake to life, for our families and ourselves. So, how do we continue to show up, send our children off to school, and live with an open heart? I always come back to the wisdom of Mr. Rogers, who said,

“When I was a boy

and I would see scary things in the news,

my mother would say to me,

‘Look for the helpers.

You will always find people who are helping.’”

His words speak to a real and tangible way to cultivate resilience by actively doing the work and being our own caretakers.

Of course, being a person who helps looks differently for everyone. It can look like joining a local protest or donating to organizations that advocate for sensible gun reform. And when the time comes, voting. “Helping” can also mean responding to ourselves in a peaceful way. We can rely on the hope that creating more space in our lives allows us to bring that calm energy in all our interactions. We can buoy others with our own grounding within this troubled world.

Yoga philosophy asks us to explore the tools that build and encourage greater peace. For example, ahimsa or non-harming brings in the opportunity to see the truth moment by moment. What does my body need right now? How can I take care of myself? Am I making kind choices? These questions are always worth asking, in part because we’re learning to model healing in all our relationships. As we become more skillful off the mat, we are better equipped to pass on what we’re learning. And when the world seems like too much of a burden to carry, sometimes these are the reminders we need to return to for as long as it takes. This is still a lifelong practice.

Warmly - Pete

May 2022 Reflections

Dear Yoga Student -

Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers to so many of us) has always been a favorite role model of mine.

Trailers from the upcoming movie about his life have reminded me of just how prolific some of his words were, and how he guided so many of us for decades.

Mr. Rogers was the first teacher of an entire generation. Here is one of my favorite lessons:

As human beings,

our job in life is to help people realize how rare

and valuable each one of us really is,

that each of us has something that no one else has -

or ever will have -

something inside that is unique to all time.

It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness

and to provide ways of developing its expression.

I didn't grow up wanting to be a teacher. And yet, I have found my way to teaching as my primary career.

I believe we have two jobs as we help our students grow in the practice. The first is to be authentic ourselves. The second is to teach in a way that helps our students find their own path to authenticity and uniqueness - in whatever ways they choose to use their practice.

Mr. Rogers had his own signature style - the sweater, the shoes, and of course, his offering to all of us to be his neighbor, no matter what we looked like or where we came from. With humor, heart, and kindness, he crafted a space through the TV screen that helped each of us embrace who we were.

As a teacher, I want to craft a similar space. And this is particularly true when I teach individuals how to be yoga teachers, or how to take their teaching to the next level. It can be easy to wonder if - as yoga has grown exponentially - there is not enough room for more teachers, and that teacher training programs simply churn out the same type of teacher.

If we are working towards authenticity in our teaching, then we all have something to offer. Often it can be a matter of finding the people who need the space we are creating, and using the right tools to meet people where they are.

Over the next few months, I am offering two trainings that get right to the heart of being authentic teachers and how we can more effectively help our students navigate their own personal discoveries.

From August 1 - 27, I am offering my 200 Hr Lighting the Path Teacher Training in Ubud, Bali at the Yoga Barnr Lighting the Path Teacher Training in Ubud, Bali at the Yoga Barn. Are you looking to connect with your heart, find your truth, and deepen your yoga practice? The Lighting the Path Teacher Training is a comprehensive program for yoga teachers looking to find their authentic voice on the mat and in the world. With a focus on alignment, intention, sequencing, and assisting, LTP graduates leave trainings prepared to teach dynamic and accessible heart-centered vinyasa classes for all levels of students.

If you are not interested in traveling to Indonesia, but are curious about the teaching path, or looking to deepen your relationship to your practice, my weekend-format 200-hour training program located in Berkeley at Green Yogi begins September 22nd and offers a flexible twice a month format with morning yoga intensive practices and afternoon lecture and teaching. This is a wonderful way to build your asana practice, do the powerful work

of walking the path to your authentic self, and sharing that self with your students. More info can be found HERE

Fred Rogers said that the greatest gift you can ever give is your honest self.

If I can help you give that gift to yourself or your students, I would love for you to be my neighbor at a training or in class very soon.

Warmly - Pete