Welcome back to my Healing Motion Blog. If you read last week’s Healing Motion Blog please scroll down to the Chapter 7 excerpt.
If you’re new to my Blog, please enjoy the full page:
I am continuing to enjoy the process of editing each chapter and flashback for my upcoming memoir, Apple In My Truck, A Pathway to Inner Peace.
Erin R Lund of Sunshine Editorial Services is currently hard at work brightening each paragraph. I am grateful to Erin for her professionalism, enthusiasm, and quick wit.
My initial editor was Angie Bihn. She had helped me to unbury my painful past while writing and editing. I have referred to Angie in previous blogs as my personal therapeutic archeologist. I am thankful to have Angie’s brilliance within the pages of Apple In My Truck.
Allow me to briefly explain my history with writing. One afternoon during elementary school recess, in 1978, my teacher kept me confined to the classroom while the other children got to play. Her reasoning was that I needed to learn how to NOT talk during the moment that she was attempting to perform the roll call duties.
My punishment was to stand in front of the chalkboard and write out, ‘I Will Not Talk In Class,’ one-hundred times. So you can imagine that I never really liked writing much when I was younger.
During 1993 through 2011 I worked in the emergency medical and fire service profession while living in Arizona. Patient documentation was a daily requirement. Therefore, while I worked for the fire service, the act of writing was never enjoyable.
However, in 2011, I discovered a Yoga Teacher Training program. It was my yoga teacher trainers who helped me to realize that yoga wasn’t only a physical practice. They’d taught me that yoga is about joining together or ‘yoking’ your mind, body and spirit. I’d learned how to connect to my higher Self mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
Today, I continue to practice the ancient teachings of yoga. Specially the teachings of an ancient sage known as Patanjali. He is famous for his teachings of the Yoga Sutras. The Eight-Limb Path of Yoga is embedded within the Yoga Sutras.
Svadhyaya (self-study, study of the Self, journaling) is the fourth tenant that resides underneath the second-limb or Niyamas, which inspired me to begin journaling or writing.
My yogic path of a daily Sadhana (practice) of the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga continues. I will be a forever student of yoga continually visiting the teachings of Patanjali to learn, explore and reach my own pathway to inner peace.
Below is a short excerpt from Chapter Seven, Beginnings, from Apple In My Truck, A Pathway to Inner Peace.
Chapter 7 - Beginnings
From the first day of Reserve Firefighter training to transitioning to firefighting full-time, PAIN was part of the job. My refuge from pain was the combination of yoga postures and breathing techniques I was learning in my Yoga Teacher Training Program. My yoga trainers were teaching me how to move my body in ways that felt good, and direct my breath into any area where physical, mental, or emotional pain arrived. When I did, the smooth, steady breathing calmed my mind and relieved my pain. I noticed that as I continued learning and practicing these techniques, my mindset began to drastically shift. Where firefighting had taught me that I might find peace the more I multitasked and juggled on the job, there wasn’t any guarantee that I would. By contrast, yoga was teaching me that if I let go of the thoughts in my mind, I was guaranteed to find peace.
While being able to utilize a few hours of my vacation time to drive to my classes was a great benefit, I began to notice waves of depression and dread coming over me afterward when I had to drive back to the fire station to finish my shifts. I longed for a new life free from running emergency calls. When and how would I leave the fire department altogether still weighed heavily on my mind, as getting my demotion didn’t fully relieve me of my firefighting responsibilities. Peter frowned whenever I tried sharing these feelings with him, so I was left with no one to talk to about my fear of what my life might truly become when I finally took early retirement from the fire service. Though my previous attempts at finding a new career path had failed over the last few years, I wholeheartedly prayed that once I completed the Yoga Teacher Training course, I could hang up my helmet for good.
In order to graduate from my YTT program and become a certified yoga teacher, I had to apply for and lead a class myself as substitute teacher. I felt nervous about guiding others when I felt like I still had so much to learn as a lifelong student of yoga teachings. A fellow student who co-owned a yoga studio in Peoria encouraged me to add my name to her studio’s substitute list, and two weeks later, I got a call. With butterflies in my stomach, I accepted her offer.
I arrived early to prepare my yoga space. Just before class began, a woman sitting in siddhasana asked me, “How many years have you been doing yoga?” Siddhasana in Sanskrit means accomplished. I didn’t feel very accomplished at anything as merely a student teacher, but instinctively I responded, “I feel as if I’ve been doing yoga my entire life.” My answer came from having learned that yoga is not just a series of asana (postures), but is fundamentally the ability to connect oneself on all levels of mind, body and spirit, and I had already long been doing that in a variety of ways before coming formally to yoga.
Our YTT teachers had taught us about the ancient teachings of Patañjali. He was known for passing down the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga. The First Limb, or Yamas, includes five known principles, the second of which is called Satya. In Sanskrit, Satya translates to truthfulness to others and yourself, and my own truth was becoming more apparent to me by the day. I could no longer be dishonest with myself and those around me. I knew it was wrong to wish someone else could respond to the emergency alert when it went off instead of me. I had lost all the enthusiasm I’d once had for helping citizens in need. Hell, now I was the one who needed help.
I’d recently told my fellow yogi trainees that, “I will speak the truth to my Fire Department that I want to take early retirement. Soon, I’ll quit.” I didn’t yet have any clear plan for how I would execute this, though.
Finally, the night of our YTT graduation ceremony came. As a graduation gift, our teachers gave each of us a simple set of cocoa-colored mala beads. I placed mine around my neck and immediately fell in love with their divine energy. I felt a much deeper connection to my inner light now that I had officially graduated from the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training program. My fellow trainees and I extended loving energy to one another, and I cheered, “Here’s to new beginnings. Life is only getting better.” However, driving back to the fire station afterward to finish my shift drained away my yoga high.
When I arrived, I changed out of my yoga clothes and into my firefighter uniform. As I applied my leather belt, secured the watch back onto my wrist and zipped up my duty boots, that familiar feeling of tension set in between my neck and shoulders. I much preferred being barefoot and wearing comfortable yoga clothes to being stuffed into my uniform. Suddenly, the fire station’s phone rang; the call was for me. “AJ, it’s Reade, report to my office. I need to talk to you.”
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I hope you enjoyed this short sample of Apple In My Truck, A Pathway to Inner Peace.
Erin and I are diving back in to continue editing the remaining chapters (8 through 12) along with their flashback chapters. Until we resurface to bring you more excerpts, enjoy your beautiful day.
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To learn more about the Eight-Limb Path of Yoga please read my self-published fictional book, dYnO’s DaNcE, On The Eight-Limb Path.
dYnO’s DaNcE, On The Eight-Limb Path, is an imaginative tale liberally sprinkled with Patañjali’s spiritual teachings. This story offers a great pathway for you to connect with your inner child.
Find your copy online at:
Be A Flower,
Share your Beauty.
Namaste.
Alicia
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