Rolf Gates

Last weekend my yoga studio, Hot House Yoga, brought in Rolf Gates for a weekend long Intensive. Our instructors have trained with Rolf for a number of years and this was my second time participating in one of his workshops at the studio. To say that it was phenomenal is an understatement. He is so very real and approachable. He began each of the 4 sessions with a talk centered around a theme (karma, spiritual practice and transformation) and then we would have a pretty intense yoga practice for between 1 1/2 to 2 hours. sidebar: I would come home completely wiped out and Corey would say, "What did you expect? It's called and Intensive."

Friday was about Karma and conditioning. This was very relevant to a lot of what I am dealing with in my life now. Particularly 'conditioning'. Simply put, conditioning is how our past shapes our future. We have been trained through our past experiences to respond in a certain way to both positive and negative stimulus and by changing our attention, we change our direction and thereby change our destination. So by becoming aware of our patterns of response, we can change the outcome by noticing and responding differently until the new, positive response is our new conditioning. Make sense? I have an example.... there is a posture that I have never been able to do. Reclining hero. When that posture comes around, my reaction is to proceed to exactly the point that I go to every time and I do not try to proceed farther. I have convinced myself that this is as far as I will go and so it is. After Rolf spoke about conditioning and we began our practice, I really made an effort to notice the roadblocks I put in my way. When it came time for hero, I consciously shifted my attitude toward it and wouldn't you know it I was able to do it. It was a shock really. I did not think I was physically able to do it and yet there I was. During final savasana, Rolf was talking about doors (see post below) and our perception and attitude toward them. He said it was our nature to view a door as an obstacle and approach it with aggression when all that was really need was to gently turn the knob and step through. He ended our savasana with this statement..."If you take one step toward the divine, the divine will take ten steps toward you. Just open the door and take that step." I feel a 'door' necklace brewing to the surface....