One of the themes that keeps coming up in the summer YTT (yoga teacher training) is planning versus the plan.
As we build our skills, abilities and capacities, we need practice. For new yoga teachers, this practice includes planning classes – lots and lots of them! This allows us to understand many things at a deeper level – the methodology, sequencing, timing, cueing.
There is a lot to know, and when we first learn something, it tends to land at what I call the ‘skin level’. With practice and planning, the information gets digested more and more, and this information transforms into a wisdom that sinks deep into our bones.
When the information is at the skin level, the plan we created in the planning-practice stage feels very important. Without the plan, whatever will we do? What will happen? How will I manage?
There’s a funny thing about plans… we keep making them, and the natural flow of the universe keeps disrupting them! Why? Because the universe loves you – it loves you enough to constantly remind you that the plan is not what’s important… It’s the practice of planning and learning that matters.
I was in Calgary this weekend introducing a wonderful group of yoga therapists to Ayurveda. On the first day we went to setup the computer and overhead projector, and we could not get the cables to fit. So the plan 😉 was to start the intro, and a cable would arrive within the hour so the slide show of teachings could begin.
As the group and I were going through the process of introductions, I realized that there was no cable arriving. But what about THE PLAN??? Ha! Time to take all that time spent planning, and use what is showing up in the moment to create a new plan – a plan that will work for that particular moment in time.
So that’s what I did. I went with it. What happened you wonder? Magic. Without the technology and slides there was more room for eye contact, discussion, questions, and sharing. We met each other in the moment, and allowed the needs of the moment to guide the weekend of teaching. It was beautiful and powerful and a great reminder that it’s the planning that’s important (and what enabled me to “go with it”), not the plan.
I believe this happens to all of us all the time. We have a plan, and the universe flows us in a different direction. I understand the desire to control and make the plan happen, yet I am also aware of the magic of surrendering our egoic willfulness to the flow of the moment to reveal something new. Where in your life do you plan, and the universe has another plan for you? Do you resist, or do you surrender? Are you willing to explore letting go of control to create something new in the moment?
Happy Planning 😉
m xo
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