Greetings from Kel (and a Melbourne daffodil)

Hello reader yogis,

Kel here, hijacking Sarah’s blog while she’s away in the Eastern states. We travelled over together to attend a module of Dru Yoga Teacher Training – me so I could finally finish my course, and Sarah so she could be a senior teacher on the module. We met some lovely people while on module, many of whom wanted Sarah to stay! Don’t worry, she’s coming back, but not ’til next week, so you get my insight this week.

You are probably all familiar with the Energy Block Release sequences of Dru. They are powerful tools to move energy on different layers of being. On this particular module, we learned a new EBR and were invited to dedicate the practice to something we wanted to achieve or develop. The instruction was to focus on something intrinsic and all-encompassing, rather than a singular or material goal. In the past I have gone as specific as focussing my energy on successfully completing a maths exam (which seemed to work), so it was interesting to consider something broader.

At first I wasn’t sure. Love? Compassion? Joy? But none of these things felt like things I needed to bring into my life; I am fortunate to already have love and joy in my life. Where, I wondered, am I stuck? I thought about what I was about to do – an energy block release.

Where do I feel blocked?

I spend a lot of my time training in ballroom dancing. I’ve been doing it for nearly ten years, loving it, joyful for the pleasure of it, but always feeling inferior. I didn’t train as a kid, so I don’t come to dancing with the flexibility that comes from training as a kid. I felt like I was never going to be the dancer of my dreams because I wasn’t flexible enough, and wasn’t able to become flexible enough. Anyone who’s groaned when the ties come out for hamstring stretches probably knows how long it takes to get microscopic improvements.

Physical flexibility then. Perhaps, I thought, I could use some flexibility in my thinking too. If I was willing to bend on the idea that a dancer must be able to do the splits to be good, or willing to consider that becoming more flexible is even possible, that might help. I had a suspicion that flexibility of thought and attitude were things I would do well to adopt.

Right. Flexibility in all layers of being! Bring it on.

I went through the movements feeling good. I was bringing in flexibility. But as I got to towards the end of the EBR sequence, a realisation crept over me: I don’t need to ‘bring in’ or become flexible. I already am flexible. I just have to release anything that gets in the way of that.

Sounds obvious, but here’s the thing: I already am all of the things I need to or want to be. I have everything within me. And if you’d asked me before – do you have everything you need within you – I’d have said yes. I’ve been told that. I even believed it. But I didn’t know it, deep down. I was letting other beliefs, deeper ideas, get in the way. Ideas about being inadequate. Ideas about being untrainable. They were the problem, not my lack of early training or my inability to think differently.

The point was simple, and it probably would have applied to any quality I was looking for in my life: I already have everything. It’s just a matter of what I want to express. The EBR sequence clarifies what I can let go of – the energy block – to be better able to express and embody what I want to be. It can do that without me having to go anywhere or do anything except be present and willing.

Without even meaning to, I’ve come back to one of Sarah’s ‘three keys’ that she’s been talking about – presence. Interesting how it is all linked. I hope that gives you something to consider when you next practice an EBR, or perhaps resonates with your own experiences and discoveries. Sarah will be back next week and in the meantime, I leave you with a photo of a vibrant daffodil we found on our travels 🙂

Kel