Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy by Michael Lee MA

Author:Michael Lee MA
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.

8

Choice

We were conducting a training program in Dallas. Not having spent much time there, I had an image of Dallas as a brash and materialistic city probably without much soul. I was soon to let go of my prejudice. In the elevator of my hotel on my way to the program, I almost doubled over in delight when a young woman dressed in black evening wear hitched her dress up to scratch her thigh exclaiming, “Damn! These new panty-hose are so itchy.” She wasn’t drunk. Her date standing next to her looked like a Fortune 500 executive and she was just being herself. I was impressed. It was so different from the heavily censored public behavior I observe in New England where I live. Over and over again in Texas I had a chance to witness folks just “being themselves.” Now that doesn’t mean this freedom of expression was always pretty or filled with consciousness awareness, but it was real. For the first time in many years I tuned in the car radio to a country station and as I listened to the lyrics I noticed a similar realness. Sure, a lot of the songs are about attachment, disappointment and bravado, but again they are real. Even if you don’t like the lyrics, I see that the big resurgence in the popularity of this style of music is due to a certain down-to-earth quality in it. I decided I liked Dallas after all.

When I went home and told Lori I liked Dallas, she responded, “Great! But don’t you realize you like every city you visit?” She was right. Although I wouldn’t like to live in all of them, I do seem to find something I like about each of them. I think the way I am with cities is also a great way to be with people. We can either focus on what it is about someone that drives us crazy or we can focus on something about them we like. Just as you do with a city, you have to be with someone long enough to be able to do that. Time and time again, in training programs and workshops, I see people connecting deeply with so many people they have spent time with, who are different from themselves.

I have often asked how this is so? How can people taking a Phoenix Rising training program suddenly become able to accept major differences in others that they find difficulty with elsewhere? Are they mesmerized by the program? Is it an “unreal” situation? I think not. What I think happens is that after even just a short time in the program people shift gears. From this new state of being they begin to see more than their initial prejudice. How does this happen? I think it’s a combination of things. First, we place a lot of emphasis on the use of the body as a vehicle for deeper awareness. On the first morning, within a half hour of arriving, people are led through their first body experience.

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