Rameen Peyrow, founder and director of the SATTVA School of Yoga and The Yoga Loft, was interviewed by local Edmonton magazine PARLOUR in August 2010.
I remember from a very young age watching adults around me live their lives. I was fascinated by how hard everyone worked to achieve a foothold in what they could call an accomplishment, and what they would do to receive some kind of acknowledgement and praise in the form of money or status. Working 14-hour days, taking work home, cancelling important family dinners, and putting friends to the side, I saw people trading their evenings and weekends for a crowded mind, thinking about what comes next, how to keep a hold on tiny amounts of elusive greatness. Sound familiar?
This crowded mind has become my life’s work. Not only in helping my own internal world, but also in helping those around find space in their lives and their overactive minds. I did not intentionally set foot down this path; however, my path of Yoga has led me here. If you’d asked me 10 years go what achieving greatness meant to me, my response would have been “living in a cave.” Therefore, at the age of 20, I set my intentions to go to India and find my cave.
Why the cave? Simply, I’d become disillusioned with the typical 10 to 12 hour workdays. I realized that my ife, or lifestyle, was much more important than material gains. I knew there was an experience inside that exceeded external wealth. This insight came from my father who taught me to meditate, at the age of five, ultimately setting me on the path of questioning, who am I? Why am I here?
Now, you’re probably asking the question, what does this have to do with achieving greatness? I’m getting there, but as my Guruji or Yoga teacher in India taught me – slowly, slowly all is coming…
In my late teens I began to see that it was not just the people close to me who were struggling to find the answer to the riddle of greatness, it was actually most human beings. I started to ask myself: why is it so important to achieve greatness, and what do we truly gain from the pursuit? Is greatness about accomplishing something within our lives that others recognize? Is it wealth? Is it our health? What about happiness and freedom? I started to wonder if it could be able simpler things, like being kind to everyone, being kind to the planet, being kind to OURSELVES. What a novel idea!
I decided to go to India…
I began to find insight to my questions when I arrived in India. Inundated with noise, poverty and chaos, I felt I had arrived home. On the surface, it seemed like typical hustle and bustle, but just beneath the surface was a rhythmic ease. India gave me an opportunity to see a new way of living, a way of life that did not revolve around the external gains that I may have perceived as accomplishments.
On my journey to find my cave, in between intense Yoga and meditation practice, I heard of a swamiji living in a cave not far from where I was staying. I made the pilgrimage up a small mountain where I found swamiji. There wasn’t even room to stand in his cave. Swamiji had left his life as a journalist in hopes of living a more simple, inspired life. One day he decided he could walk no further with shoes on his feet, and at that moment, he took them off. While walking across India barefoot, swamiji developed a new relationship with himself. He cleared his mind of clutter and set the intention to free himself, to liberate his mind, and to leave the rat race.
Still to this day, I remember the smell, the simplicity, his bed made of hard tile, and the mountain of money he showed me – yes, mountain of money – that people had given him out of respect, and in exchange for his wisdom and amazing stories. Here was a man who couldn’t care less about money and it was flowing like a river through his cave.
With my daily visits to see swamiji I realized that achieving greatness or “success” comes from the inside out. Once the mind becomes calm and relaxed, then life simply unfolds with ease, and it becomes easier to do what we are inspired to do.
I’m not suggesting you quit your job, remove your shoes and pray for the universe to pay your mortgage, but I am asking you the question – who are you, and why are you here? If you can contemplate these questions daily, the clutter in the mind will slowly make way to a space where you will be able to find your own expression of greatness…
For those who do yoga regularly I think this question is quite obvious… it is so apparent once you truly appreciate your yoga practice how it improves your life down any path you may take! Yoga creates a calm mind, open body, and means to live the happiest life you can imagine, allowing its practitioners to feel the benefits of its beauty on and off the mat!!! A simple and free lifestyle is craved once you taste the complete satisfaction of what can only be described as bliss after an inspiring yoga practice of movement with BREATH!!! However, yoga is not just a 90 minute practice here or there, it is a way of life, it is a beautiful, heart felt way in which we choose to live each and every moment for exactly what it is, moment to moment and breath to breath!!! The real practice of yoga, I believe, starts off your mat, really challenging yourself to stay calm and peaceful although everything around you seems to be so demanding and streeeeesssssed OUT!!! I have never really understood the concept of being stressed out (but then again again I DO YOGA), it always baffled me because through my yoga practice I realize that I control my feelings, my reactions, and my attitude towards life SO why on earth would I ever choose to be anything less then completely happy and loving towards everything and everyone!!! As human beings we want control, it is something we are programed to think we need but when it comes down to it the only true thing in this whole world we can 100% control is ourselves, our attitudes, our choices, and our outlook on life!!! So why is it so often we will try and control everything else around us and not just look into ourselves to create a bright light within us to then shine out to others….. well if you ask me it is because everyone needs to do more yoga… YOGA IMPROVES YOUR LIFE!!!!! May you have love, kindness, and compassion for ALL living things!!! Just a lovely quote from my yogi tea bag I wanted to share!!! That tea is just so wise!!! Open body, open mind, open heart!!! Peace!! Contributed by Angela McFaul, SATTVA School of Yoga Teacher Training graduate Edmonton, 2011
We don’t think about it often because breathing occurs so naturally but without this beautiful gift of breath our physical body would not be able to carry on!! This is an extremely powerful force we all have right under our noses…SO IMAGINE IF we all used our breath to its full potential, I mean if this stuff keeps us alive there has got to be more to it then just weak inhales and exhales with no awareness of what is happening within the body!! So try it now, take a DEEP inhale and exhale, draw your awareness inward and follow the breath throughout the entire body!! Ok one more time now but this time like you mean it, like you truly appreciate this breath stuff because it gives you life!!! Don’t you feel just that much better, just that much more alive!! What a beautiful thing!! I challenge you to keep breathing deeply every chance you get, and the great thing is you have A LOT of chances, every single moment to be exact!!!
I imagine that a number of people respond to the idea of “self-practice’ in this way. This is understandable. We place a lot of trust into our teacher’s ability to create a safe, informed, and open space for us to begin our journey into yoga. Initially we have little idea of what is going on in the studio; we do our best to “keep up” and to master moving our body in new ways. With technique, adjustments and detailed instruction, the practice becomes more fluid. The friction and resistance falls away. With less distraction we can tap into the present moment, our ego relaxes and we see the calm that resides within. You become more aware of your mind state during your practice instead of the postures themselves.