from goa, with love
trying something new
It’s unusual (and, for whatever reason, uncomfortable) for me to share about my travels in real time. I’ve developed the habit of getting off-grid while I’m away, keeping the present moment close to my chest until I’m ready to share it. Still, when I signed up for this 300 hr Yoga Teacher Training, I told myself that I’d treat this trip differently. The teachers here at Sarvaguna Yoga are mighty, truly, and I am here with the intention of sharing what I learn.
It’s been almost a week since I arrived at Agonda Beach and the experience is already slippery. I want to write something about the openness in my heart, the excitement I felt reading the Yoga Sutras in preparation, the deep respect I have for my teachers here, my desire to learn, the way asana is so confronting in my body and why it all feels important. I have been writing myself in circles for days trying to figure out where to start so let me just keep it simple: “Greetings from Goa,” one might begin. “Something in my chest has loosened just by being here.”
We began our first morning together with a fire ceremony and ate kaju katli as a blessing. My gratitude took the form of tears and poured out of me. After months of feeling stuck, somehow suffocated by my own skin, the totality of my joy was like oxygen. When I think to myself, “this feels right, I feel certain,” there is some other part of me that bristles against that idea. Maybe it feels like too great a privilege, in a way - but I’m here in reverence, and the honor is not lost on me.
As it turns out, there is plenty more to say but it’s almost 10pm and I’ve been awake since 6 this morning. A coherent conclusion feels unlikely. In any case, I really just wanted to touch base, to send a note of love and gratitude, to let you know how it’s all going.
More soon xx
