“The effects of practice are progressive and cumulative.  Health radiates out from the center like rings rippling out across the surface of a lake.”

-Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat

Day 330 (continued) – Rolf brings such authenticity to his writing, especially when he describes his teaching, which (from a previous reading) is his “something to love.”  He writes about how meditation (or pranayama or asana or any movement for that matter) can be a “very effective device for bringing…[the] mind to one point and keeping it there.”  for Rolf, when he teaches, this point is his intuition and it is here he watches his “impulses of intuition and inspiration as they arise.”

This small, focused task would so enhance my teaching.  If I did this in my everyday, I think which I would be living this yoga off the mat.  Rolf describes his thought process, writing:  “I observe the nature of each impulse and its relationship to the moment: ‘This one is inspired by the group energy.’ ‘This one is inspired by a momentary pause in the flow of my attention and it should not be heeded, but rather taken as a sign that I need to bring my mind back.’ ‘This one is pure empathetic hit of what their bodies would like right now.'”  While Rolf teaches, he is “steady and continuous, and concentration is by and large effortless–there is no past, no future, only a timeless present.”

I find hope and sanity in this perspective, knowing that I can craft my work love in such a way that it mirrors many of my extracurricular activities.  I know that many people don’t look at their job as something they love or even want to love, and that is a different perspective, but I have done some soul-searching (what teacher wouldn’t at this stage in the game?).  Longevity and passion have to be cultivated, and cannot be forced.  We have to look with new eyes upon each day in order to hold love in our hearts and radiate love “out from the center like rings rippling out across the surface of a lake.”