“The Whole Breath Yoga” has become “Beside Grace”
The website has a new name! “The Whole Breath Yoga” has become “Beside Grace”.
The Whole Breath Yoga still describes the yoga that I teach, which is focused on all aspects of the breath, its coordination with movement and how it ultimately affects the mind. I, however, am not only a yoga teacher. A few years ago, I became a certified systemic coach in Germany and recently became certified as a Postpartum and Infant Care Doula. I realized I needed to create an online presence that has the ability to grow with me and reflect me as a whole person, not just one service that I provide.
When I did my systemic coaching training in Germany a few years ago, we did an exercise at the start of one of the seminars to embody what it feels like to lead someone and gently guide them. We tried out different ways of “leading” our partner throughout the room, such as pulling their arm or having them put their hand on our shoulders as we marched through the room. The pace was fast and I found myself feeling their resistance as I tugged them along. Then we tried out what it was like to guide them. In German, we call this “Begleitung”. I immediately felt the shift. I was walking beside someone, the pace was slower and I had gentle contact with one hand on their shoulder or around their back. It was like when you’re walking through the forest and are taking note of the flowers, the sunshine, the sounds of the leaves bristling in the trees. If my partner’s pace shifted, I kept up or slowed with her. I was in sync with her. I felt what it was like to walk alongside someone, being present for their development and being in relationship with them. This is what I envision for “Beside Grace”. It’s me, walking beside you, as you discover where it is you want to go or just to be next to you, providing companionship and presence while you just get to “be”.
This theme of “Begleitung” or being alongside someone seems to be the thread that joins all of my professional experience. In the doula training I did, we read a children’s story about a boy who was upset and the only animal who helped him find his calm was a little rabbit. Many animals approached him and each had their own idea of what would make the boy feel better – he should scream, he should throw something, he should cry, he should talk – but it was the rabbit that helped in the end. The rabbit was content to sit next to him and let the boy express himself at his own pace.
T.K.V. Desikachar (the yoga teacher in the tradition I trained in) taught that the role of the teacher is to guide, rather than impose. “The starting point is never the teacher’s needs but those of the student.” (1) Even many years after my yoga teacher training and the systemic coaching training, I keep going back to this central theme of both – the relationship is the heart of the work and creates the foundation for growth and healing.
So that is my wish and vision for my work. To be beside you as you navigate life, your yoga practice, or your birth and postpartum period.
References
T. K. V. Desikachar, The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1995), xviii.