Welcome back! If you’re new to the series, I’ve been diving into how I have created space in my life, how I have had to embrace the (sometimes difficult) change and now, how I have pursued a life that I am passionate about, and lastly, how you can, too.
Anatomy wasn’t my thing in school. Heck, school wasn’t my thing in school. I did fine, but rambunctious young Adam called bull$#*! on the whole system from an early age.
I don’t know where this came from, but it was there. The idea that we all go through one identical thing called “school” seemed crazy to me. Anyone who has had a similar reaction to anything in life will understand what I mean.
As a third-grader, I found an early passion in selling flavored toothpicks and renting neckties, much to the dismay of the principal. ‘The Man’ may have shut down my earliest attempt at entrepreneurship, but once I learned that there’s a marketplace for solving problems, I was hooked.
The most common path to release the self of these matrix-like feelings is ENTREPRENEURSHIP. As an American and a Texan and a Yogi, it is a blessing and a gift to have an environment of such freedom within which to create social change. Fun!
So, in “school” I didn’t embrace anatomy, but once on my own path, yoga brought it to life. Feeling how my own body works on my mat opened me up to learn what’s actually going on in there. I was ready to learn, and I was lucky to have great teachers everywhere I seemed to land. It wasn’t easy—bodies have a lot of complicated inner workings, if you can believe that—but rooting the information in experience and purpose gave me a reason to learn it.
Inspire Yoga Teacher Training taught me a lot more than anatomy, though. I came together with a small group of future instructors for eight weekends and we received the education, guidance, and support we needed to start crafting our own flows. What we really learned was leadership through yoga: we learned how to take our own practice to the next level and how to share that journey of growth with others.
Inspire Yoga Teacher Training follows a traditional master & apprentice relationship model that was around long before the idea of an ‘Independent School District.’ Even through the industrial revolution, unionized labor, and executive succession planning of the modern era, the Master & Apprentice knowledge transfer model thrives. There is a simple reason. Knowledge transfer flows better when conveyed with emotion and empathy. Emotion and empathy require a relationship to move from one human to another. The master & apprentice model defines the relationship in a way that makes knowledge-transfer efficient and lasting. There’s a master—someone who’s devoted a huge amount of time and energy to their craft—who strives to impart knowledge to a group of students who really want to be there.
It’s a far cry from some of the other ways we all learned in school. Do you remember the quadratic equation? What about the inventor of the cotton gin? What is mitochondria? In what year did the Battle of Hastings take place?
I considered listing the answers at the bottom of the page—in tiny, upside-down font—but there’s no need! Since the time we were in school, the world invented a digital assistant you can ask faster than I can type. Memorizing a common set of facts isn’t what glues us together anymore, because we all have access to our own facts.
All that information is powerful, and we believe in a responsibility to use it to cultivate oneself mindfully and intentionally—to seek people, communities, and information sources that are worthy of our trust. The best teachers have nothing to gain, other than the joy of helping others lift themselves up.
Unfortunately, the underlying educational system has a lot to gain; it is no longer in the category of a valuable and necessary experience for growth. In the last 15 years we have witnessed predatory dogmatic institutions assert life-draining anxiety, competition, and debt onto wide-eyed kind spirits around the globe. While I don’t exactly believe that public and private colleges alike conspired to devastate a generation, many former students are reminded in their student loan statement each month that this is in fact what happened. For the recently enlightened folk, it makes more sense to get a degree in yoga for a fraction of the price of college’s “Bachelor” degree. Far less cost, tools to combat anxiety, and a path to sustained happy work.
Choices matter: live your life in the way you want. Inspire Yoga instructors have found their passion and want to share it. Are you ready to learn?
Next week, we’ll establish trust. Until then, the light and truth in me is honored and inspired by the light and truth in each of you. It is an honor to be your guide. See you on your mats.
Namaste. ????
Adam Pilat
New Studio Development
Adam@inspireyoga.com
