Tapas anyone?

No not little bite-sized Spanish plates of food, but the Sanskrit version... as Iyengar puts it, " Tapas is derived from the root "tap" meaning to blaze, burn, shine, suffer or consume heat" or as Desikachar writes, "Process of removing impurities, elimination, purification..."
I also like the quote:

"If flowery words make us happy 

but insults upset us, we know 

our minds are not yet strong," 

 Sri Swami Satchidananda

The Yoga Sutras of  Patanjali

As I stated in class, today we got a healthy dose of Tapas. Chris Gordon helped us each teach our first pose to the class. I wasn't nervous once I started, but before I was for sure having doubts about straightening out my jumbled mind to give clear, calm and present directions for all of the parts of the pose. 

I just kept thinking, go slowly... 

Other things that I learned from my classmates: 

- Silence at times is good

- If you make a mistake, no big deal

- Different kinds of voices are so important!

- Breathe

- Give Real Compliments

- Be positive:)

Any thoughts that you'd like to add, please do. -t