As some of you may know, I have taken a big step to own and further my life purpose : to help people reconnect to their Core, to their innate goodness. Healwithmay was born recently to serve as a platform for this mission. From my personal experience and as taught by wisdom tradition, Yoga is a great way for us to reconnect with our body, our inner Temple. Hence I created my version of the Temple Yoga as I want to make it available for people to use this as a tool to reconnect with their body, which is really our best internal GPS, our best navigator friend within. As I want to have the freedom to remain true to what I teach, I have chosen not join any Yoga establishments in Hong Kong. So I explored into renting spaces by the hour just so I can teach and share yoga with whoever who might be interested. I had been calling places for renting, some are cold calls and some are referrals. I called this place referred by a good friend of mine to find out about the rental terms and availability. I explained that I am a lawyer by day and a healer by night and I want to rent the place to teach yoga.
The response I got the manager was “since you are a new yoga teacher, you are not famous, so you won’t have many students. We don’t rent to such teachers” Ouch, what a blow right?
But a great thing resulted from this not too pleasant call! It was my reaction!
Our brain is wired for survival not happiness – so when a “threat” is detected, we are wired to react with overwhelming emotional response with our entire neocortext (responsible for sensory functions, logic, cognition, reasoning) shutting down as they body prepares for survival! Yup this is “amygdala hijack”.
This time, I was not a victim of the amygdala hijack, I transcended it! Believe me I used to be a rather intense and emotional person easily prone to over-reaction. I credit this liberation to my awareness meditation at work! My commitment to practice continuously for the past two decades has been a worthwhile investment after all.
First, I did not have a negative reaction because what she said is true! I am new and not famous (yet)! Second, instead of being a victim amygdala hijack, I thought to myself, how many times have I behaved like the manager, how many times in the past did I speak with mean, unkind and harsh words, consciously or not? Sure sometimes the truth needs to be delivered. But it is how we choose to communicate that truth, that is, assuming that it had to be communicated.
In any situation, no matter how serious the conflict may seem, it is always possible to communicate in a non-destructive, non-aggressive and non-manipulative manner. Because we never know if the other person is having a bad day or what they had gone through in the past and what they are going through now. Sometimes what we say can make or break somebody.
So the reminder from this experience is to be kind, be kind, be kind. And to be kind, does not mean not to speak the truth, it just means to speak it with kindness.
Luckily for me, I did find a special gem to rent. So Temple Yoga is now happening, starting 16 November 2017. Check out the details here
M.x