Finding our inner calm strength and balance through yoga

Embarking on My Yoga Teaching Journey: Discovering Light in the Shadows and Finding Balance in Yoga - By Natascha Zeller

Reading time: 4 minutes

Step 1 of my teaching journey

Just before I was about to leave a career where I had been flying as cabin crew for 16yrs to try and make my passion for practicing yoga also into my main way of earning a living, I remembered one of the first things we were told at the very beginning of our teacher training being- 'it's not a great idea initially to try and make your sole source of income teaching yoga'..! So I was beginning to wonder if this was going to be as crazy an idea as trying to make a living as an actress was nearly 20 years earlier ?..

It was however in fact the beginning of a new journey of discovery, one which was depicting in photos I had taken at the time, ways in which to move through dark and shade into new light. The opportunities and experiences I've been so lucky to live before and since that day have and continue to teach me many valuable life lessons such as, we wouldn't be human if we didn't experience times of darkness as well as light, but through the multi faceted practices of yoga we are given a wealth of both mental as well as physical tools to guide us on our life journey.

One of the first interpretations I read of The Bhagavad Ghita, the famous Hindu text about Prince Arjuna and numerous conversations with his spirit guide Krishna about his life dilemmas trials and tribulations, was from Juan Mascaro's translation. Within it I discovered a revelatory line that will stick with me forever ..' There is within us all a flame where no winds come' .. this resonated so much that still whenever I find myself feeling challenged overwhelmed or just simply in need of a moment of calm stillness, I light a candle think of these words and watch how even the most flickering flame eventually finds it's center.

Making yoga also my career hasn't I have to admit been all 'plain sailing' and sometimes I feel a bit like a hustler negotiating, planning and just simply sometimes living with uncertainty, but I wouldn't change it for the world !

Some may also argue for want of a better word, that yoga was never something that should have become anyone's career. I would now however put forward a counter argument that the popularity of yoga over the last decade particularly, has stemmed from a great need in so many people to become united and learn about how life is balance with all living things, that we need connection with each other and now more than ever are in urgent need of a return to our symbiotic relationship with our home that is planet earth. Something which yoga is teaching us in many ways particularly in one of it's literal meanings 'to yoke' - working together for a common purpose.

From ancient yoga texts like Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, to some incredibly inspiring insightful modern day teachings, we are taught through yoga about life's balance in all things. Throughout history scholars and poets have also reminded us that for all the things we often seek externally, it is within ourselves where we will usually fin our answers, beautifully written in this poem by Rumi ..

'There is a life force within your soul, seek that life. There is a gem in the mountain of your body, seek that mine. O traveler, if you are in search of that, don't look outside, look inside yourself and seek that'