Last night I had the opportunity to do something I’ve never done before, co-host a Heart Opening Yoga Workshop with my long time friend and inspiration Mieka. As I arrived to the studio, it occurred to me I hadn’t really thought about how things would go. I had nothing to compare it to. I wasn’t nervous, or anxious. I was indifferent. When I arrived, I felt a bit of excitement.
We had agreed it was best organized and planned, but to leave enough room for flexibility. We needed to feel the energy of the room and allow it to lead us accordingly. For many, the shear chance of getting lost without a map could cause anxiety. We were vulnerable to a room full of people who had signed up for our workshop. So there we stood.
We moved through the practice. When it was over, a friend raced across the room with smile on her face and threw her arms around me. A perfect stranger right behind her. Another, and another. We listened with fascination as friends and strangers shared their stories, their experience, and their hearts with us.
Mieka opened the workshop with an exercise which had two perfect strangers take turns in speaking for 5 minutes each, uninterrupted and without response from their partner about our topic, Love. When she first explained the exercise, we couldn’t help but chuckle at the groans and eye rolls. Everyone was resistent to the idea. Yet, with 10 seconds to go on the first person’s turn, people were still talking away and racing to get it all out. The same happened when person two spoke. It was surreal to watch the room go from resisting the thought to surrendering to it. The energy in the room shifted drastically as we watched perfect strangers share their thoughts about love.
When the evening ended, and everyone had left. Mieka and I sat to take in the evening. It was only then I realized how much I had surrendered to the moment. I had been so present within the workshop, I hadn’t noticed the tears or reactions of some participants. I too had connected, landed on my mat and in my space. I had surrendered to any expectation of the night, and rather enjoyed being a participant in the whole experience.
In the end, I realized, while I had walked into the evening with a very small outline of my hopes and expectations, what happened was beyond anything I had imagined. I had set my benchmark for success at the chance to connect with just one heart in the room, to move one person to believe in love. Little did I realize that in surrendering to the present, and letting go of that expectation, I was the heart that was moved. I may have selfishly and unintentionally gained the most from the workshop.
The adage that you can only keep that which you give away holds more than meets the eye. I gave away love to a room full and it came back to me ten fold. When I surrender the expectation of results, I am amazed at how the results exceed anything I could have ever expected in the first place. It was that easy…
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