Kemetic Yoga, Yoga of the Pharoahs

I recently attended a bootcamp retreat in Chicago to practice with my teacher Yirser Ra Hotep and members from the Society of Kemetic Yoga. OH MY!!! Let me tell you it was even more about the fact that in the space at House of Hotep, we all were kindred spirits sharing a practice so enriching and so vibrant..and still found time to connect on deeply rooted topics that exist in our own communities. Of all the members that attended the majority came from all over the US, and England ( and of course Trinidad holla!!) to learn from a talented and knowledgeable master teacher who spent decades perfecting the practice as we know it today. I had a wonderful experience and met some new family, but a few things that resonated with me from the experience are:

• As a Yogini, its not just about doing some poses and looking graceful, its about feeling the life force energy running through my body as I flow from one posture to another, in perfect harmony with the breath. Yoga for me is like a peaceful dance between breath and body, balance and control.
• As a Yoga instructor, I will never be able to lead my students to a place I've never been. No yoga book,DVD, youtube video or banter about where yoga really started can top living and breathing the experience of practice, practice and more practice. Even though I haven't been an instructor for long, I will always be a student for this lifetime. Those with more knowledge and experience are there to guide me, but will never be able to take me higher than my own practice. As a Holistic Health pracitioner, this is a service that I will share with all my clients who choose to be open to it.
•  I LOVE Kemetic Yoga! What it does for my energy level,what it builds beyond the yoga mat and for the direct link to a civilization that to this day stands as one of the most respected. Next year I will make my pilgrimage to Egypt ( daydreaming as we speak !!)The Yoga of the Pharaohs indeed.
• What I respect and love about how my teacher taught me, is that we meet our students where they are and work from there. Its not about ego or perfection, but about working within the boundaries of my clients physical realities. I believe this approach to be truly humbling and it gives me so much pride to watch students who started out not being able to touch there toes actually achieve it!! We are trusted to be mindful or our responsibility to self and others and to use our postures to create balance during our sessions. (There is no such thing as a 25 step routine, nor a flow sheet!!!) That makes each of us as Kemetic Yoga instructors own our practice and infuse our own  finesse into practice LOVE IT!!!

On another level,I had the opportunity to reason with some beautiful sisters and brothers, and one thing is for certain we are all in different locations but our experiences and thoughts are all connected. We are all on a journey to awaken our higher self and Yoga Boot camp was just the beginning...OM SHU RA!!!!