2016 End of Year Letter From Brandt to BDYT Students

Namaste,

I was at the movies recently and noticed that most of the trailers had really dark themes for upcoming movies. It seems that the current climate of divisiveness and fear has permeated into the entertainment industry. The vibration of the world is low. People are searching for expressions of their fear and their hope. As I watched and pondered this I found myself asking the question of what our role as yogis are at this present moment? What is our role as a yoga teacher, or Yoga Therapist? What is our contribution to help the planet raise its vibration and find its way to oneness—which has at its very heart is truth and bliss?

This year our yoga therapy school has grown fourfold. We are training Yoga Therapists to educate people on how to alleviate their own suffering. Each person that enters our school is making a commitment to expand their knowledge in a way that contributes to this goal. Each student is in this way an instrument of great change. The only way we collectively as a species evolve towards truth is for each one of us to contact it directly. I have interviewed hundreds of yoga teachers and as I’m sure you have noticed as well, many of them/you have come to yoga from the process of trying to alleviate their/your own suffering.

As Yoga Therapists, this is the change we facilitate. Often we will never know that we helped in this way. A healed shoulder, management of chronic pain, finding mental peace in a mind filled with chaotic states. We see the shifts—the healing—but we can’t see the collective result.

But we are yogis. We understand that the practice is about isvara pranidanam, surrender. Surrender to the wisdom that is is not ours to understand in its entirety today. Surrender to the wisdom of consciousness that always guides us towards the goal of freedom. Our work is to spread these teachings through direct experience. If we truly surrender into our work, play our roles as Yoga Therapists with impeccable intent, and allow our clients to experience the consciousness-shifting power of yoga, we have done enough.

So this year’s closing message is this. Surrender into the work. Fill your heart and mind with the knowledge that your work makes a difference, even if you can’t see it. Allow your own practice to be a catalyst to others who seek healing and peace. And know that consciousness is filled with an inescapable pull towards freedom that can’t be altered.

Thank you all for doing this work with me, and sharing your light with me.

Jai Yoga Therapists!

Blessings to you and yours this New Year.
Brandt