Discovering Sattva…

Sattva means completion and harmony of the ying and the yang. - Anand

Before even thinking about spending sometime in India at Sattva Retreat and joining Sattva Community in Rishikesh, and then deciding to take part of the yoga teacher training program…. I ‘ve already practiced yoga.

I’ve also taught some classes in my city,invited from my teacher that was so enthusiastic in having such a young student with such interest and passion for the yoga teachings.

I had always enjoyed it very much and felt great and deeply changed and transform after each session, having the feeling I was going into the direction of who I really am.
But every time no more than couple months would pass and whatever class I was taking or teaching wouldn’t feel “right” to me.
I always felt that the practice was not aligned to my everyday life, or didn’t feel that I had to believe or pray some Gods in order to become a “real yogini”.

Also, sometimes, I couldn’t manage all of the energy that would arise after Kundalini practices, as I often would walk out of a yoga studio with the energy to climb a mountain. But I was in a busy town and mostly of my friends were more interested in climbing the steps of a bar in Rome.

Sometimes after an Ashtanga class, I felt very tired for days, I needed to recover and let my body to stretch, as I felt like I’ve exhausted myself in a workout class.

I always thought that the problem was in me, in my personality,and those were the reasons why after a short time I decided to quit with “yoga”…
It felt to me as I was searching for an answer in an infinite book and that the answer I was looking for was always on the next page.
Exhausted from that search,I’ve decided to give up… and I though that I was not made for practicing “physical” yoga, so I’ve decided to focus all my practice only on meditation.
And it went well: I enjoyed many benefits and have learned the power of the mind and applied to my work as a psychologist for a while.
But again at some point I felt that something was still missing.

When I finally had a blessing to meet Anand in Italy, it was last November during his first retreat in Ronciglione. I followed him with my good friends during this trip, and from his teachings, I’ve realized that it wasn’t me that was made “wrong” for the yoga practice.
I’d realized that what I had been through all of those years of trying to practice was just a part of the original teaching….and finally I had the answers for the questions that I had given up sometime before.
I had interviewed Anand during Yoga Festival in Milan, where he taught some classes.

F: How have you started to teach? How come you started to teach yoga?

Anand: It happened naturally since a young age;I just always knew.It came very easy to me; and people always came to me and asked me questions about their lives, and this is how I started.
I was studying yoga in different places,and I have found that it was always a little fragmented,it didn’t feel complete anywhere. Hatha yoga was a very specific technique and I found it very limited. For mean enlightenment is all about freedom, as I have always been a rebel and thought that anything that limits you, can’t be freeing you. So this is how Sattva was born. I realized that all the practices where not meant to be separated. This is a modern invention, where there are Hatha, Kundalini and all different practices. Sattva yoga was born out of that intention of giving a real and complete way which focus on true wisdom, intelligence, meditation, physical practices, tantra ... all of it! The whole way!I’ve realized this when I went to different ashrams and saw that in some people were only meditating, but were physically unfit, and in others, people were physical fit but mentally unfit and their consciousness was very narrow, as they were doing just the asanas but didn’t know the vocabulary. So Sattva came as a result of an intention to create a revolutionary whole way, a complete way. And when I say complete, and it doesn’t meant that it has been finished or that it has ended evolving, by complete I mean that is whole and it continues to evolve, like the Universe that is whole but it’s always evolving. That how Sattva came about. Sattva means Completion and Harmony of the ying and the yang.

During the classes I had attended with Anand at that three days retreat, I had the “Sattva experience” of yoga and finally felt that I had found the practice that I was looking for but not only a practice...

Now that I’m at the Sattva retreat, and I feel this sense of deep wholeness that arises in me, Anand’s worlds keep running in my mind as I am understanding that whole doesn’t mean complete, but it means that keeps evolving, as the Universe. And me, as the Universe, I feel to have this incredible opportunity to truly and deeply evolve, expand and give up the searching for something that has to be complete. And know I understand why I was not finding what I really needed, because I was looking into “yoga” only a finished experience that would “fit” my life and not looking as experiencing life in yoga, as a “sattvic” experience.

May these worlds help you to find your answers….

In peace and profound gratitude,

Francesca.

Also read - 200 Hours Yoga Teacher Training and 300 Hours Yoga Teacher Training.