I have been training yoga teachers for almost a decade.
Every week of the program contains many different kinds of challenges all meant to open awareness because in the end our reality is created by our awareness. One of my favorites is what we call the American Beauty Challenge where you try to find beauty in an unexpected place. Even though we pull the name from the 1999 movie where one of the characters finds and records and a piece of trash in an ally beautifully dancing on unseen winds the challenge really stemmed from a conversation I had about Dallas.
A friend of mine had recently moved to Dallas from Colorado and was lamenting about the lack of natural beauty in the city and how depressing it was. At the time I had no response and simply offered a sympathetic ear. Later that day reflecting on the conversation as I rode around White Rock Lake on my mountain bike something caught my eye. I slowed and looked towards the trees and saw two squirrels at play. I slowed and watched them acrobatically dart about the limbs of the tree. Something a bit higher caught my eyes and there I saw a mother bird carefully feeding her off spring. Beautiful, I thought to myself, however there was even more. A passing cloud pulled my gaze even higher and there in the Texas sunset were countless shades of yellow and red. In 30 seconds I saw a lot of natural beauty even in the middle of Dallas! But it continued. The rest of that week I looked for beauty and I found it; in countless smiles and kind gestures, in children’s laughter and in the movements of my students in class. I even saw it in the patterns of traffic as each car took a turn to let another in. The point is you will see what you look for. I know many people look for things to complain about or that could be better. What have you been looking for?
The challenge is top find beauty in unexpected places usually it is right there in front of you all you have to do is look for it! Please let me know what you find!
Email me at Kurt@AmericanPowerYoga.com
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