When The Place You Work Gets It.

This full time, professional Yoga teacher's life is hard. I fly without a safety net most of the time and that can be scary and difficult to manage. Some months everything seems to be balanced and easy and other months I wonder how I will make the rent payment.

Having good people on my side is a HUGE part of how I keep it all together. This is what Sangha is all about. Sangha, together with the Buddha and the dharma (teaching), is a part of the Threefold Refuge, or Triple Gems of Buddhism and how we refer to community in Yoga. In Lion's Roar they defined it beautifully "A sangha is a community of friends practicing the dharma together in order to bring about and to maintain awareness. The essence of a sangha is awareness, understanding, acceptance, harmony and love. When you do not see these in a community, it is not a true sangha, and you should have the courage to say so. But when you find these elements are present in a community, you know that you have the happiness and fortune of being in a real sangha."

After 2 years of hard work here in Cascais Portugal, I really feel like my Sangha is well formed and a source of solid support. Things aren't always easy but at least I know I have people I can turn to to talk, cry, laugh, and hold space with.

A great recent example of how great I feel this sangha is comes from my team at Flow Cascais. We are always laughing, keeping up with each other, celebrating wins, consoling losses, and really do enjoy sharing time and energy together.

They just got their Blog launched and interviewed me for a piece on Yoga for everyone including the MMA fighters of Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, in addition to the CrossFight trainees. Check out the article "Yoga For Real People" and let me know what you think. I love that they have always had an open mind and heart of the practice and how I offer it.

How is your sangha? Are you feeling supported and cared for? Are you caring for someone and supporting them?