Shanine
How do you measure your success as a teacher?
As a teacher, I measure success in my own personal journey… this helps me be there for my students and relate with them on a very deep level.
I’ve only been able to see others when I’ve truly seen the essence of me (past my personality).
I’ve only been able to be open to others’ life challenges, patterns and beliefs the more I flow with my own life challenges, hold space for my own patterns and beliefs to dissolve, and expand my heart.
I can only be present with others (truly listen and see them) when I’m present in my own life.
When I first started practicing yoga and then teaching yoga (over a decade ago), it was about seeing a progression in my physical practice (moving into the deepest backbends, becoming stronger and more flexible, and achieving incredible arm balances). Sure, I meditated and did breathwork, but I look back, and I was missing the deeper essence behind it all.
Usually, a catalyst needs to occur for there to be a profound change. Mine was deep suffering. I went through a break-up with my life and business partner. I went through a massive upheaval on so many levels.
It brought so much vulnerability to my heart and life. This caused me to relook at the way I practiced yoga, how I moved through life (beliefs and patterns that led to choices, which led to the state of my surroundings), and my internal compass. I went through a few more lessons over the years after the upheaval, but I started to see profound changes (and still do). This was also during a time when I drew in some fantastic teachers into my life.
Now I see a progression in how I respond to life situations, to my past trauma being activated in the present moment, and to other life challenges. I’ve moved away from a deep physical practice, and now LOVE slower practices – practices where I can fully feel the energy in my body and see the breath. Meditation and breathwork is my primary focus. Having a devotion to a Higher Self or Divine Energy is the most important thing (rather than anything happening around me).
Even how I teach has changed. For someone to see a profound change in their life through yoga, we need to focus more on breath (on how yoga postures move the breath and energy in certain areas of our body) and finding presence and stillness in the moment.
The more I can witness the patterns that block me from seeing my truest essence, the patterns that create havoc in my internal state and life and in my interactions with others, the more I can find inner freedom and harmony. The more I can see the essence of me, the more I can see the essence of others. After all, as teachers, we say Namaste at the end of class. To truly see and feel and know that we are all one is an awakening in itself. We realize this when we move beyond seeking fulfillment in our job, partner, money… or when we move beyond our patterns and personality playing out.
Yoga is a tool to help with this.
What wisdom do you wish to impart to your students?
Never see yoga as separate from your life. It’s more than an hour class you schedule into your day to stretch or lose weight. It’s an art form that can truly impact your life.
The presence you learn on your mat – tuning into your breath, mindfully placing your foot between your hands, feeling your body move through space – this can be brought to many areas of your life. Start with this – watching every moment and the breath in your body.
Spend time in nature – watch your breath, look at the textures of the trees, see the light hitting the leaves and ground, and witness the space in which everything exists. Do all this without mentally talking and labeling (not saying “that’s a tree”, “that’s this type of flower”). Instead, take it all in with your senses and spaciousness within. Look at the essence of the flower, light, and trees.
Then after a while, you may notice you start to bring this to your daily life… as you pour some water for yourself, eat, or drive. Can you be fully present, without being lost in your mind and thoughts?
This brings so much peace to your mind (as your mind stops). It also starts to bring about an awakening – where you move deeper than your thoughts and mind and move into stillness. You begin to see everything outside of you is always changing (your body ages, people leave, jobs change, things decay, new life flourishes). You see the suffering of being attached to the impermanence of something (wishing it was permanent). You start to see how when you’re attached to the mind you are attached to the interpretations of these changes. You will also perceive and interpret these changes based on your conditioning and life experiences. When conditions and negative beliefs start to fall away, you see the world in a very different light.
Even your emotions change. Here’s another lesson I learned in life…. Have space to hold the rise and fall of these emotions. Don’t run away from them by shutting them off or distracting yourself with TV, food, another relationship, or whatever your tendency may be, or even labeling an emotion as negative or positive… but truly feel them and watch them. Every time, you hold space, feel, and witness the emotions, you dissolve a little bit of the pain you may have accumulated and stored over the years.
Moving beyond the mind, your interpretations, conditioning, emotions… you begin to recognize the one thing that is constant within you (this can only be realized through you) – that is untouched by the mind, its interpretations, and the changes around you. You move into the truest essence beyond this identity you hold yourself to be.
Another gem I wish to share – have compassion for yourself. Watch your reactivity to things. But have compassion until one day, with all this presence you’re practicing in yoga, in being in nature, and in your daily life, and holding space for your emotions, you then begin to notice the moment you can choose to be reactive (lost with the mind, patterns, conditioning and interpretations – which makes you feel tight inside) OR choose to respond from a very expansive place within.
What inspired you to start your studio?
My greatest joy is not from starting the studio but is from seeing the studio continue to be open and sustain a greater Energy beyond just ‘me’. I now feel I’m a caretaker (or gatekeeper) of the studio and it’s a manifestation of Energy. I LOVE it when people come up to me and say they love the Community and it’s changed their life – from the yoga, the meditation, our events like Kirtan, and the teachers who share their wisdom. When things have gotten tough, people have always shown up to help keep the studio thriving. When people have gone through tough challenges, they find themselves in our studio. This place is its own entity of warmth and energy to help people transform. Even the name – Chrysalis – a place where people can find a sanctuary to dissolve past conditioning, pain, old beliefs – to realize and embody their truest essence.
What is one thing you learned as a teacher that you feel has helped shape you?
I used to focus only on the positive and wanted to avoid any situation, person, or internal emotion I viewed as ‘negative’. We need to look at our shadows and recognize there’s anger, sadness, or we have behaviours that sabotage ourselves and hurt others, or beliefs we’ve carried since childhood, or situations we cannot control that come into our life. Having vulnerability and honesty with these parts of ourselves is the only thing that can help us to transform. Denying it will only cause it to play out. Being spacious enough to hold this for ourselves, helps us to hold this for others. Never judge or think that if someone is on a spiritual path, that they are perfect. We are all human beings on this spiritual journey.
Being spacious also allows me to practice flexibility in the yoga class and life. If we’re disappointed we can’t have our mat in a specific place; we need to ask ourselves – are we against life or moving with the flow of life? This is a small example but can extend to teaching and any aspect of our life.
Who are your most impactful teachers?
I’m genuinely grateful for LIFE. My number one teacher is this Universal Energy, Divine Spirit, Life. There’s an intelligent presence behind everything. The older I get, and the more I experience and witness, the more I see this intelligence behind all things. It is beyond any mental understanding. This Energy is what sees what’s blocking me from seeing my truest essence (the patterns, beliefs) and it will guide me and teach me – She brings situations into my life to grow and expand my heart. She brings teachers into my life.
My dog is my next powerful teacher – I never used to hike before I met her. Then when I became her human mom, I had to take her for 1-hour walks to burn off her high energy. I got bored, staring at the pavement on the sidewalks. So, I bought a conservation pass and took her for hikes. What became a hike to burn off her energy, became hikes where I started to notice I felt better, to then noticing my body was changing and my mind was clearer, to then noticing I loved hiking with her, to then noticing the trees and plants. Now when I hike I see everything – I will sometimes sit and watch the beauty of Life. She also always teaches me about unconditional love – seeing the essence in everything, with no judgement.
I’ve also been fortunate to know a gentleman (Nanashi) who has been through a Spiritual Awakening. He now offers classes at my studio. Whenever I’ve gone through wobbles, he guides me with the wisdom he has gained through consciousness and through his own life. He holds space for me to allow pain to arise, so it can dissolves. He never advertises himself as a teacher, even though he is one.
I play Eckhart Tolle videos all the time… he is an incredible being of this time – beyond yoga. I’ve listened to countless videos, read his book The Power of Now, and his message is timeless. The more you listen with no mind, the more wisdom is revealed.
I’m also currently doing my third yoga teacher training with Rod Stryker (founder of ParaYoga). Another being who has imparted Yoga Nidra, breathwork and everything that is about the person and inner energy, rather than the physical practice. This has heavily changed the way I teach – where “yoga is more than asana”.
And of course, I’m grateful for the relationships and interactions that are around me in my daily life. I sometimes hear people say: “I can’t be around this person, they are so negative, and then it affects me.” The funny thing is – there has to be something inside of you that resonates with that frequency for you to feel off balance. When I feel a wobble inside or off-balance, created from a situation or person or my own interpretations, I’m now learning that it’s something I have to look inside of me – to heal. I have to live in this body and with this mind – so I am the only one that can change this body and mind.
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