The main reason why we start practicing yoga is to find some liberation from daily stress, given by life obligations, conditionnement and boundaries of the society we live in. We actually find release and wellness in the practice, but at some point we might feel demotivated due to the limits and conditions we also encounter in the way yoga is taught. Going deep into the practice of yoga, we might start experiencing the same limitations of daily life - too much focus on the form, an impersonal system oppressing self-expression, and dogmatic judgment.

We usually hear things like "if you don't practice 6 days per week you are not practicing yoga" or  "if you don't square the hips it's not right", or "if you don't honour a guru you will get lost", "if you eat animals you can't be a yogi", etc etc.

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Leveza is a Portuguese word that means lightness.

This is how I approach the magical science of yoga, even if I don't relate with eating meat, not finding a guide or practicing once in a while. I want to keep my eyes open and see yoga beyond all forms.

In this sense, I propose a lighter and detached way to live the practice, through the understanding and respect of all possible paths, timings, and experiences.

 

I teach the practice with its rules and systems, always remembering that they are here to help us in the beginning, but they have a limited nature in the process of self-liberation. We can't just stick with rules all the time. We use them as a guideline to become better listeners of ourselves. 

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Commitment and discipline are needed, but are just the first steps. What makes a yoga path is the connection with a guide, embodiment of a structure, self-listening, slowing down all processes, ​and loving understanding.

The side effects can be flexibility, faith, lightness, a yoga job, creativity and softness. 

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Students are not asked to stick to a single community, to a unique practice, a better diet, an eastern culture or a specific philosophy. In the end, it's about one practice, one asana, one humankind, one love. You might call it Kundalini or Ashtanga, Pranayama or Breathwork, Iyengar Yoga or Postural, Niyamas or ablutions, Ekadashi or intermittent fasting, in the end it's all the same thing, just expressed in different ways. Whether you go slow or fast, whether you get caught by the ego triggers of the system or you're a humble practitioner, I know we are looking for the same experience —Liberation.

We practice to find freedom from the burden of the self, the scared, ashamed self shaped by conditionnement. 

Liberation sometimes might be from the spiritual ego, the righteous and ideal self narrated by sacred books, gurus and spiritual communities.

Sometimes liberation can be also from Liberation —in the end, this identity is just a simple game to have fun with.

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Students are encouraged to:

- explore all the beautiful structures and teachers of yoga, especially those focusing on the mechanics of the breath, with compassion and kindness;

- learn how to consciously enjoy our own humanity and ideals, noticing whether there is conditioning (thus ego) or courageous self-listening.

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Learn from traditions, then create yours.

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Even these intelligent and magical practices of liberation can suffer from a very common conditioning: Perfectionism. Most of the time, all this intense research for alignment is a huge burden linked to the idea of the form.

To me, alignment stands in the dialogue between forces, rather than the form, as long as there's no effort or pain. 

Alignment should be seen as balance, and balance is manifested in connection, dialogue, union of the physical parts and energies involved, rather than a 50/50 appearance. Like in a relationship, sometimes one does more than the other and it's safe as long as they know that it won't be always like that. Other times it will be the opposite.

As long as we feel a loving and lively dialogue, this dialogue can have a dis-aligned aspect :)

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There's now the need to sustain more the listening, rather than the looking.

More compassion, rather than perfection.

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Namasté.

Carolina 

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