Class Mantra

“My light does not depend on others seeing it.”

Opening Reflection

Welcome. Tonight, as we step onto our mats, let’s remember that healing does not come from avoiding discomfort but from meeting it with awareness. Just as the forest holds both clearings and thorny paths, our minds hold both peace and triggers. When we walk the darker trails with mindfulness, we carve out new clearings of freedom and strength.

The energy we project into the universe comes back to us as an echo. Our thoughts become our words, our words our actions, our actions our habits, and our habits shape the way we live. What we think today will become the ancestor of who we are tomorrow. Let tonight’s practice be an invitation to choose thoughts and movements that cultivate peace, compassion, and strength, knowing these seeds will echo forward into the life we are becoming.

Topic 1 – Walking the Forest of the Mind

Reflection: Our thought patterns are like trails in the forest. Some lead us to peace, while others repeat suffering. Avoidance keeps us stuck. Awareness helps us carve a new way.

Metaphor: Imagine hiking in a forest where you always take the same path, even though it is overgrown with thorns. One day, you decide to cut a new trail. It’s hard at first, but step by step, the clearing opens. This is the work of mindfulness.

Quotes:
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” – Pema Chödrön
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” – Joseph Campbell
“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” – Carl Jung
“Avoiding triggers isn’t healing. Healing happens when you are triggered and you are able to walk your way to a different ending.” – Vienna Pharaon

Topic 2 – The Lake of Clarity

Reflection: Our mind can be like a still lake or a stormy one. The energy we invite into our life determines the ripples. Peaceful companions bring clarity, chaotic ones stir confusion. Yet, just like water, our mind’s true nature never changes. It is always clear at its essence, no matter how disturbed the surface may seem.

Metaphor: Picture a bowl of water. Drop in a flower and the ripples settle and fade back to stillness. Toss in a handful of stones, and the water becomes chaotic. But whether calm or stormy, it is still the same water. Our mind is the same — its essence remains pure, even as it responds to what is dropped into it. Who and what you let into your life are the stones. Choose with care.

Quotes:
“Be present as the watcher of your mind—of your thoughts and emotions as well as your reactions.” – Eckhart Tolle
“Feel what it is like to just be. You are already complete just as you are.” – Mooji
“The moon does not fight… it influences simply by keeping to its course.” – Deng Ming-Dao
“Not everyone you lose is a loss. Sometimes letting go creates peace.” – David Scott

Topic 3 – Transformation Under Pressure

Reflection: Struggles are not punishments, they are invitations. What challenges us can become our greatest teacher if we meet it with awareness. Obstacles do not have to block our path — they can shape it. Pressure can either crush us, or, if we allow it, transform us into something stronger and more luminous.

Metaphor: Coal under immense pressure becomes a diamond. The diamond’s true gift is not only its toughness, but the way it reflects light. In the same way, our obstacles and pressures reveal our hidden strength and give us the chance to shine. What feels like something in the way can actually become the way forward.

Quotes:
“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” – Rumi
“Have perseverance. Instead of allowing struggles to crush you, let them transform you.” – David Scott
“The Light that YOGA sheds on Life is transformative. It does not change the way we see things; it transforms the person who sees.” – B.K.S. Iyengar
“Nothing glows brighter than the heart awakened to love.” – Guy Finley

Topic 4 – Compassion and Forgiveness

Reflection: Compassion is seeing beyond your own pain to recognize the pain of others. At the root of all hurt and anger is usually unresolved pain. When you see this pain in others compassionately, the hurt and anger dissolve. Forgiveness does not mean condoning; it means choosing peace over resentment.

Metaphor: Think of a clenched fist. The tighter you hold it, the more strain builds. But when you open the hand, blood flows freely again. Forgiveness is the unclenching that restores circulation to the heart.

Quotes:
“Forgive others, not because they have earned it, but because you deserve the peace.” – David Scott
“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” – Jack Kornfield
“We don’t need to agree on everything to treat each other with kindness.” – David Scott
“Compassion is to look beyond your own pain, to see the pain of others.” – Yasmin Mogahed

Topic 5 – Standing in Your Own Light

Reflection: Others may not understand your frequency or vibration. They can only meet you as deeply as they’ve met themselves. True strength is not explaining yourself to be understood but shining your own light anyway. How others treat us is often a mirror of how we treat ourselves. If we value ourselves, if we love and respect ourselves, we quietly teach others to do the same.

Metaphor: In quantum physics, even a single photon of light behaves differently simply by being observed. In the same way, we act differently when we believe we are being seen. Yet the truth is, your light does not need witnesses to be real. Think of a gothic cathedral. From the outside in darkness, the stained-glass windows look dull and lifeless. But when light fills the inside, they burst into radiant color. Your truth becomes undeniable when illuminated from within.

Quotes:
“To inspire people, don’t show them your superpowers, show them theirs.”
“People can only meet you as deeply as they’ve met themselves. Don’t drain your energy trying to explain.”
“Real knowledge is to know and compassionately understand the extent of everyone’s ignorance.” – David Scott
“People know your name, not your story… what matters is what you think about yourself.”

Closing

Tonight, we walked through the forest of the mind, calmed the waters of awareness, discovered transformation through pressure, opened the hand of forgiveness, and stood strong in our own light. Remember that the energy you project is the echo that returns. When you think with kindness, move with compassion, and value yourself deeply, you invite the world to mirror that same love and respect back to you.

Carry these lessons off the mat, and remember—you already hold within you both the clearing and the light of the cathedral.

Let us finish together with this mantra:
“My light does not depend on others seeing it.”