It’s been a decade and a while since I’ve listened with some regularity that I’m a “Yoga general.”

This nickname is provided by some students who attend my classes here at home, or by people who come to attend my annual workshops and retreats. They are made with people smiling and joking, and always with respect and visible affection for the way I share what comes from my teachers, who require focus and discipline, but who are knowledgeable about the art of compassion.

I have long noticed how important this art of compassion is in the teaching of Yoga, and though i am demanding in the classroom, i constantly bring to the room environment this  wonderful aspect. Because this is a practice that involves dedication, persistence, focus and regularity, but on the other hand it sometimes takes us on internal trips to places within ourselves that are not always beautiful, pleasant and simple, where we deal with frustration, fears and a panoply of strategies that we tend to use and develop as a camouflage of our deepest pain, suffering, anxiety and sadness. So if, on the one hand, it enhances our internal and external strength, our faith, our courage, our capacity for overcoming, on the other hand, it expands our internal experience of surrender, of vulnerability, of letting go of masks, fears, where we often find ourselves naked and fragile.

It is on top of the yoga mats that we all, men and women, do our best to breathe and do all those postures, but this practice is much more than that, because it leads us into peace processes with ourselves.

Requirement and compassion must go hand in hand in practice and teaching. ♥ ︎

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