By Kate Bussell
I found Baptiste Yoga purely by accident.
On a mid-summer’s morning in 2012, I woke up feeling lost and ungrounded. My career path as a pastry chef felt stunted, my body (and mind) was still recovering from an operation to remove stage 2 Malignant Melanoma from my right leg, and my relationship seemed headed for the rocks. It had been 3 years since my last yoga class, and that morning I woke up craving it. That’s how I ended up at my local Boston YMCA in a Power Yoga class led by a Baptiste Yoga instructor (sidenote: I am now married to him!).
The next hour was nothing short of a miracle. For the first time in years, I connected to my breath, my body, and the people around me. It was as if the instructor had beamed me back down to earth from outer space. I felt so moved (spiritually and physically) afterwards that I cried on my walk home from class (thank goodness for sunglasses)!
I became a committed power yogini, attending Baptiste classes around town 3-4 times a week. As I got deeper into my practice more of the dots in my life started to connect—I could see clearly decisions I needed to make, and took action in making them. My life, which 3 months earlier felt like was in total disarray, became manageable with a happy outlook. Three years later, I am proud and happy to be a Certified Baptiste Yoga teacher!
What makes Baptiste Yoga so powerful that it can cause our lives to shift?
It is so much bigger than simply moving through poses linked by breath. My yoga mat became my mirror—how I reacted in certain poses on my mat reflected how I reacted to circumstances in my life. The 3 “themes” of Baptiste Yoga are woven by the teacher into physical yoga practice:
1. BE A YES: As a creation, not a concept. Put your attention ON what you want to have happen and be for it.
I got present to the fact that it wasn’t enough for me to wish that certain parts of my life change. Through yoga and meditation I realized that I had to work to change it, and it all started with one question: What do I want my life to be like?
2. GIVE UP WHAT YOU MUST: Bring into view and let go the fixed Drishtis (perceptions) and Tadasanas (positions) that thwart and constrain you.
To find to peace in my life, I had to drop the perception that my cancer was going to come back and kill me. Heartbreakingly, it also meant taking time away from both Pastry and my then-husband so I could see clearly what exactly in my life needed to shift. This required me step outside my comfort zone BIG TIME in order to see clearly what was possible for me in my life.
3. COME FROM YOU ARE READY NOW: Move, breathe, and have your being from “Right now is all I’ve got”. Make the higher call at each step.
As I did the work—both on my yoga mat and off of it—I gained tremendous clarity that trickled in minute-by-minute, breath-by-breath, with each step—not all at once like it seems in the movies.
Baptiste Yoga caused me to be a leader—first for myself and my life, and then with everyone around me. I teach this methodology because I know it has the power to change the world on an individual’s level and then radiate out into the communities around us. All that’s needed is to set our Drishti (sights) and create Tadasana (our position) to align the lives we want for ourselves AND for others. That my friends, is the magic of Baptiste Yoga, and why I proudly teach it!
