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Hurry, don't miss this chance. 
Hurry, get your healing today before the door closes on your happiness.
Hurry, don't miss your opportunity to become awesome. 
Hurry, get your Self while you can. 
Feeling horrible, pain and suffering?THIS will fix you. THIS will be the answer.

This, out here, this product, this service, this experience is. The. One.

But hurry before it scurries off and you explode. 

O bla bla bla. 

I call bullshit on our industry for capitalizing and perpetuating on the psychological tenderness of humans. 

We all want to fit in. We all want to be whole. We all want to contact our unique Self. 

What the world needs is less FOMO (fear of missing out) and more patience. We need less grandiose claims and more attainable success steps. Last time I checked in, I saw that the road was slow and arduous and all fast tickets were false idols.

I want us to be real about what we can and can't do. What kind of business we are actually open for. We do not need to make false and fancy promises we can barely complete and live up to. We have nothing to prove. Only that unique offering that comes from the direct experience of your hard earned learning. We do not need to make our current or potential students/clients feel guilty, bad, afraid or ashamed about what they think they lack or the holes and leaks in their systems they are trying to heal. There's enough suffering in the world as it is. Let's be real about what it takes. 

Yes, fads sell. 
But they sell because they are fads. 
The next quick fix to life's big-ass problems. 
But quick fix's never last very long. 

Let us honor our students, our clients, our colleagues and ourselves by simply refusing to fuel the fire of collective urgency. Urgency is flashy, and it sells. But it is not ultimately sustainable. Urgency is what we do to survive under threat. It is not the system in thriving mode. 

So,
Cut the crap and the false promises. 
Quiet the urgency as a selling tactic. 
So we can go another layer deeper. Into what we really want and are called to do. 
Decide and consume from there. 

Do not pass go. 
Do not collect $200.
No, you do not get a pass. 

Everyone needs to do their own work. 
Everyone needs to be held accountable. 
Everyone needs to hold themselves accountable and do their work. 

And it is the job of the community and those intimate in our sphere to keep helping us know where the work is.

And this is especially true for leaders and teachers. 

If you are in a system of yoga or in a relationship with a teacher where you cannot refute them, where they are not accountable to the same tough standards as you, this is a problem. 

For everyone. 

Leaders and teachers, what systems of accountability do you have in place for your privacy, growth, and reflection of shadow.

Students, what skills are you harnessing that are helping you grow up and individuate into your own authority?

I believe in us. 

L

As a teacher you do not own your students. They do not owe you their loyalty. You have to earn their trust. 

Students are not yours to keep. They are gifts for reflection and impact. They are the other half of teaching. 

Students are not leads or customers. They are human beings with open ears and hearts.

Despite the impulse to a call a student "My Student", refrain until they decide to call you "My teacher." 

Try instead "A student who comes to my class" or a "A new student" or "A student who has been coming a lot".

Why is this distinction important?

Well you see, there is an inherent power differential between you and your students whether you like that or not. To disavow this, I fear is to disavow the power of teaching and the teacher student relationship. Students are looking to learn and be guided. And there is a looking to and towards. Honor this by giving them space to step forward in connection. 

It can be deeply powerful for a student to attach themselves to a teacher. To you. Let them choose to identify as your student before you call them your student. If a student does select you for this honor, to call them your student is a sign of respect. Honor them as such.

To lay claim to them as your own otherwise is disrespectful of their freedom. 

Let students self identify. 
Because we all need attachment. And we all need freedom.

With Love,
Livia