Spending More Time with Alë Veffer

SEPTEMBER 27, 2024

Spending Time with Alë Veffer

My 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training was a big first step in learning to use yoga to befriend my body and make sense of my mind — to process and understand the anxiety and panic that I experienced daily and my unhealthy and toxic relationship with my body.

One insight I’ve carried with me — which feels truer now more than ever — is that I am NOT the things I think. Sounds like a simple statement, sure. But it presupposes an entirely different understanding of the self from what I was always conditioned to believe.

Western philosophy teaches us: “I think, therefore I am.” In other words, the self is born of thought, and we are our thoughts. Believing that my negative thoughts represented the core of who I was, I got really good at running away from them so I didn’t have to feel any emotion or pain. This approach worked for a while. Until it didn’t.

The yoga philosophy I study says, “I am, AND there is thinking.” Different approach. Different way of ‘thinking’ about the Self (pun intended). With time and practice, I started to realize that I am so much more than my thoughts and that I CAN handle the pain and the hard moments.

What I found in this process was A LOT of suppressed emotion and fear living in my body and psyche. Through studying and understanding my body and nervous system, I started to find small ways to support myself. Simple things like using my neti pot daily, moving my body gently, drinking a glass of warm water in the mornings after brushing my teeth, and paying more attention to my breath regularly.

Additionally, I allowed myself to REST. And I mean really rest. Like, I’m talking, I did Yoga Nidra in bed every day for a couple of months and then a few times a week from there. It took some time, and eventually, I noticed a huge difference in how I felt. My baseline changed. I started to feel trust instead of doubt, acceptance over rejection, and love over fear. I was different.

Once you dive in and begin to “see” yourself, there is no “un-seeing.” These simple daily practices I had committed to were changing my brain, body and mind. They were a map back to my spirit. I have found (and am still finding) an incredible amount of healing through my yoga practice — discovering that a whole human being full of love and compassion is underneath it all.

Yoga helps me be an open space where my feelings can flow. It gives me the freedom to address very dark places inside of me, places that I am not proud of and, frankly, sometimes ashamed of.

But by understanding who I am at my core (LOVE), I am able to see these wounded parts within me and welcome them instead of running from them. It reminds me daily of the complexity and simplicity of my humanness and aids me in having so much compassion for myself. And for all of us humans.

For more information on Alë, check out her website at https://www.aleveffer.com/