When I quit engaging with the yoga and meditation industry altogether was when I really learned how to listen to my own self and my own body.
I stopped practicing based on what some teacher or podcast was telling me to do, AND I stopped practicing based on what I would be teaching or presenting in some class or podcast of my own. The hundreds of yoga and meditation teachers voices that ricocheted around my skull finally shut up, and my ego-driven yoga teacher self finally shut the fuck up, and I could finally hear my Self. Not just my own voice, but my body, my feelings, my SELF.
Do you know wanna what happened?
My practice got super simple.
no more complex sequences
no more elaborate variations on sun salutations
no more detailed cueing
no more complicated playlists
no more PAIN
And now, everything about my practice. . . EVERYTHING. . . always feels really really really really GOOD!
Less is More
Around the time I stepped away from the yoga and meditation industry, I came across this quote from Albert Einstein.
Which falls right in line with Occam’s Razor, a philosophical concept that “the simplest explanation is usually the best one.”
For years, I had been teaching my yoga teachers to use The MOZI Method as a way to help students get into yoga poses. I created The MOZI Method as a base series of exercises for the chakras, and it worked really well.
When I stepped away from the yoga and meditation industry entirely, I didn’t want to do another sun salutation, or warrior series, or triangle sequence, much less any challenge my balance by standing-on-one-leg for several poses in a row. It all felt like just TOO MUCH. I wanted LESS. Much less.
The MOZI Method
Instead, I embraced the simplicity of just doing The MOZI Method as my practice, and everything changed.
The MOZI Method is a series of 10-second exercises that link
A simple BODY ACTION
A short MIND INTENTION
A deep SPIRIT BREATH
When you practice a MOZI Method exercise for 10-seconds (3 deep breaths) 10x a day, it quickly rewires your nervous system and in time becomes your new normal habit.
I have created seven base MOZI Method exercises based on the base alignment of yoga’s tadasana (mountain) pose, which is really just healthy posture in a standing position.
Here is a short demo of MULA - the base MOZI Method exercise to alignment of your feet and legs as a way to fear, anxiety, unsteadiness, insecurity, and instability in your body and your life. (if it looks familiar, it is because I have shared it here as part of several posts…it’s just that good…and works that well for so many things).
I’ll admit, I still do sun salutations somedays, and even the occasional warrior series or triangle sequence. On a very rare day, I’ll try on a one-legged balance. And once in a blue moon, I check to see if I’ve “still got it” with an arm-balance (aka stupid human trick). And yes, about once every couple years or so, I’ll even go to a yoga class (only because a really good friend of mine is teaching and asked me to attend).
While I know this. I mean I KNOW IT…but I’m still surprised every time…I still got it. Only better. The more I practice The MOZI Method, and the less I practice the yoga like I used to, the BETTER I am at the yoga I used to do.
Crazy huh?
Not really.
Less IS More.
The simplest solution is the best one.
I dare you.
Try it for yourself.
I had a similar “stepping away” experience as a grief therapist. A few months after a tragic loss, I realized all the “helpful” education, diagnostics, and exercises I was assigning myself to have the best grief possible (what?!) was really making me suffer more. Once I stopped analyzing, and judging, my every thought and feeling regarding the loss, I felt so much comfort and compassion towards myself, and am now able to simply grieve.
Teri, I genuinely enjoyed your Mozi method videos, they are simple and refreshing yet effective 🎊🤩 and yes, I don’t enjoy listening to guided meditations anymore ….but I still do go to different yoga classes of other teachers once a week, to experiment.