Yoga can be so much more than simply a physical exercise, if you let it. Ahead of her vinyasa flow workshop ‘where the wild things are’, triyoga teacher Mia Togo shares insight into the powerful role that yoga plays in her life – creating connection, encouraging childlike inquisitiveness and always returning her to her truth. Opportunities to practise or be mentored by Mia are also shared below.
A year ago I did something wild, I left my comfortable life in Los Angeles and moved to London to begin a new chapter. Returning to California to spend time with friends and family, I had the opportunity to return to my roots. Visiting what grew me and how I have become the woman I am today. We are all influenced by our environment, culture, family of origin, religion and so many other variables that make up the unique humans that we all are. In a world that operates more in fear and judgment, it takes a fierce practice to stay connected to truth and understanding.
Yoga is a pathway that returns us home to the wholeness of who we truly are.
Have you ever felt stuck in a situation and can’t see the way forward? I know I have. As a response I have made some decisions that I later regretted. I also look back and realise that it was the only way I knew how to fall from grace and learn to understand myself and others. It became an opportunity forgive and uproot old patterns and plant something new. Life is messy and can take us down many paths. We will hit dead ends and crash against our own ego and willfulness. When we learn how to recognise these patterns, we can course correct and divert our choices with more skill and grace.
There is something beautiful about breaking down the walls that hold us back, strengthen the muscle of discernment to find our own way forward.
Leaving LA for London, I had to leave behind limited belief systems and, in the process, I am learning to hold my light and wild heart in a different way. Adapting, growing, and also not losing the essence of who I am. There are so many moments on my trip to California that have reminded me that “home is where the heart is”.
Can we learn to keep the doors open to our own tender hearts when it is easy to shut down? I led a yoga class at my yoga home in Los Angeles, Yoga Works on main street in Santa Monica. It was at 2.00 (I mean 14.00) on a sunny Friday. The class was sold out, so we opened the doors to the lobby – no one was turned away. The amount of love and community in that room was palpable. For me this is why I teach, to create connection, return to source, to remember we are all unique and beautiful, every voice in that room matters.
My journey continued out to the desert with my best friend and her little girl Mimi to visit my Papa Togo, she now calls him Uncle Toto. Spending time with a 3-year-old inspires me to play more and see with truthful eyes and love in the moment. Isn’t that what yoga is doing for us? To encourage that childlike inquisitiveness so we see life as a miracle every day as it unfolds? We were walking under an almost full moon and Mimi started howling and we all joined in. Sometimes our adult Self gets hurt and lost along the way and the over domestication of life keeps us from howling at the moon. We are animal, human, spirit, and so many a malady erupts because we have lost our melody in life.
Do you feel a call to something wild and start to find reasons why it can’t happen? We are creative instruments and we all have our own song to sing in this life time. It is so easy to become over domesticated by the judgments and opinions of others. This can lead to a whole lot of suffering because we have shut down our inner knowing and intuition to listen to outdated tapes recorded before we even knew what we were hearing. “Where the wild things are” is my workshop to come together as a community and explore, play, and practice so we remember to howl at the moon.
Are you new yoga teacher? Click here to learn more about the triyoga teacher mentoring programme with Mia starting in September 2019.
