What is You, Me and Yoga Makes 3?

My name is Danielle Marie Robinson. I am a woman living in Chicago, teaching Yoga, writing my experiences and insight, and loving my dogs, my man, my friends and my family. I love to laugh. I really love to eat. Mostly I love to love, and everything good loving entails. I’ve been profoundly impacted by the practice and teaching of Yoga, its influence has trickled down into every spoke of my life’s wheel. My closest and true connections are those gifted by Yoga, whether being the genuinely awe-inspiring students I’ve met, my humbling and passionate fellow teachers, those who inform and mentor me, my dearest friends and the many interesting human beings in between that share an interest and enthusiasm for living a joyful life. I am so fucking grateful every damn day. And that’s where You, Me and Yoga Makes 3 comes in. (side note: I do enjoy a good F bomb, it is only expressed in passion and love, never to harm or offend. let’s revolutionize our vocabulary!)

What began as a somewhat cutesy play on words has grown to significant depth and meaning in my life. The practice of Yoga is meant to be shared, exuded, reflected, absorbed, and continuously learned and taught. You teach via the way you engage with the world, in how you live your life. It has little to do with the roles of Teacher and Student, and more to do with human to human exchange, how we influence and engage with each other.

You inspire me. I aim to connect and inspire you. There is no me without you. There is no one to teach without open ears to listen, without an open mind to provoke, or an open heart to resonate. It is the same IAMness that Yoga has exposed within me that I am aware of because what I see in you. Just as love is a reflective experience, we need others to express it, we need a symbiotic exchange of positive emotion, teaching Yoga is the same. We need and benefit from each other. I learn from you, you learn from me. It’s such a fantastically fucking awesome relationship and the biggest meaning behind YMaYM3.

It is my biggest gift getting to know students, in their practice and often in their personal lives. These are sincerely wonderful human beings and they without a doubt keep the fire lit under my butt to keep learning, to keep improving, to hopefully keep inspiring them, to keep their interest and dedication to Yoga and themselves. To choose to be a teacher and writer requires the feedback and connection with others and I am so impassioned to share what I’ve learned with such intelligent, kind and open people. I learn from each class I teach and through each piece I write. Feedback is essential.

The number 3 is powerful, prime. It carries many meanings, shares a similar image with the OM (aum) symbol, and is reflective of our enduring cycles of life; a beginning, middle and end. Our breath is the simplest way to recognize and access this pervasive cycle, but at any given moment we feel the energy of starting, of persevering and of dissolving. Yoga restores equanimity as we constantly move through these cycles of life.

You, Me and Yoga Makes 3 is also a bizarro version of the holy trinity. You is my ego, Me is my essence, and Yoga is Yoga. This dynamic exists within me on an everyday basis. I constantly learn from my ego in how to further live from my essence. This has been my present and it will be my future.

I’m compelled as a champion for happiness to invest in my own peace and wellness so I can authentically pass along the knowledge and insight I glean along my way. I am human, fallible, constantly learning, but I aim to live what I’m teaching. I feel so eager and grateful to live each day. I feel better and better in my skin each day. So much of this sense of peace and bliss is thanks to Yoga, but along with crediting the inspiration, I have to credit the inspired: Me. This goes for you too. The better you are each day is due to how you apply what you learn into how you breathe and interact moment to moment. Yoga instills this amazing responsibility, we are in charge of our happiness, of how we perceive our external stimuli, recognizing that how we view the world is merely a mirrored reflection of how we see ourselves.

Together we must help each other feel grateful for all that we were and all that we are, while feeling optimistic and excited for who we’ll become. I believe so strongly in utilizing Yoga to empower each other to be our own best teachers, to carve our own unique paths to happiness, and to find collaborations with others to help encourage, uplift, inform and inspire the world, however big or small that world may be. We can begin to see “God” or “Yoga” in everyday life, in simply being, supremely present, elevated, high on Life. So, I thank You, Me and Yoga Makes 3. I need a balance of all to keep me evolving on this journey to an ecstatic, loving, travel filled life where everyday I laugh a lot, I eat well, I give good hugs, I move my body in a mindful way with others, and I breathe more conscious breaths than the day before.

Thank you. Seriously. Let’s keep doing what we’re doing. Stay connected. I’m fucking stoked!

Here’s to a life where we can keep opening our minds, bodies and hearts. Namaste! Below I’m pictured with my partner in Yogis Can Help, Veronica Rottman. We’re bringing Yoga and supplies to cancer patients in Cange, Haiti next month. We’re humbled, grateful and thrilled to bring our knowledge and compassion to more under-served around this beautiful planet.

I’m teaching with my NYC Sonic alumni Shuli Burke, now a thriving teacher in Boston, on a Travel Yogi Yoga and Surf retreat in El Salvador. It would mean a great deal if you’d celebrate life with us March 9-16, 2013. I do not regret one dollar I’ve spent on Yoga, travel, meals and laughter with good company, and with memorable experiences that leave me feeling deeply in love with life. Join us 🙂

I share some insight, humor and Yoga related posts on Facebook. Join the conversation at You, Me and Yoga Makes 3.

I tweet similar musings in 140 characters. Chew with me @mastic8onthis.

danieatslife is being worked on professionals that I am investing my hard-earned dollars from turning Yoga tricks in to take all my previous and current passions into a visually and user-friendly site to stay connected. Please stay tuned.

I’ve been writing almost weekly since April for MindBodyGreen. If you like anything you’ve read by me, please feel enthusiastically invited to read my variety of articles there! Thanks for reading and sharing.

A Buoyant Heart

I’ve been so appallingly fortunate my entire life to have been surrounded by good people. Even those dealing with personal demons still retained their humanity and their ability to love. Since becoming an adult and encountering different walks of life, while still fostering existing relationships, my fellow earthlings have taught me invaluable lessons, inspired me to tears and extracted an even better human being out of me, slowly. I think I was born with a really big heart, full of compassion and gratitude, but I’m also plagued with an overactive mind, that at times seeks to supersede my slowly evolving heart. When I’m with those of you who’re impacting me positively, whether it be family, close friends, Yoga students, fellow teachers, or those I’ve yet to know personally but the effect of your influence has stuck, I feel enlightened, uplifted, full, warm, and almost explosive with what I feel is a collective potential. I just want to hug everyone, it’s almost nauseating my level of happiness.

Then, at times, in my off hours, alone, under the gray wintery skies, out of communication, when it’s just me, the voice in my head is louder than the beat of my heart. I have to remind myself to breathe deeply, to feel and hear the sound of life moving in and out and to quell the cynical, lonely voice seemingly screaming I am not enough. I’d say 90% of the time, I feel content, joyful, appreciative and full of love. It’s that pesky 10% that closes the door of my heart, brings out the inner and outer judgement, and makes me feel stuck. I scramble to interact with others, via text, via social media, via coffee shops, public transportation, via life. Perhaps I have difficulty being alone and allowing the love I feel the majority of the time to be reflected inwardly as well as out. The irony is how independent and self-sufficient I encourage myself and others to be. The truth is I need you. I need others. And just admitting that feels sad, but I’m learning to surrender and accept that and to do my best to give to you what you’ve given to me. And that symbiotic exchange and knowing will pull us out of the self-doubt, the loneliness, the confusion, the darkness, and bring us gently back into the light, the warmth, the support and the love.

Below is just a reflection of those moments where I felt my heart closing up again, the skepticism creeping back into my thoughts and the voice in my head sliding toward the negative. So often I experience such profoundly positive highs from the interaction with others that when I return to normalcy, I sometimes feel low. My objective during these moments is to bring awareness, feel it fully and handle it honestly. All I want for others is to feel the love I’ve felt and to feel that most of the time, and when they don’t, to remind themselves they will again. I’m so grateful, even when sad, and I hope the truth of who I’m unraveling to be is someone who has affected you in a positive way, whether it be subtle or more profound, through my writing, teaching, friendship or casual encounter. I wish you Love.

Buoyant Heart

Sardonic, demonic
Charred and scarred
Black, bleak
Enigmatic, mystique
Enlivened by promise
Distempered by lies
Heavy and wounded
Achey and guarded
Prayers for amnesia
Begging for mercy
Laborious, treacherous
Searching for light, hope
Desperate to float
Reparation required
Overwhelmed by the task
Progress out of necessity
Please find the opening
Relax, receive
Uplift yourself
Surrender the pride
Love is worth the risk
Go for the ride
Do not drown
You cannot sink
Stay above
No guard, no glove
Exhale, release
Have the courage to start
Carry within, a buoyant heart

I want what's inside me to reflect the beauty, stillness and strength of this, and to provide the world a similar positive contribution as simple and profound as a tree.