On and Off Your Mat Yoga Podcast

Have you ever started something new and secretly expected you’d do it perfectly the first time? Or after doing it just a few times, you’d be a master at it? I think we all have at some point or another, and chances are, we were then disappointed.

For today’s episode, I sat down with Peter Walters. Peter is a yoga teacher and student of life with a motto to always begin again. Focusing on learning and growing in order to move skillfully and joyfully through life. He uses yoga as a vehicle to share presence, joy, community, and awakening practices. You can find him exploring the world and leading retreats, teaching at festivals, on the Headspace app, and in a Zoom room near you. We sat down today to talk about the idea of beginning again and how that zen practice can impact us on and off the mat.

1. Beginning again is choosing to constantly hit a reset button, become present and look at what is happening. It's a persistent re-arrival, no matter what comes up in your life or your mind. It becomes diligence, the discipline of presence, and of reigning the thoughts in. If your intention is to be awake and attentive to every moment in front of you and to see those moments as holy, that can awaken your life, change your perspective to make the mundane magical.
2. Breath awareness is a way to begin again on the mat. You can also use Drishti or Mantra to help reign yourself back from compulsive uncontrolled thinking. Anything that will pull your mind, body, heart, spirit back together in that one moment will help you begin again.
3. Off the mat, you can focus on really listening, being present with the other while they talk instead of planning your response.
4. We can use the idea of beginning again when we teach to share our own studentship as we teach and stay in the path of continuous learning and growth. One way to do it is they continue to train with teachers that speak to your heart, to use stillness and silence and practice what you teach. You can create rituals that feel helpful to arrive again. You can limit your energy output to keep the quality of your teachings and the joy of doing them high. you can set an intention, be clear on why and what you want to teach and continue to seek opportunities to grow in your life in general by getting out of your comfort zone regularly.
5. There are so many opportunities for joy in the subtle moments in between everything we do and experience. Gratitude and appreciation for what it is, is also key to tapping into the joy around you. What you do on the mat informs your energy for the day and what you do in the day, informs how you show up on the mat.

• Your motto is Begin again. What does that mean for you and why is it important?
• How does it look on the mat? Off the mat?
• How does beginning again as a teacher looks like? Does it help you stay a student first?
• How can we honor the privilege of teaching and stay dedicated to lifelong learning?
• How did the situation with Covid this year allow you to begin again in a way/learn something new? What is one of the blessings that you can see in your life?
• How do we show up with more joy in practice?

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We just transitioned our Premium Membership to this new platform: www.withribbon.com/u/erikabelanger. As a member, you can get a ton of exclusive audio and video content. We added a new library of almost 200 recorded full-length yoga classes in a Netflix-Style Membership. Finally, you can sign up for any live-stream class I offer! Everything yoga-class-related is now in the same place! If you’re new to With Ribbon, here’s a walkthrough video I recorded to help you find your way around.

Know that as you become a Premium Member, your contribution ripples to thousands of people every week, allowing me to offer accessible quality free content to a wide community of yogis. This podcast is one of the a way I contribute to the community, and this membership is a way you can too. It allows you to share everything yoga offers with the world by supporting me in the creation and production of this podcast while I choose to keep it ad-free. 

I’ll be leading an Eco-Luxury Yoga Retreat in Mexico, in November 2021. I heard you, you’ve been craving to immerse yourself in yoga, nature, and community again so you can feel renewed and re-enliven. Many of us are suffering from zoom fatigue. So I’m offering you to hit the beach and the reset button so you can let go of this last year. You’ll find all the info for that retreat at erikabelanger.com/yoga-retreat-mexico.

In parallel, I have launched a Go-Fund-Me campaign. I know yoga retreats are an investment and I know how hard the last year has been. Yoga retreats were in my personal growth, so I wanted to give back. I’m raising money while investing alongside the community to make the experience of a yoga retreat available to students who wouldn’t be able to participate otherwise. If you’re able to donate anything you could transform someone’s life. And if you’re in need you can apply for the scholarship. And either way, I’d love for you to share it with the people you love and on social media. That’s a simple way you can directly impact others’ lives in a positive way. Find the Go-Fund-Me Campaign here.

I have a gift for you! Remember Julie from episode 83? Her new book The Transformation Journey was just released and she generously offered to give you guys a copy! So all you have to do to enter our giveaway is leave a review for the podcast, anywhere you listen. Take a screenshot of it and send it to me by email at erika.belanger@gmail.com or in my DM on IG @onandoffyourmatpodcast. That way, I’ll have your contact info if you win! I’ll announce the winner on our next episode!

Peter Walters is a student of life. He uses yoga as a vehicle to share presence, joy, community, and awakening practices. You can find him exploring the world and leading retreats, teaching at festivals, on the Headspace app, and in a Zoom room near you sharing live online and recorded practices. Come along!



Website: www.peteryoga.com

IG: @peterwaltersyoga