What if the practice is not to get rid of pain, fear, or resistance, but to learn how to open through it? This teaching offers a grounded look at what it actually means to stay present when the body wants to tighten, protect, or control.

In this teaching from the 1000-Hour Teacher Training (Mt. Shasta, 2026), John explores the difference between moving from consciousness and moving from pattern, and why returning to consciousness becomes easier through repetition, breath, and embodied cues. They also speak to working with physical and emotional pain through the practice of “opening as,” using the exhale, surrender, and greater energetic roundness to move beyond habitual contraction without forcing the body.

A practical and nuanced teaching on staying open through discomfort, softening protective patterns, and building the capacity to meet more of life with consciousness, love, and surrender.