009: Traveling Landscapes for Learning, Inside and Out, with Grace Tempany

Landscapes for Learning

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”

----Jiddu Krishnamurti

Traveling the landscapes for learning is a challenge for so many of us human beings, but Grace Tempany’s personality, disposition, and training in self-inquiry makes her unusually well-suited for riding the waves of change and challenge as she fluidly balances between both the comfort of home and job and the security and order they provide as well as following her restlessness and desire for exploring new landscapes-- the novelty of new people, places, and cultures. She is a dynamic warrior-yogini on the hero’s journey!

Grace is self-described “full of contradictions”-- equally at home with one foot in such formal, structured academic settings like education as well as the other foot in the Yin Yoga and Bikram Yoga communities. She talks with me about her tools for introspection and contemplation as well as how understanding the ways that her mind works is a key component in her increased self-awareness and therefore indispensable to being fully awake which enables her to live with vitality and appreciation.

I learned from Grace about traveling beyond one’s literal geographical and internally-prescribed boundaries and limits and being comfortable with that very often uncomfortable process, and how this type of travel is the journey of authentic learning which is going from the known, familiar, and secure to the unknown, unfamiliar, and disorienting place beyond, a process that is anxiety provoking for many people and requires training. There are ways to make yourself more open and vulnerable to the unknown, one step at a time!

Grace refers to both Jiddhu Krishnamurti about holding opposing ideas simultaneously rather than feverishly defending an idea and Pema Chodron who teaches about staying with pain and discomfort rather than running from it and to not give up on this struggle. Grace believes that the people who shy away from discomfort will not only die with regret but miss out on their very own life. She urges people to become aware that an important life-learning process exists and with methods and practices, like meditation and yoga, you can become fully alive and present for your own life.

I hope you enjoy this discussion about landscapes, learning, and our shared humanity. Visit and follow me, Maureen Bakis, at http://www.LandscapesforLearning.com

Podcast Music: Creative Commons License for "Political Lunatics" by Earthling (intro and outro music) "Political Lunatics" by Earthling