SWIHA has one of the most divserse college communities; one classroom may hold veteran soldiers, nurses, policemen, school teachers, scientists, fitness coaches, or freshly grduated teenagers. The wonderful thing about thaving this kind of eclectic student body, is the diversity of stories of how everyone ended up at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts.
Trevor Reinhart is no exception to the rule. He was born in San Diego and grew up in Grand Haven, MI, which led him to combat training, mostly in Okinawa, Japan, and serving his country. Trevor became a scout sniper and a close quarters combat speicalist in the Marine Corps. However, in between the Marines and showing up at SWIHA, he went through a serious car accident. Trevor actually remembers the experience of dying and coming back. “Being in a fatal car cash destroyed my idea of reality. The rules suddenly didn’t apply anymore. Death and coming back to life opened my reality to live between worlds.”
Trevor was already familiar with yoga before his teacher training, and he decided he wanted to fully immerse himself in the ancient practice and philosophy through the Advanced Yoga Teacher certification; he went on to graduate with the 800-hour certification. Continuing his studies, Trevor earned his certification in Reiki and is about to become a Registered Polarity Practitioner (RPP) in Polarity Therapy. Both of these types of healing energy work were not brand new to him. He reflects on his time at our conscious commUNITY, “SWIHA had a great way of explaining the things I was already doing since a very young age—I just didn’t always know why I was doing them.”
Another thing he learned during his educational journey at SWIHA, was how to fully be present for a client and how to really listen. “The way I show up as a practitioner for my clients, is one who is not trying to limit or stop their feelings. A lot of modern medicine teaches people that if they’re experiencing discomfort or pain, that it should be stopped or controlled: like depression. I believe it is more constructive to have them realize that they have permission to feel how they feel—let them have the experience!”
Feel it ~ Own it ~ Release it
One thing that stood out to me as Trevor and I talked, was his ability to take something very complex and find its core element, where the deeper meaning is. To parallel that to life, we can get overwhelmed or "stressed out" when challenging situations begin to get the better of us. Yet, if we take the issue and begin to reduce it to smaller steps that push us towards a goal or solution, we find an easier path. For example, learning the practice of yoga could seem like an enormous task to a beginner yogi. How can one go from not-knowing to standing on their hands with their feet dangling over their head? The place to start is with a great teacher and learning to breathe deeply: simple. Step into Trevor’s Foundations Yoga class at SWIHA’s public studio, Spirit of Yoga (SOY), and this is what you'll find. He teaches that there are no abolutes in yoga, and he will help you to discover your own craft and breath, unique to you and what you need. He will ask you to be ok with how you show up. He shared this valuable insight:
"Many people who begin taking yoga are dealing with stress and anxiety on a daily basis. Stress can be caused from a person’s inability to move on or let go of the past, while anxiety can form when there is a fear of the future. I try to give my students the tools to move out of the ‘busy mind’ and into a more gentle place of ease."
There is another place Trevor takes his specialties, and that is to disembodied spirits. This tends to take place on location, and he spoke of his experience at a concentration camp in Germany where he discovered something interesting. These beings, just like humans, deserve the basic gift of freedom. “Freedom is the most basic right that all beings have, and so being happy. If it’s in my power to help facilitate that change, I feel it is my duty to do so. Death and coming back to life opened my reality to live between worlds. They’re all real, interact, and intermingle together so when you’re opened up to that, you have to jump into the unknown, and answer the “Call of the Wild”. Go for the journey. [I asked:] What have you learned between the veils? That everything is connected. It’s one thing to read about it and believe it, and it is an entirely different animal to feel it. [RR:] Is there a gift for you in it? It is definitely a blessing and a curse, because when you’re opened to a broader sense of energy, rules and mechanics of how it all fits together, it’s a façade. Brand new world. The blessing is being able to be a apart of someone or something's freedom.”
When Trevor started SWIHA, he began that educational journey with the intention of doing the work for his own process. “Pursuit of education has always been important to me, a standard way of living; you can never know too much. Ignorance is bliss until you see the cost of ignorance.” Even though he didn’t think he would be working with other people after graduation, now he sees how his gifts are valuable to so many others than just himself. As a message to other SWIHA students or graduates, he had this comment:
“Don’t fall into the label game. It’s all the same; working with energy is working with energy; complex to simple. If it’s massage, energy work, or another modatlity- it’s all just energy. SWIHA has a great platform for having wisdom and tools to share, but the seeker has to open the bag and work with them or it’s worthless.
We are all equals and have something to learn and share. Our clients are all success stories. They make the changes they need, and to make such changes, is to be present, and in the now. And to do this is to be in the breath: not in the past, not fearing the future, but sitting in the NOW. It is the inhalation of prana energy that sustains all things.”
Trevor can be found on Facebook or contacted at Trevor@reinharts.com
