When I first received the inspiration to produce Sura Flow, “Self-Discovery Yoga,” the message I received from spirit was “Sura, help show people how to surrender.”
How would you help people learn to surrender? I didn’t even really know myself. Besides, I did not want to make a yoga video. 1) It was going to cost a lot of money, and I was probably not going to make money from it. 2) I was too self-conscious to perform in front of the camera. 3) It was going to be a lot of work, which I later realized, I was completely unprepared for.
A producer named Richard, from Gaiam, had been coming to a few of my yoga classes in LA and was interested in co-producing a video. It started over tea, and very quickly became a reality. When I showed up in Boulder, CO several months later, nothing was set up. We did not have a location to film. We did not have clothes for the video. The only thing we had was a pre-recorded audio of the sequence. I was still recovering from the intense healing I received at John of God in Brazil. Due to limited time and severe fatigue, we only had one 30 min rehearsal.
At the last minute, a local park near Brainard Lake, agreed to let us film. We had to hustle since we were working within days and the film crew were arriving the next day. On the day of the shoot, I rode with a part of the crew and we got completely lost. Brainard Lake is in some obscure place, 10,000 ft above sea level. We were lost for about 3 hours. The rest of the crew were waiting for us and the sun was quickly moving. We needed light, and it was serious $$$ per hour that was being lost. At one point, I could barely breathe. I panicked thinking how much money was at stake, how little we had prepared, and I had no idea what I was really doing. I looked up at the sky and silently screamed, “F*&^%CK%$!^&!!!” After I got that out of my system, I said, “OK GOD, I GET IT. I SURRENDER!!!”
I let go, thinking, “if this all goes down the can, I’m OK with it.”
We finally made it to the shoot. I still did not have wardrobe. Turned out we didn’t have electricity either. There were so many things that weren’t coming together, it was totally laughable.
We argued about hair and clothing until at one point, Rebecca the Director, said, “Sura, we have to this. NOW!”
But somehow the video got made.
The two days of shooting were magical after the initial chaos. We went down to a local construction site where we got electricity for hair. Everything flowed. The elements agreed, and Rebecca, after having produced 700 yoga videos, said that it was one of her top 10 film shoots.
Here is a behind the scenes video.
Click to Watch
The rest of the production process was arduous. Most definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Suddenly, I was an editor, negotiating music deals, and finding distribution. I think I have more grey hairs now because of it. It was a bear that was beyond what I could have imagined.
And interestingly, the whole process of making that video was a journey of surrender and trust.
These days, I am constantly reminding myself, “surrender to the ISness, Sura.” Surrendering to what is here now. Choosing not to live in my head which thinks “it should be this way or that way.. “, the thinking mind, that resists the moment. Whenever we suffer, we are really just resisting the ISness. Love the ISness. That’s what I hope people will receive from Sura Flow. It’s about the power of surrender.
It touches me when people write me about their experience of Sura Flow. It was something that almost didn’t happen, but came together, somehow miraculously. Today someone named Andrea sent me an email saying that she loved the practice and made a time lapse video. It really warmed my heart.
You can watch it here:
