3 Confessions of A Yoga Teacher
At the ripe age of 8 years old I remember taking my first yoga class. I was with my mom and she took me to a kids yoga workshop in Tempe, AZ while she took the adult class. I was thrilled.
I remember playing around in tree pose and oh the simplicity of it all.
As the years have passed and I suppose I'm a more seasoned practitioner/ teacher I have few confessions to make:
Yoga is not a competition. I repeat: It is NOT A COMPETITION.
Okay so this is something I have preached to my classes on multiple occasions and heard from so many of my own teachers. Let me be honest, this is much easier said than done. I guess it's the dancer competitive side of me that wants to do the poses " perfectly " or the instagram appealing version of the pose.
In ballet we are trained and it's embedded in us that whatever you do is simply not enough. Your turnout isn't enough, extension isn't high enough, feet aren't arched enough, 3 turns aren't enough etc. It is a mentality of constant defeat. No matter what you do there is always someone who can do better leading to an uphill losing battle of trying to prove yourself. Now don't get me wrong, I love ballet. But that's ballet, thats dance; not yoga. Yoga serves as an outlet for other possibilities. It encourages power and strength but through utmost respect to the body. It is just a completely different mindset. My struggle is switching mentally from off the ballet bar and onto the mat. But once you remove the mask of competitiveness and enter into what's present now in your practice the potential for growth is endless.
2. A yoga teacher is a calm and collected person is as much a stereotype as all Texans ride horses to work.
Just had to throw that out there.
MOVING ON…
My third and final confession to you all:
3. Savasana (the final resting pose) - Would you guess that this simple pose is my least favorite yoga pose of all.
When I teach I see the joy in my students eyes when I say-Savasana it is now time to rest. However, for myself it's my hardest pose. Give me a million high to low push ups and upward dogs to down dogs to flip dogs i don't care. But the second I have to lay down in Savasana I want to get out of it. I think it is something to do with not doing anything that's difficult. It is often the poses we do least in that create greater struggle in my students and myself. For example, half pigeon or just simply holding warrior 2 is frequently more challenging then moving through one breath per pose. Eyes begin to dart around the second discomfort hits. Instead of releasing into the pose and going deeper the mind naturally wants to flee and escape the sudden discomfort even if it is really "good for us". Savasana to me is open door for my mind to start wandering and creating a laundry list of things that I have to do next. The practice and the challenge for me is just simply being. And what I mean by that is being okay with not doing a single thing but breathing. And to me that is my greatest challenge as yogi.
But hey, it's often our greatest challenges in whatever we do in life that allow us to grow, and go forward-so on we go.
