OHMMM-MG
In my teaching there are a few axiomatic truths I’ve learned. First, people will not breathe despite me telling them to. Second, if you ask who did well with a peak pose nobody will admit to it. Third, people will look at their toes during bakasana even though they shouldn’t. The fourth is that people will not release their neck/shoulder tension in a forward fold. This morning in the midst of teaching a 5:45 am class I realized I have been reminding people of these things for ONE WHOLE YEAR. For 365 days actual humans have been paying actual American Dollars to learn yoga from me. Sometimes it still feels really weird that that is a thing. As you likely remember I love a good review/performance evaluation and while I do get them on the reg at the studio, nobody evaluates me like I do. Nobody. So....
What am I working on?
Stop. Talking - I hate awkward silence, or silence in general. Yoga sometimes needs some quiet time. I don’t always need to chat to fill space It’s ok. Nobody will freak out not hearing my voice for a minute.
Don’t look at your toes - The weird thing about arm balances is that looking back at your toes generally causes you to tumble. If you look forward enough you’re more likely to find and hold the balance. Same is true in teaching, and in life, when you focus on what’s behind you it makes it more likely that you’ll tumble. You just have to keep looking forward.
Be prepared but not too prepared - This is a tough line for me to walk. I love preparing for things, I love studying, if I really needed to I could probably memorize a class end to end and make every single one exactly the same. But do I want that? Is that experience authentic for my students? Nope. I want to be ready to teach what I plan and open to the moments that make each group of students and our time together unique.
Show Up - When you teach two classes a week it’s really easy to be there for all of it. When you teach 5-10 classes across five different class types in a week it can be a little tricky to remember what you’re teaching, what happens next, even what day it is. When it’s extra income and there’s a day I was feeling off it was a little easier to decide to sub a class. When it’s a majority of my income...taking a day off, even when I should, is really hard to do. But I can’t be my best self in those moments. I can’t be completely present for my students. So I’ve committed to showing up completely for the people who choose to show up for me. 100% every single time.
What is going well?
Music - I make kick ass playlists. You can find them HERE.
Consistency - If there were Olympic Gymnastics style judges for teaching yoga, I’d score high in technical. All day, err’day.
Intention - I do this because I freaking love it. I know that and it pushes me to be better.
