9 rules every yoga teacher should follow!
Love THIS article!!!!
It is just so true. Sue so drilled this into my head, over and over……that wherever the person with the wobbliest tree or the least flexible hamstrings was, THAT was where I was as well. No one, NO ONE comes to a yoga class to watch their yoga teacher show off. In fact, nothing will turn people off from a class faster. And the sanskrit stuff? Made me laugh out loud. Yes, it is beautiful, and yes, it is good to know, and yes, I throw in a little bit here and there. Sue never does, she says it intimidates people. I'll always use it along with its english word…aka, "bend your knees deeply, tuck your tailbone under, sweep your arms up coming up into utkatasana, or chair pose." The "parts" thing made me laugh as well….I see a lot of parts. Today in this mornings class Chris told us to engage mula bhanda in our yogi squat, and the woman next to me farted. Twice. Funny stuff happens in yoga! The Rumi, the ohming, all of it. Just well done, and, as a teacher, so relatable. People HATE to om in small classes (especially at the Y, or other less…spiritual type places). Its cool. I leave it out. No shame in that. I had so much fun talking about all of this yesterday with Merin, and again today with a friend who also went through TT but isn't yet teaching. Its so much fun thinking back to how terrifying getting in front of a class used to be, to how it is today ~ its just fun. I'm learning each and every time I teach, and I'm so so grateful for the experience.
Me, like Buddha underneath the tree of enlightenment. Except NO! I'm joking. I was not enlightened, I was exhausted. I hadn't looked at the forecast before setting up my run with Alison….at as of getting out of the car at 1 it was 88 and humid as all get out. We ran 5 pushing boys who were throwing peanut shells at one another the whole way as they ate their snacks, and got about 15 minutes to pass out in the grass while the kids hit the playground, before the heavens opened and all hell broke loose with a great and cooling thunderstorm.
Tonight I'm treating myself to Sues level 3 class. Excessive? Sure. But Nate leaves tomorrow for the rest of the week and I have a million obligations between the food cupboard (big fundraiser coming up June 19 with Stella Rosa!!!), a safe harbor afternoon, field day, swim practices, and Julia's last day of school swim day at the Y. I'm also teaching twice on Thursday. I was so exhausted this afternoon I took a 20 minute power nap under a tree on the lawn while soft rain fell around me. A delicious dinner of curry chicken and portobello mushrooms with rice and sweet potatoes, and the kids made some homemade white chocolate chip cranberry oatmeal cookies.
*The kids and I have been practicing yoga together since they were babies. We first used videos and a great book that Jeannie gave me when I was 7 months pregnant and Luke just 10 months old (the kids used to use it on their own, thumbing through the photos before they could read and doing poses that interested them)….now we practice together almost daily. This past weekend we realized that we could do a "double rainbow wheel" with Luke doing his wheel underneath mine ~ its fantastic and so much fun. This was out in the yard today during out lunchtime picnic ~ Jake climbed up on me while I had my head on the ground, then I pressed up on to wheel, and Julia snapped the photo. Its a great workout pressing up with 55 lbs of kid on your belly! I'm wondering what my practice would look like today if I had found yoga at birth instead of at 20 years old.
When did you start practicing yoga?
It is just so true. Sue so drilled this into my head, over and over……that wherever the person with the wobbliest tree or the least flexible hamstrings was, THAT was where I was as well. No one, NO ONE comes to a yoga class to watch their yoga teacher show off. In fact, nothing will turn people off from a class faster. And the sanskrit stuff? Made me laugh out loud. Yes, it is beautiful, and yes, it is good to know, and yes, I throw in a little bit here and there. Sue never does, she says it intimidates people. I'll always use it along with its english word…aka, "bend your knees deeply, tuck your tailbone under, sweep your arms up coming up into utkatasana, or chair pose." The "parts" thing made me laugh as well….I see a lot of parts. Today in this mornings class Chris told us to engage mula bhanda in our yogi squat, and the woman next to me farted. Twice. Funny stuff happens in yoga! The Rumi, the ohming, all of it. Just well done, and, as a teacher, so relatable. People HATE to om in small classes (especially at the Y, or other less…spiritual type places). Its cool. I leave it out. No shame in that. I had so much fun talking about all of this yesterday with Merin, and again today with a friend who also went through TT but isn't yet teaching. Its so much fun thinking back to how terrifying getting in front of a class used to be, to how it is today ~ its just fun. I'm learning each and every time I teach, and I'm so so grateful for the experience.
Tonight I'm treating myself to Sues level 3 class. Excessive? Sure. But Nate leaves tomorrow for the rest of the week and I have a million obligations between the food cupboard (big fundraiser coming up June 19 with Stella Rosa!!!), a safe harbor afternoon, field day, swim practices, and Julia's last day of school swim day at the Y. I'm also teaching twice on Thursday. I was so exhausted this afternoon I took a 20 minute power nap under a tree on the lawn while soft rain fell around me. A delicious dinner of curry chicken and portobello mushrooms with rice and sweet potatoes, and the kids made some homemade white chocolate chip cranberry oatmeal cookies.
When did you start practicing yoga?
THAT is your awesome yoga profile picture, Melis! It's so strong and loving and you. <3 x 1,000!
ReplyDeleteha! love the pic! I wuss out and make my kids go under me instead ;-) i've wondered the same thing about what life would have been like if i'd come to yoga sooner. I took a 6- or 8- week session in college for gym credit! but with an awesome teacher with whom I probably would have continued to study later on if he weren't based 2 towns over. the class made an impact, but I wasn't ripe enough to go further yet...I started really practicing in 2006, after a miscarriage, before Oscar. I needed something to help me deal with grief and anger. It helped :) Oscar is resistant to anything mama does these days, but penny loves the weekly kids' class she attends at the ashram, and both of them will be spending time there weekly over the summer when I'm teaching...I think being in that setting will be really good for them.
ReplyDeleteI use sanskrit a fair bit in my classes but generally I say both, like your example. and I Om really loudly when leading classes where I think people might be freaked out by it :) in my beginning class, if I have more than 1 newbie to yoga, I will sometimes even give a verbal explanation of how to Om...including the instruction to sit in the space that comes after the verbal part, the fourth part of the Om. In other classes I like to start with at least 3 oms and talk about feeling the vibration of the sound that comes with repetition. oh, but you only asked when I started practicing.... ;-)
Thanks girls, I love the pic too ~ isn't it amazing (still, years later?!?!) that these people who are getting so big came out of our bodies/bellies? Its extra strange to me to see that big just 4 year old sitting on top of the space he had just vacated this week a few years back. Bodies are so cool. Anyway. Jenn I never knew that that is what took you to yoga….isnt it amazing what can bring us to the mat? It was grief and anger that brought me to my mat too in 1994 (after having to drop out of college due to an eating disorder….I found yoga in inpatient treatment!)…..so much beauty and healing can come out of all that pain, huh? Do you do that at the Y? I feel like my Y is like this….black hole of any sort of receptiveness to spirituality. The 6 AM class I was subbing on Monday? When I went to start Savasana I turned off the lights and put on the Savasana song….and they all started rolling up their mats (there were 4 students)….I just kind of rolled with it…but I was so curious I had to email the normal teacher. She said "oh, yeah, I don't usually do a savasana as its early and everyone has to get to work. (?!>?!>WWM><!) ITS YOGA? I mean, take the 3 MINUTES that the song was, and chill for a sec, you know? Its crazy. I want to bring more, introduce more (deeper concepts/etc)….but I feel like now that I'm attending more classes there I see that it just isn't done…..so now I feel self conscious about it. Is that so lame of me?
ReplyDeleteno, not at all lame - my teacher (drawing upon the Bagavad Gita) says we should never disturb people, in the sense that yogis and sadhakas should not be in the evangelizing business...that our living example will draw those to us who want more (and I'm already seeing this happen at the Y, some students coming to me and asking deeper questions). My Y is known in the teacher community as being pretty open to more than just postures. So I do start every class with Om, and end with Om Shanti Shanti Shantih. Not all teachers there do but I know I'm not the only one. I do include pranayama practices, though I will often speak about the physiological benefits if I sense that people might get weirded out. That said, I would have struggled with the situation you encountered...if the class is supposed to go from, e.g., 6-7am, then students should budget 60 minutes to be there. I'm assuming you weren't keeping them over the time allotted in order to do savasana, so really? Can't just rest the body for 3 mins before moving on with the day? I definitely do a shorter savasana for early am classes, and I think I mentioned my pointed technique of calling savasana the most important pose...but if it's a subbing situation and you guilted them into it ;-) they might just lay there and stew about it anyway.
ReplyDeleteMy training was in a very traditional vein so we talked a lot about finding the line of "just enough" introduction to the deeper aspects. My teacher would talk about it like just releasing one teeny drop at a time, maybe just one comment a class, or just a couple throughout a class...then if there are students who are receptive to and desirous of learning more, they know you are someone who can help them :) I err on the side of less, but as I get more comfortable in a given setting I tend to loosen up a bit. And like I said, I've had several people come up to me and ask deeper questions or comment that they like it being about more than poses. I'm sure there are plenty of polite people who just ignore my yammering too though ;-)