An awesome day. And on why to say YES.

Today was amazing. Just one of those days. I had 20 in my vinyasa class, had created the new playlist, and had intended to start moving away from the more baptiste style that I had inherited into MY style of vinyasa. These students have been with me now since February, they know me, I know them, and we have grown together. I have more confidence, as do they. We have established trust and rapport. It was AWESOME. I felt free to be innovative, and they were right there with me ~ flowing along with some new and creative sequences, letting things just move, testing them in some new and more challenging balancing postures and transitions through poses and less traditional sequencing. We were ON. We were together. Our breath moved the room, and it was beautiful.

From there to crossfit, where I had 13, which was a big group. I love my cross fitters at this gym. This class felt doomed to failure when I first started, having one or two students, and that horrible week (Fathers Day, where I had nobody show). I have literally seen them grow as yogi's, seen their flexibility improve, seen their bodies change, and we have a fun dynamic where we laugh together and have just a great engagement with one another. I feel like this is one of my biggest successes as a teacher ~ I feel like I have created this group, and we have become a class together. I love them. We learn from each other and they have taught me so much about the needs of the crossfit body.

From there to my prenatal class, which was beautiful.

SO! Today I taught. I taught teachers. It was a group of 20. We all went around and introduced ourselves ~ and I admit that when I said that I had been teaching at the Y since February and they had been teaching from 5-18 (18!!!!) years at the Y I was initially taken aback. But you know what? I stood up, and I started teaching, and I just knew it. I felt it. I taught from my heart. I actually got choaked up at one point as I talked about using inclusive language ~ about not knowing who was there or why ~ about not talking about natural birth but about BREATH, and about how important breath would be for whatever what kind of birth your student could be facing. Ditto opening the heart and chest ~ about their love, their enthrallment with their newborn and not making language exclusive to breastfeeding, but to bottle-feeding as well……talking about the pelvic floor, talking about the importance of our language. Talking about the importance of making each student feeling welcome, important, and special.  Talking about creating community within the class. One woman started crying when I talked about how some teachers gear their language too much towards natural birth ~ I talked about how some Mom's in the class may not want or may not have a CHOICE about their birth, needing a CS ~ she literally started crying, raised her hand and said that her daughters were 23 and 21 and that she had had to have a CS due to a breech baby and when she was taking prenatal yoga she felt like an outsider at the end as everyone was preparing for this lamazze birth (70's) and she felt so left out. I got teary. YES. YES. It was awesome. I came home feeling so high. I used to do plenty of presentations when I was in sales………selling money. Selling profit. Selling margin.

To teach? To sell my passion? To get up there in front of such seasoned teachers and to be able to speak from my heart? From my experience? From my passion? The words just came. My heart just poured out.

This morning while I was teaching Nate took the kids apple picking. While I was leading the training? He baked a homemade gluten free pie with them. I feel so blessed. I don't rave about my husband often because it feels obnoxious ~ this is my blog, he doesn't read it, only a few friends have a link to it. I have an amazing husband.

I don't quite know where I am going with  my yoga ~ but I know that I am going in the right direction. My family is so at peace. We have some big changes coming up, and we are embracing them as a team. I feel so lucky to be able to pursue my dream of teaching my passion, delving deeper into it, while simultaneously branching out into new ways to volunteer in my community. This fundraiser we are setting up is going to be awesome. The kids participation in the Lemonaid stand was fantastic. Being able to volunteer at their school every Monday each week is wonderful for me (open eyes! See the good! Not the horrible cafeteria food!). I teach my first volunteer class at the homeless shelter this week. I feel like the more we give the more we get. The kids new favorite word is karma. They see it in the craziest of places. Karma.

You give. You give. If you get? great But how I love to see them love to give.

Namaste, friends. The light in me honors the light in you. Shine on.