1st Public Teaching Day

Have you ever done something for the first time and it felt so right, so natural and you could hardly wait to do it again?  You became so engrossed in what you were doing that you lost all track of time?  You were 100% present, and didn't want to be anywhere else in the world in that moment?  Well, that is how I felt about my first public yoga class.  I was blessed and so grateful to have a full studio room of over twenty people, many of them family and friends who had come to support me, but plenty who were there to just enjoy free yoga.  Three of them had never done yoga of any kind before, and several had never set foot in a yoga studio before, having practiced at home with a DVD.  I was honored to be their first yoga teacher.

I began with a reading about trusting the universe, and allowing it work in the perfect way it knows how.  I also talked about acceptance - accepting your body, your yoga practice, your relationships, your work, and your life.  I brought this up because I personally have struggled with acceptance since I was a child.  I believe acceptance is something that a lot of people have struggled with at some point in their life, and may still struggle with, but may not be aware of it.  Yoga helped me become aware of my desire for acceptance.  It helps us become aware of many things.  It also helps us accept ourselves and others.  Yoga continously opens windows to our lives.

As we began class, almost immediately I entered what I'll call a state of flow, where I was aware of nothing else except the students in the room, complete focus on them and the practice.  I moved and spoke with intention, focus, and confidence, like I can't ever remember doing quite like before.  I was struck by the focus and concentration each person had, how they both relaxed into the postures and reached into them at the same time, pushing themselves into new positions, and new awareness.  As a brand new teacher, I was witness to yoga class from a whole different perspective.  I relished the audible, communal breat and the building heat in our bodies and the room.  I was in awe of the attention each person was giving to their own practice, and could see them letting go and releasing the activity of their mind while their bodies moved.  I don't think I have ever been more honored to be anywhere, doing anything, than I was right then.  I felt as if I were a conduit of the universe, letting the love and harmony sent out at the beginning of class in the reading I did flow through me.  It was sense of connection and energy unlike any other I had ever experienced.  It was beautiful in so many ways. 

At the end, after savansa, I thanked everyone, and read a lovely passage from Meditations on the Mat by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison, which I'll share here: "Our bodies, our breath, our minds and our choices are being refined in the laboratory that is our yoga mat.  As this symphony becomes established on our mats, it becomes established in our lives as well.  Driving to work, mailing a letter, meeting a friend for lunch all become part of the uninterupted flow of our yoga practice.  We are doing our yoga all the time."  

-Namaste

Glimpse

10/25 - Tonight the first of seven yoga teachers-in-training taught her first public class. Anticipation was high. The studio was packed.  The air was hot.  Kate came in the room, fully present, and began to guide us through practice.  The energy in the room was incredible.  You could feel it so strongly.  The class flowed smoothly and the breath sounds were audible and beautiful throughout class.  She wrapped up our 60 minutes with her with all eyes on her, and we closed with "Namaste" - the traditional end to yoga practice.  "Namaste" means "the light in me sees and honors the light in you."  At that moment, I was overcome with emotion - joy for her, and complete awe.  I got tears in my eyes and felt a rush through my body.  It was so powerful and incredible!  I was so excited for her, and honored to be there as a witness, a participant, a friend.  If I felt like this at HER teaching, what was I going to feel like at mine?  I hoped I didn't break down crying at this point in my class.  My nervousness about my own class is diminishing and is being replaced by excitement.

Two days before Kate's public class, we met with another teacher trainer at the studio at 6:30 one morning so she could practice teaching one more time before her public class.  Upon arriving, however, Kate suprisingly stated that she was ready and gave us the opportunity to teach instead, and that she would be the student and support us.  I jumped at the chance. What a blessing!  At this point I was nervous about my public class coming up on Saturday, so I felt like I needed all the practice I could get.  I had yet to teach the whole class to anyone else at one time; just in sections. This experience shattered that nervous feeling and the not knowing. I was finally able to do out loud what I had been doing in my head and in my body over and over again.  It is one thing to think it and do it.  It is quite another to speak it, lead it, guide it, teach it.  It made it real.  It was now something I could see, feel, touch, and experience as a whole and not just in parts.  Thank you for this blessing!