This is how I feel when I teach.
Sometimes I don't like teaching yoga. Sometimes, I wish that no one will come to my class so that I don't have to stand up in front of people for an hour and tell them to calm their minds. Sometimes, I tell my students to go into child's pose because my brain is so overwhelmed from trying to put a sequence together and I don't know what else to do.
I know I'm not the only one who has ever felt resistance like this in their lives. Maybe it creeps up on you right when you're walking out the door to go to work in the morning. Maybe when you're pouring your coffee and you feel your boss walk into the break room behind you. Maybe as you're sitting down to work on that project for that one client that you just can't seem to get it right for.
I used to ignore that resistance and go on with my day.
But now I try to decode it. I try to understand why it is I feel dread when I get into the studio every day.
I feel the resistance when I teach yoga because I don't feel as qualified as other instructors. I have I can't do a handstand and I don't read lots of yoga texts. I haven't been studying for years and years and I can't recite the yamas and the niyamas. And it makes me feel less than adequate as a teacher.
The best advice I've ever been given about feeling the resistance is "Whatever you have to give others is a gift."
And even though I don't know a lot about yogic philosophy, I know a lot about how yoga affects me. I know how to relate the teachings of yoga to everyday life. And so now I try to go with that and know that whatever I give, whatever love and support I can relay to others during their practice is enough.
Your gifts are special too. Whatever you give, in your life, your business, your job, it's a gift. You are enough.
How do you deal when the resistance overwhelms you to the point of paralysis. Do you ever sit and think about why you're resisting?
2 comments:
I find that What About Bob pops into my head in those situations. Baby steps into the elevator. Baby steps out of the elevator. Baby steps down the stairs...etc. Which, I realize, is also why I make lists, and the more overwhelmed I am, the more minute the tasks are on my lists. Shower. Respond to one email. And the like. But there's also this Lao Tzu quote that I have taped to my monitor that goes:
"If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present."
And I like having that little reminder there when all else fails. To just be.
(But sometimes a glass of wine with my roommie can work wonders, too...)
Your positivity is great, but...
Most yoga teachers start teaching prematurely and with unsafe principles.
"So, what I’m suggesting is that a lot of yoga teachers don’t know enough. And they are actually teaching, I believe, prematurely. There’s too much poor yoga being taught in the world today. And it has been taught at a level and with principles which are not safe to the body. If you are teaching traditional bodies, you can teach traditional yoga. But if you teach non-traditional bodies you have to adapt and modify the traditional yoga intelligently and safely. And it has really taken me 25 years to cultivate it and another 15 years of learning yoga for myself. And that’s not easy to do unless you have a good teacher and a good time and place to do it."
- Simon Borg-Olivier
Read the whole article here:
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/10/most-yoga-teachers-start-teaching-prematurely-and-with-unsafe-principles-eva-kincsei/
Post a Comment