“So you’re gonna teach yoga now?” This is the reaction I’ve been getting when I tell people about the yoga training I’m taking this July. My internal response has been amusement and wonder: why is it that we’re so x+y=z oriented? Of course, it makes sense because logic does exist, but the type of math I follow lives in a different realm.
To begin understanding my reasons, any programming about yoga, being a student and being a teacher must be detached from your perception. Yoga is not merely a class that is attended for exercise. Going to school doesn’t equal success. Being a teacher doesn’t mean authority.
I know very little about the history and haven’t looked up any definitions, but to me, yoga means being and moving with awareness from within the body whilst being connected–through breath and alignment–to a higher power. In order to live through what seem to be the most difficult scenarios, excessive effort must be released, and trust must be embraced. In this way, yoga poses and life mirror each other. They are each other. In the same reflective way, we are all students and teachers.
As a student I am not hoping to get somewhere, and my goal as a teacher is not to be a guru. My intention in both roles is to grow & learn. To me, teaching is living in my truth process while allowing others to live in theirs. I use the word process, because truth is something that has infinite potential to be discovered through experience. Each student/teacher encounter is a place for new layers to be revealed. In any authentic education scenario teachers and students are both learning from each other.
So, why am I taking the training? Put simply, I am forever growing as an authentic student & teacher, discovering more and more of my truth all the time. I stay in discovery by following my inspiration, and I am inspired by and excited for this experience. Whether or not I will end up teaching yoga in a studio or to clients is beside the point. I already am a yoga teacher every time I allow myself to simply be.
If you’re looking for some more specifics about what led to my choice and my goals, read this post.
From the Old Blog Archive
Archive for June, 2008
Deal with your own shit and everyone will benefit.
Saturday, June 28th, 2008
As social creatures, why is it that we love to be in other people’s business, but when it comes to facing our own, many of us are terrified? We are so scared of being responsible to ourselves that we’ve created all sorts of self avoidance mechanisms that divert our energy into the lives of others. Whether it comes from a place of a good intention or bad intention, the effort is there regardless.
A favorite and often acknowledged tactic unconsciously implies a false superiority by discussing the situations of others. Sometimes amusing, and not always with ill-intentions, this past time leaves us in a cloud of judgments or energy that’s not our own.
A less often realized, but equally present way is to latch our emotions on to a person because they have wronged us. We ignore the fact that its a situation we’re in and dwell on what a particular person did to us. It could be any number of things–a spouse who cheated on us, a parent or a teacher who told us we couldn’t do something, a friend who placed judgment on a situation of ours–in any case, it is certainly their fault. We say things that start with “you did this to me” or “you make me” without realizing that this automatically gives away our personal power. In these times of blame, we forget about ourselves even though it is when self recognition is needed the most. This comes as second nature because we’ve been conditioned that its easier to keep the focus on another person.
Whatever the protection mechanism, we tend to neglect one vital element: that we, as individuals, control how we choose to let the rest of the world in, and that what we choose to acknowledge directly relates to our presence and happiness. Of course we are placed in situations with others that seem negative or uncomfortable, but those are merely a test. An opportunity to step up and to see ourselves–to take a look at and realize how we feel. What feelings arise about the situation at hand? Anger? Sadness? Regret? Jealousy? Annoyance? And once those feelings are acknowledged as our own–rather than resisted as if an outside force–we can choose to release them through expression or mere recognition. After that, what sits behind them?
Its just might be you.