In 2019, I completed the 200-hour yoga teacher training, and began teaching. There began my challenge. Now I was not only putting together a sequence of movements to share with and teach to others, I was expected to offer some kind of intelligent design. Foundational poses should build up to more challenging poses. Range of movement begins small and as the body warms up it can expand. We strive to move through regions or focus areas of the body. Perhaps we'd have a theme.
For some reason I also had problems remembering the planned sequence. I'd simply go blank right there in the middle of a flow! How could that happen? I took to using various mnemonic devices to help me keep track of what I had planned. One of my favorite techniques was to draw stick figure representations of key poses in each flow.
Most challenging of all was managing time! When teaching classes in a studio, the class runs for a designated period of time. We don't want to finish too early and we don't want to run more than a minute or two overtime.
I found that when I practiced the sequences myself, I took far less time than when I was teaching. I had to learn to offer the cues out loud as I practiced on my own. I built the class in segments so that I could time each segment, then shave off or add on as appropriate. To some extent I still do that, especially in the more ambitious, faster-moving classes. I don't want to set us up to run out of time to practice on both sides of the body.
And of course, I gained experience the hard way in live classes by having to recover when I did forget or make mistakes. I learned to either laugh about it with the students or make something up and wing it. It wasn't what I aspired to do, but it wasn't too bad, either.
Perhaps the technique that works best for me is that of allowing the movements to simply reveal themselves to me. Rather than thinking about the yoga poses themselves, I like to give myself a bit of time to simply sit while I consider that which inspires me at that moment. Perhaps I'm inspired by the planetary movements. Or human kindness. Or strength. Or the power of music.
As I sit quietly, I let the inspiration bubble up and wrap me in its arms.
As I immerse myself in the feelings and the mood, my body and my spirit crave particular movements, pauses, and asana. The sequence grows organically. It's almost as if there's something larger than myself - drawing me to breathe and move according to some wise design that has simply been waiting to be uncovered.
Of course, after I allow myself to be swept away, I jot down some notes. I practice some of the sequences while timing myself. I can use the same inspiration for different classes, gentle to more vigorous, simply choosing the appropriate asana and considering suitable variations. I also enjoy going to the Internet or the bookshelf to explore - finding relevant words of wisdom from others. I offer those quotations at the start and close of the class as a meditative focus.
Those moments of being swept away by an inspiration are magical. I'd love to hear your stories in the comments below.
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I also find it challenging to, en english, as it is not mother tongue, explain sequences and anatomical movement to students. But I do find that many time the movements come to me as as a sequence of images, flowing from one pose to the next, and it is nice, you reminded me of how my good teachers also came up with quotations at the beginning of the practice. And breathwork. And that explaining what we do here on the mat, yoga as being healing and a life style, at the beginning helps to ease first time students into the practice. And it is ok to make mistakes. I do feel that imposter syndrome, certainly because due to circumstance I became a beginner/student myself with injuries, and I felt for a long time, still do, that I am not yet the teacher. But then I remember the satisfying feeling, the karmic beauty, of having been a teacher, and practice my poses, and yoga at home, during corona time, so as to one day be a worthy teacher again. Namaste
ReplyDeleteThank you for your beautiful comment. I think it's important that we all feel as though we are learning, even if we are the teacher. You must be a lovely teacher. I can hear through your words how much yoga means to you.
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