Gratitude

Thursday class at Heal One World was small. Only two of my regulars showed up. Actually I think it has been dwindling over the past month. I try not to think about the numbers because you never know whats going on in another persons life, so you can't expect people to always show up at your class. Taking it personally is kind of silly because it never has anything to do with you, but nevertheless you still feel a little sad that you don't get to see someone that week.

Anyway I put together a slow class and since there were only two I tried to really watch them and adjust or correct their movements. At the end of class I thanked them for coming and got to talking with Norma, a small hispanic woman who takes care of 3 boys and her hubby. She was telling me that the teacher on Fridays is crazy hard and that she'll run away if she sees her again. Haha. Norma started coming to my class (and I think one class a day) a few months ago because her doctor recommended it. At the end of class today she expressed all her changes and gratitude. She has no more back pain. She used to have to visit the doctor frequently for one thing or the other, but she doesn't have to go anymore. The most interesting thing she said was she doesn't get angry easily anymore. She's calmer and happier and feels better every day.

So that made me feel like if there were only one person in class every week, then it would still be worth it.

Enseñando y escribiendo

Last night I was teaching yoga and three older Latin ladies walked into class. They were little and seemed nice and they planted their mats in a row like best friends. It was great, but it soon became obvious that they spoke very little English. They weren´t following my cues and often looked at me to see what I was doing. One of them seemed to follow better and so she was kind of the relay point between me and the other two. I had started about 30 minutes prior to their arrival because we had changed the class time a few months ago. I had never seen them before so I think they were still used to the old time. Anyway there was no way I would be able to start using Spanish. I´ve hardly begun to grasp the tenses let alone translate yoga cues into Spanish after I had been teaching for 30 minutes. But it really made me want to work on becoming fluent. Knowing another language opens you up to so much more. If I could I would learn them all.

But alas, I can only learn one at a time. So now I´ve promised myself that I will be translating my blog posts to Spanish as best I can just for my own benefit. If you see a mistake please let me know! Don´t worry if you don´t know Spanish there will be no difference in content compared to the English version. But if you feel the need, there is always google translate.

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Anoche estaba enseñando yoga cuando tres mayores mujeres llegaron a mi clase. Ellas pusieron sus tapetitos de yoga en una línea como amigas mejores. Que linda, pero fue muy obvio que ellas no hablan inglés. Ellas no me comprendían y miraban a mi mucho. Quise que usar español pero llegaron treinta minutos tarde y usando español habría muy difícil. No fue posible. Después de les encontré, yo quise hablar con fluido. En lo sucesivo, yo voy a traducir mis notas para practicar español. Sabiendo otro idioma te das muchas oportunidades. Sí es posible, yo aprenderá todos los idiomas. Entonces, Este es mi primer nota en español!

Personal Practice

I've been teaching for a few weeks now and have slowly come to realize how much I've forgotten what it's like to be a beginner. I thought since it was only 3 years ago and that I have a "pretty" good memory I would understand, but I don't think I do anymore. It's not a bad thing. I just need to gain this perspective back in a different way so that I can help my students better.

Anyway on days I don't have students I try to run through the sequences that I put together in order to adjust and make them better. In the process I'll incorporate it as a real practice. It has made me realize how much I've grown and advanced as a yogi. It's funny because I didn't really grasp that as I was going through the training.

I'm glad I've gained the skill to really cultivate my own practice. But now my ambitious self is asking, "so what's next?" Sometimes I want it to shut up and be content.

Teaching is great

Today in class we group taught a 90 minute yoga practice. So the instructors wrote out a whole sequence and we drew numbers to see who would teach which pose. We spent the whole time rotating in and out of teaching and taking the class. It was interesting because we all had to be mentally engaged as well as physically engaged the whole time, listening for our number and thinking about how we were going to teach our pose. It was the funnest yoga class I've ever been to. Personalities came out, we all said weird and funny things and it was a good time.

I drew the number to teach the inverted portion of the class and basically all I had to do with give some cues and let everyone do their thing. I helped one of my classmates try out a inversion prepping pose, and it reminded me of what it felt like to teach. I hadn't really been in a formal teaching position since university and it made me really glad. There is nothing more rewarding than helping someone become better than they are.

Class on Friday and Saturday were particularly exhausting. I was beginning to wonder when we were going to do more teaching and sequence learning, but today was all about both.

On another note, Saturday's class was all about back bends and I found my way into a new pose, Kapotasana. I'm pretty stoked.