Yes, these are the wise wise words of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. And, while I do love the show, that’s not why I present them here. In fact, I guess I might even put a little spin on them and say – “don’t think it – be it.” I’m having a very hard time right now transitioning what I know, and what I can do with my body (and have done probably a thousand times), like Surya Namaskara A, into teaching frame. I can teach; it’s what I do. I can do yoga. But, putting the two together is giving me some fits.
The question, I suppose, is why. And I think the answer is implied in these lyrics – I’m not “being” the teacher. I’m thinking it, a lot, over thinking it even, and not being it. As I try to lead the group into a pose, instead of just saying what it is (being it – feeling it), I start analyzing it (“Am I moving in or expanding out? Is this an exhale or an inhale? Exactly how is that pronounced?”) And that just makes it worse.
The irony of this is that I know what to do about it. I teach (well, not currently, but I developed the course and taught for several years) public speaking for reticent students. I know what I would tell them – “Learn the information. Talk about it with your friends and your family – just casually – until it becomes yours. Then just tell us what you want to say – make your point, converse with us.” So, yeah, I guess that’s what I need to do.
I’m a little freaked out that it’s this hard for me, but at the same time, over the weekend I watched colleagues who I think are brilliant get very nervous about presenting ideas that I know they have amazing insight into. Once they stopped thinking about it and just did it, they were fine.
Teaching what I teach, knowing what I know, and being who I am can, I believe, bring something interesting and unique to the yoga classroom. But, if I’m going to get there, I have to get over (around, under) this hurdle. It’s good to plan and to think and to prepare and to dream, but at some point, we have to do, right? After all, to mangle another quote, we aren’t “human dreamings,” we are “human beings.”
Namaste,
L
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