teaching – The VeganAsana

Last week, I had the opportunity to teach a “serious kids and parents” class at Yogawood. I had expected that the “serious” tag and the description that went with it would bring pre-teens with an established practice, primarily, and had set up a relatively active and vigorous class with a theme of happiness (heart-opening and compassion). As the time of the session approached, there was no one in the studio but me. I had everything ready and at 7 ’till, I was refolding all the studio blankets. At 4 ’till, the door opened and in walked a mother and child. As I started getting them set up, another set came in, and then another. Woohoo! A class! In all, there were four children between 8-11 and three mothers. All of the children were pretty much brand new to yoga, so I scrapped most of my plan – other than the theme and the warm-ups – and decided to concentrate on teaching basic sun salutations and then some “fun” poses.

It was such a great time. The four children in the room paid such good attention and were amazing sports. And the looks on their faces… wow! When I would show them a somewhat complex pose, they would first look a little confused. And then huge grins would break over their faces as they saw what the shape involved – grins that looked like a combination of “oh man, that’s cool” and “you have got to be kidding me, woman.” Even when they were uncertain about actually doing a pose, they seemed pretty stoked on what the pose involved. And they were willing. We had so much fun checking out things like headstand, wild thing, wheel, and some bound twists. As I helped them into poses, any hesitation was matched by enthusiasm and willingness to try. And then when they got into the shapes. I don’t think I will ever forget the face of one of the boys when he came up into headstand with an assist. The grin was huge, amazed, sparkling. Now the look was “Oh man! This is COOL! Look what I am DOING!” So sweet. So good. And they fell out of poses with good grace and a smile as well.

It was such a fabulous experience to watch them enjoy the practice. They were so open to it and having such a good time. Adults can sometimes get so serious about yoga, but these “serious kids” were having fun and enjoying what their bodies could do. As more than one wise (wo)man has said, we can learn so much from children.

Seriously wonder-full!

Yep, I looked JUST like this!

I taught my “final teach” today in yoga teacher training. It’s hard to believe that we started the program at the beginning of October, because it seems like just a few weeks ago, and here we are wrapping up. Even having taught a couple of practice classes, I was a nervous bunny going into the class. I knew that I “knew” my plan, and I really didn’t want to look at my notes, but I worried that I would trip myself up, be unable to recover, and then … but, it did not go that way.

After arriving and setting up the music, there were already a couple of students (and friends) there, so I got to chat a little, which was great for some grounding. Danielle even brought some pretty flowers to celebrate! Time went by pretty quickly, more students arrived (I think we were missing four of the original 11, but two additional got to come, so there ended up being a total of 9), and it was time to get started. The opening segment, with a brief Aesop’s fable, connection to aparigraha, and some pranayama went well. My chant was a little off in melody, but the crowd was game, so that was fine. And with an om, we were off!

When the moving started, it was really time to think “on my feet.” I found that some things took longer than in practice (i.e. the warm-up) and had to be reduced here and there, and other things took less time than I had thought. I had my first big oops right off the bat when we got to our feet to start the flows. It actually was a blessing in disguise, because once it happened I felt freed from thinking about getting it perfect, recovered in process to make things generally work, and then moved on. At that point, I was able to just chill about whether I was doing “good” or “bad” and just teach, looking for adjustments that could be made, trying to keep a pacing that seemed to be working for the students, closing the curtains when the creeper was looking at us like fish in an aquarium, and being my usual slightly goofy self.

Class went by very quickly – of course, I wasn’t the one in forearm plank, so…. It seemed to be almost no time and savasana was coming up. I felt a little teary at just how wonderful it was to be a part of the practice of such lovely people (and there was probably some plain old relief in there too). When all was done, those fabulous Yogawood friends gave me a little round of applause. It seemed like thank you wasn’t nearly enough to express how grateful I felt at these yogis having shared this 90 minutes with me.

Wow. This is good stuff, eh? And, I passed, so that was pretty sweet too. ; )

Namaste,

Tag Archives: teaching

The Face of Wonder

Teaching – So Sweet