What is my goal as a yoga teacher?

I’ve asked this question and answered it in different ways throughout my 15 year career teaching yoga. At this moment my answer is to HELP – to help students turn inward toward their true self, joining the path of yoga, and to share my practice and experience from my place on this path. 

In this blog post I would like to offer some thoughts that I’ve had about the role of speech in helping students walk their path. These thoughts have come out of my own recent experience of teaching yoga in English (which is not my native language) and joining a new yoga community in Seattle. I am very grateful to John, my friend and yoga buddy who inspired me and helped me to structure this post.

We all aspire as yoga teachers to speak and explain well. What does this mean in practice? Fundamentally, to speak and explain well you need a pleasant voice, broad vocabulary, clear enunciation, and knowledge of a language that is understandable to students. Equally important is the ability to speak competently of yoga and anatomy. All of these elements are rather obvious and many teachers possess these skills.

There are, however, speech elements that transform our teaching from valuable to priceless.
 
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There are so many different ways to set up and run aerial yoga classes. There’s no one perfect method for everyone. Today, I’ll dive into a question I often get asked by new teachers, “Should I have a separate class for beginners?”

Before diving in, I want to emphasize that in this article I’m writing about aerial yoga, specifically. In my studio, Aerial Fit of Charleston, SC, we typically take beginners in a mixed level class, but only for aerial yoga, not for aerial circus.

The reason why we need a separate class for beginners when we teach aerial circus, is because those classes are focused on learning how to use the aerial apparatus for fitness and artistic expression. We use more of a nuts and bolts approach where you learn the basics of the apparatus first, and then you build on those skills. That means beginners have a lot to learn! But, once they’ve learned the foundations, they’ll be quickly ready to build on them. Having a class focused on getting beginners up to speed, just makes sense for aerial circus.

The reason we feel comfortable putting beginners into a mixed level class for aerial yoga, is because in aerial yoga classes we’re focused on yoga, not aerial. Since yoga is a mind-body practice, and the hammock is simply a prop we use to enhance the postures, that means much of the focus of the class is on the internal experience. In aerial yoga, someone gets more advanced by going deeper inward, not by getting into fancier postures. So, I find it is possible to teach a beginner and a more experienced student at the same time, and to cue the more advanced student in a way that’s accessible to anyone ready to go deeper.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean it is easy to do! Mixing beginners with more experienced students presents many challenges, so let’s dive into them…

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Photo by Olena Sergienko on Unsplash

When you take yoga classes, frequently you hear the term, “grounding.” Which, is an instruction given anytime students are asked to press down into the ground and connect to the Earth.

The term may at first appear to be a simple direction to coordinate students’ movement and to help them lengthen their spines. But, yoga positions affect us in many ways beyond strengthening and stretching muscles, beyond creating beautiful sculptural shapes.

Any sort of physical grounding correlates with a “mental grounding” as well.

WHAT IS MENTAL GROUNDING?

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New video series alert! The Language of Metaphor

Definition: A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. (Grammarly.com)

In this series of short videos, Michelle demonstrates how we can use the hammock and a little imagination to help students dive even deeper into images, and layers of meaning each asana can hold, in order to assist their journey inward. More videos to be added, soon!

To watch and subscribe to our YouTube channel, click here: The Language of Metaphor Playlist

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It happens to all of us. The idea for a project arrives, we devise a comprehensive plan for its completion, we work diligently to achieve it, and SLAM! A wall stands in our way, stopping our progress.

Sometimes the walls that confront us are short enough and small enough to climb over, dig under, or walk around. But sometimes the walls are insurmountable, and we abandon the project. No matter the size of the wall, we need to make a decision about if and how we continue. How do we make this decision? How do we find the motivation to reach our goals when we encounter obstacles or setbacks? Personally, I like to use metaphors to help me through these decisions.

Let’s try an example together!

Okay. So, we’re on our way toward achieving some goal, and then, WHAM! We experience difficulties.

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Frequently, when I meet someone new, in order to begin to know me, they ask, “What do you do?” This question has always made me a little uncomfortable, and not because I regret the career I’ve chosen, or wish I could be doing something else. It’s just that the question is so limited. As a person, I am so much more than my job. And yet, the question is reasonable to ask. What else are they supposed to say?

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I don’t know if my grandmother was a singer all of her life, but she was a singer for all of my life. I remember an important part of her week was being in the church choir, even as she moved residences, and therefore moved from church to church. When I was in my late teens and early 20’s, I would sometimes go to rehearsals with her, because I also loved to sing. I sang in high school, so I could read sheet music and follow along well enough.

Grandma was a lover of the arts, but especially music. I remember attending several musical and theatrical performances with her over the years, from a local musical at Leisure World put on by residents, to regional shows at the Olney Theater, to national touring shows at Lincoln Center. All four of her children studied piano, she almost always had music playing whenever she was home, and she even sang a duet with grandpa as a part of their 50 year wedding anniversary celebration. Many of us did a short performance of some sort as part of the celebration, but of course, grandma and grandpa stole the show with their wit and comfort being at the center of a room full of loving friends and family.

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Sometimes my mind runs amok, galloping quickly, in a forward flight, at the speed of light. It reaches other universes, goes to other lives, far, far away from the here and now.

My heart wants to follow, accelerating, never getting close. My breathing accelerates, slows, is disoriented and decides to stop..apnea..the body gives in, surrenders. Impossible to travel so far, to other worlds, to other lives, to other wars. Impossible.

And I remember that I know how to go back. I just have to look for that lighthouse that will take me to solid ground, that will bring me back to the present. A less fractious, traveling part of my mind searches for the breath, concentrates on it and, like a lost ship, we return to dry land. I take a deep breath and return to the present. My breathing, feeling observed, calms down. The heart calms, always trusting the breath. In the present, in this life, in this universe, there are no storms. And, if there are, I am prepared to overcome them…

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