Thursday, August 26, 2010

Thursday

Today has been fantastic so far. I got up early again and got some reading done... I'm reading the Chip Hartranft translation of The Yoga Sutras... the Sutras always bring me back to a simpler place in my practice. Lately I have been feeling so cloudy and muddled with my teaching... the last few classes I've taught have felt a little stiff and stale (totally NOT what you usually aim for when teaching OR practicing!) and I've been hard pressed to figure out why.

I think in a way all the info around "how to teach" can have the opposite effect it's intended to. In any given class there are hundreds of things you can choose to emphasize. I have caught myself leaving out whole portions of practice (like crescent lunge and its variations, for example) during a class and getting way too hung up in the minutiae of other parts. I have no idea if students clue into this but at the time it happens, I am sure that my confusion is noticeable which of course adds to the problem!

What this is, in effect, is making the teaching about me, not about the student. Don't we all fall victim to this from time to time? Have you ever caught yourself in a moment of complete and utter egoism? You hear the words coming out of your mouth but it's almost like it's another person speaking them. It's so annoying!

Anyway, I had the absolute joy of practicing at home today with my friend Candy... our meetups always recharge my batteries so to speak, but today we actually practiced together and told stories and gave suggestions for things to do, making the practice very organic and alive... just the way I love my classes to feel. Sometimes we get so stuck in ruts with our routines, the same warmup, the same standing poses, the same balance poses, the same floor poses, the same cues in savasana... but today was fun. So fun that I'm going to use some of what we did in my class tonight. :)

This afternoon I went and ran some errands and then came home and worked on a craft project I'm doing... I'll post pictures when I get a chance and the project is done...

Tomorrow J and Michelle and Wendy and I are meeting at different times to discuss Project Yoga Richmond and the direction we want it to go and the ways we want it to get there. It's a busy time, but one I welcome!


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