Why I Teach Yoga
I’ve written so much about why I practice yoga I forget to think about why I teach yoga. No matter who I teach - runners, beginners, advanced - I leave feeling like I made a difference to someone else. That feeling doesn’t always come easy, but it does come. Today I attended a professional development workshop for a networking group I’m a part of and after lunch I was asked to do a mid-day stretch - off the cuff. I thrive off that. Why? Because no matter what I present to the students, people walk away feeling good.
Sure, there is frustration, feel sensation in the legs, arms, body that they may not feel on a regular basis. Yoga gets you into poses you don’t usually get into during your day. After all this time teaching I still look around wondering “is it too much? am I pushing too hard? They look so angry!” So I offer them a rest - a nice child’s pose.
When I teach I tune in to the students. I let go of my ego completely to be with them. I don’t practice, I demonstrate. I offer encouragement and I provide thoughts to help empower. Yoga is about building strength physically and more importantly emotionally. As an instructor I strive to get people out of their comfort zones, to feel something different, to relieve the body of tension, to relieve the mind of the chatter. I want to help them believe they have the power to do whatever they put their mind to.
There is nothing I love more these days than teaching a yoga class. I love helping people, I love introducing newbies to the power of the practice, and I love to push the advanced students to place they haven’t been yet. It’s a practice in itself to be a teacher. I have to separate from me and tune in to students. I learn something every time I guide my students through their practice.
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