First Real Yoga Class

So, like many of you no doubt know, I’ve started teaching yoga. I’m working toward 20 hours of teaching experience. Once I get the requisite hours I will be able to take a teacher training. My mom will be in charge of this 102-hour training. It’s broken up into three separate weeks starting in June.

In an effort to fulfill these necessary hours I’ve started to teach private lessons and one beginning level class. I’ve done a few privates, however, last Friday I taught my first class.

It was an experience. I loved it, no doubt about it. But it definitely pushed my abilities. Leading people (six in this case) through these poses was not easy. You have to learn how to speak clearly and concisely. You have to be able to demo the poses while also talking people through them.

It’s a skill.

And, like the saying goes, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”

Teaching that one class taught me more about what I don’t know than anything else possibly could have.

Now when I go to my mother’s classes I have a much deeper appreciation for what she is doing. She makes it looks easy. She makes it look effortless. It’s not. It’s a skill, an art that has to be developed.

In addition to showing me what I don’t know, teaching the class also confirmed what I had already guessed. I love teaching Yoga. Something about the interplay of physicality and mental understanding just really lights me up. Being able to inhabit my body while also showing others how to inhabit their bodies in this form known as Yoga is just so much fun.

I feel so lucky to be able to be part of it.