The joys of individualized yoga

After years of teaching classroom yoga, I'm finding that stretching my wings into teaching private sessions is really an amazing thing. I love teaching classes - big classes, full of energy and lots of people working together! I love it! But teaching individuals is altogether different and requires a big shift in focus. I had two very different private sessions this afternoon, and both absolutely flew in the face of what "a yoga class should be."

For example, one client wants to learn more - she wants to explore. She has a regular practice, doesn't need me for that, so suddenly, here is this marvelous opportunity to PLAY. So we played. We played yoga (which is how they phrase it in Thailand), and her beautiful children came up and played along too. It was wonderful.

My second client came in, and we were about to get started doing postures, when I realized that she wasn't breathing. Not as in she couldn't breathe and needed an ambulance, but that she wasn't really breathing and didn't really know how. In a classroom environment, we would have continued on, and she would have figured out how to breathe later on down the line. Hopefully. But today, instead of trying to do postures, we spent an hour just breathing. She arrived stressed, and left relaxed, and I felt good that we had done yoga.

How much of our stress is due to not breathing! And how much of our stress and not breathing is due to making that choice. I am recognizing in my own life that quite often, when I feel stress, I enjoy it. I prefer it. I don't want my stress to go away, because then what else do I have to cling to? How else can I be unhappy? I can't - I rely upon my stress to keep me safely numbed out and attached, and I choose to forget all of the tools I have at my disposal - breath, yoga, sunshine, good food. When I use those tools, my unhappiness vanishes, my ego suffers, and my soul is liberated.

The Sun is Rising

A record-breaking heatwave summer seems like as good a time as any to build a hot yoga studio in Austin! If only the air quality was better, we could all be doing yoga outside, all the time! Alas, the poor air and the very dry grass have put paid to the "Yoga in the Park" project - thanks to all who came out and enjoyed the fresh cool breezes on their faces while doing yoga with me! It was fun!

At this time, I am available to do private and group sessions of yoga at a Donation Rate - that means, you pay what you like for one-on-one, detailed instruction. This is like going back to the origins of yoga instruction, where the student would go to the ashram to work with the yogi, the master. I am no master, just a work in progress, hungry to learn, and ravenous to share.

I was reminded today by a good friend of the necessity of daily practice. What we practice daily, we master eventually. And just like our daily practice of the piano or any other skill, we also have to advance. It is not enough to do the same practice, in the same way, without pushing our boundaries, testing our limits, trying new things. We require the basic skills, and we also require new challenges.

And in order to advance, we all require a teacher. A true teacher is not someone who outshines the student in talent or ability, or even necessarily in knowledge or experience in all realms. The true teacher is one who can see the talent, the ability, the knowledge and the experience within the student, and help bring that out, inspire the student to progress beyond his/her perceived limitations. The teacher has walked a little farther than the student and can assure them that the way is clear and the path is safe, if not easy.

All of my students have been my teachers. I am so thankful for what you have all taught me during my career - patience, humility, gratitude, loyalty, love, grit, determination. You have all shown me such love; in all of my ambitions and endeavors, my only true goal is to share back with you the love you have given me. Today my student taught me the invaluable lesson of the necessity of daily practice and the value of a good teacher, and for that, I am extremely grateful. To teach is to learn, and it is the greatest gift that has ever been given to me. I look forward to sharing it with you.