{"id":23190,"date":"2019-07-18T23:35:53","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T06:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/?p=23190"},"modified":"2019-07-30T10:15:13","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T17:15:13","slug":"do-you-want-to-be-a-good-teacher-or-a-popular-teacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wagayoga.com\/blog\/yoga\/do-you-want-to-be-a-good-teacher-or-a-popular-teacher\/","title":{"rendered":"“Do you want to be a GOOOOOD teacher or just a popular teacher?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

she would say, repeatedly.\u00a0 Ideally … both ?\u00a0 But if a teacher was as detailed, in today’s social media crazy world, reality is that students walk out or rant nonsense on Yelp, no matter how much of an expert a teacher may be.\u00a0 It’s true – as for so called “popularity”, in many cases, it’s sometimes just about the high-usage time-slots and the attitude of “just give them what they want” mindset that may prevail in the gyms and studios that wins over.\u00a0 It is a practice not to fall into that ego-laced trap.<\/p>\n

I hadn’t been to a yoga class lately so I walk into local gym with minimally trained yoga or less seasoned instructor (everyone has to start out somewhere and I may have been guilty as well) who has 30+ packed bodies in the studio room, shouting out scripted cues that may or may not make sense relative to that unique individual, nor truly … serve each student’s needs to optimize their health.\u00a0 More than quarter of the class seemed to be barely keeping up and more than half, noticing poses are in need of adjustments but … there’s none offered\u00a0 … Maybe with the endorphins rush, the students may feel like they got what they needed – a temporary fix and a high but … was that really yoga?\u00a0 \u00a0Just like for your child, you want better teacher\/student ratio in that classroom, right? ; it’s really no different with a yoga class – unless of course it’s a practice not training and you know what you are doing for the most part; and there more for the “vibe” of a group class.<\/p>\n

So it’s about the intention of every class.\u00a0 Yes, that is good for your health – to be in a community to practice your yoga – to breath the same air; to feel each other’s aura, feel the vibrations … the energy – it’s about the ripples of human connection – it’s always about energy.\u00a0 Maybe it’s enough for me as a teacher to just hold space of camaraderie\u00a0and safety – after all, it’s about sustaining and supporting repeated practice in continuum that’s essential.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Did someone mention she was a bit … intense?<\/p>\n

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Here I am in Anjaneyasana (AHN-jah-nay-AHS-uh-nuh) – Cresent Lunge – prep – I love her guidance in the use of props – Iyengar influence throughout – but it’s vinyasa flow too just to heat up our body furnace:) So get your legs\/hips to that place of strength and balance before you raise your arms, okay? Yes learning about my own body’s idiosyncrasies, learned that my arms are a little short relatively for the floor reach with natural ease\u00a0 – I am not going to collapse my stance, I am getting the earth to meet me; not the other way around of straining to reach, thus, ruining my hips and back and chest – basically, the entire upper body alignment.<\/p>\n

None of us are looking at the mirrors that surrounds us.\u00a0 Rather, we are directed to see our reflections with our own proprioception.\u00a0 It’s a training to avert our eyes away from the mirror to look inside – as we grew up checking ourselves in the mirror with the rhetorical – “do I look alright?”\u00a0 “is anything wrong with me?” “am I presentable?” hahaha – it’s all about the exterior image. (And as Judith Lasater used to say, the teacher holds the mirror where we see ourselves reflected. Comfortable or not, she shares the truth.)<\/p>\n

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Tuck in the tailbone … not\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\"\"It’s about the “lift”:)<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bridge Pose moves the heart closer to the mind\u00a0\u00a0\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s also all about safety and … patience. Patience with ourselves we find so many faults with – those self-defeating questions and self-doubts:<\/p>\n