Advice to New Teachers: Yoga is on Our Side

Yesterday I wrote the entry, Advice to New Teachers. This entry is the second installment in the series.

My social media feeds are filled with training courses for yoga teachers that use the word “creative.” From sequencing strategies to props, from mythology to psychology, and from fitness moves to trapezes (which do look very fun), everywhere yoga teachers turn they are encouraged to keep things fresh, innovative, and entertaining. And look, I get it. I love variety as much as the next person. And, since I generally tell the truth on this blog, I might as well own up to the fact that my own course descriptions have used the word creative more than once.

So, yes, for creativity. I’m a fan. 

Of course, the shadow side of this marketing stream is the likelihood that most of us have internalized the message that repetition is somehow boring, that unless we constantly entertain our students we will become irrelevant, and that unless every class is inspiring, we will slip into yoga teacher obscurity. (Or some variation on that theme with greater or lesser degrees of drama, depending on one’s temperament and disposition on any given day.)

The truth is that at the heart of practice is repetition. (Remember Mr. Patanjali’s definition of practice in 1:14?  Repetitious acts done over a long time with reverence are the stable foundation…)  And  repetition is well, repetitive.  So, boredom is something we all contend with in our life of practice and in our  life of teaching.  In fact, developing a mature relationship to boredom, by which I mostly mean developing a capacity to tolerate it to some degree, is essential for  reaching   any goal, completing any project, and staying the course in any meaningful endeavor.

The good news is that the subject of yoga is inspiring, the process of learning is inspiring, and gaining new insight is inspiring. I say this news is good news because if the subject is inspiring, then  our classes, our teaching, and/or our personal contribution doesn’t always have to be.  Just this week I have been living in an ongoing  epiphany of an instruction I have heard and have taught for over twenty years, “Make your inner body bright.” Coupled with a few other instructions like “take your thighs back, make your spine long, take your tailbone in” which have been around since the dawn of time, I am finding new access to poses in which I have been stuck. Nothing new and totally new; boring and fresh all at once.

When I was a little girl I used to complain about being bored. My mother, in her infinite wisdom and low-tolerance for complaining of any kind,  would tell me, “Only boring people are bored.”  They say our parents are the first guru we get in life and that teaching could have come straight out of my guru’s mouth, to be sure. But I digress. 

So, look, I love inspiring teachers, I adore getting new information,  and learning environments that offer me access to expanded understanding and increased  proficiency are more valuable to me than I can articulate here in under 1000 words. That being said, I do not consider it  my teacher’s job to keep me from being bored. As a student, it is my job to stay in place, to do the same thing every day in the face of boredom, and to engage the practice in such a way that the creative process emerges from within me. (And yes, for  beginning students a little entertainment goes a long way, but if we are twenty years into things and we still need to be charmed into staying in place, we might have a little work to do learning to tolerate the afore-mentioned boredom. Just sayin.)

So, on the days we  are inspired, creative, and fresh as a teacher, great.  If we are lucky enough to be someone for whom that state arises frequently, we should count our lucky stars. Most of us are going to teach on good days and bad days. If we walk the  lifetime path of teaching, we will teach through heart-break and joy, through betrayal and reconciliation. We will fall from grace and we will be redeemed. We  will teach  through long stretches of burnout that feel as barren as the desert and we will be present for others in moments of exaltation where the shared,  living Presence in class has us all knocking on heaven’s door.

We will teach through it all.  

And, regardless of how we feel on any given day,  the yoga is on our side. For longer than any of us have been alive, these teachings have the lit a pathway for humans to follow from darkness to light. Whether it is breath-based movement with awareness, mantra, meditation, or simply being in the company of others who share a similar intention, yoga works and yoga is on our side. 

And sure, yes, I know things go wrong and problems abound. That is a different entry for another day. 

Keep the faith. More soon. 

I was reminded of this teaching in my most recent conversation with Britt on our podcast. Check it out.