Lessons from Locket
I am sitting by the fire looking at the snow-covered trees and the ice-covered roads, deciding it might be safer to postpone my walk with Locket this morning until the roads can melt a bit. Locket and I are adjusting to our new routine here which requires more leash walks in town than she had in rural Colorado where she ran a lot off-leash in the mountains. In addition to her daily walks, we have been playing training games together and she has a training-based day care she has been going to for fun, socialization, and stimulation. So, in the midst of moving in and getting settled into our new digs and getting re-established in my weekly classes, I have been focused a lot on my dog and helping her be successful in her new environment.
Training a dog is a great reminder of patience, repetition, consistency, and small steps toward a goal or desired outcome. Training Locket specifically is a great reminder of how important fun is in the learning process. Locket is a sensitive dog and seems very skeptical when I express too much enthusiasm or when I coax her too much. She simply shuts down. But when I make the training a fun, engaged experience and she performs with joy, delight, and skill.
One of her first trainers told me that, while negative training methods born from the dominance model of canine/human relationships can get an immediate result, dogs commonly break down or exhibit anxiety manifestations over time from being repeatedly forced into submission. This notion got me thinking about my own process of training through various techniques and schools of transformation. Up to a point, attempting to force myself into the boxes of “good yogi” or “great practitioner” or “good wife” or, well, fill-in-the-blank with any role that comes with a litany of culturally-determined imperatives, bore some fruit in terms of immediate relief of suffering, stability through structure, and the confidence that comes from setting and achieving goals.
After a point, however, the dominance model— be it authoritarian teachers, high-demand communities, or internalized self-imposed strictures— was decidedly not useful for me and, like a dog who is made to submit becomes anxious over time, I found less joy, more pressure, and a need to rebel from what had previously felt like a saving grace.
As 2020 comes to a close, I am grateful that the time off the road brought me to my mat in such delightful way time and again. Livestream classes with students have been a source of fun, connection, and joy in both my own practice and with my teaching work. The strong work of the Int/Adv Back Bending Series and the Asana Junkies Courses kept me challenged and after several sessions of the 75-minute class formats, I am reminded of how much can get done in small installments over time.
I figure I am pretty much last in line for the vaccine and so it is a good thing that I enjoy the livestream format, since I do not see an immediate end in sight. I am starting a 12-week back Bend series, continuing with Level 1/2, Asana Junkies, and Level 2/3 in the new year. I am offering a teachers program on Yoga International in January and scheming on some other projects. So all that is in motion. My plan is to go back a few steps in each situation to help new folks develop some foundational poses and principles we have been building via Livestream and to move the classes forward so that returning students continue to develop.
On the interior, I am taking Locket’s training to heart and reminding myself that just like dogs need good leadership and compassionate guidance to thrive, I want to study, practice, and grow under my own kind and compassionate leadership as well.
2020 has been a helluva year, as we all know with losses, challenges, and upsets of all kinds. And, for many of us, there have also been silver linings, lovely surprises, and new possibilities. If there is any theme that seems to have emerged this year, it is both/and and the ever-present invitation to hold the tension of both/and as creatively and compassionately as possible.
All right, that’s what I have for today. More soon.
Keep the faith.
