Balance: quiet vs. talkative teachers

One of the studios in my area recently sent an email to all the teachers.  It was about increasing class size and schedule changes.  This email also mentioned the feedback from students was that there is "too much talking and not enough moving going on."

Well that's not good. It seems that the teachers may be losing people by offering too much explanation of the philosophy and detailed alignment explanations. After that I started paying more attention in my own teaching to how much I was talking in class. Was I offering ANY quiet time, other that in Savasana (the final relax pose at the end of class)?

Before I got into the world of Anusara I did two teacher trainings in Seattle. Most of those trainings where about how to get people into poses, sequencing, anatomy, and the Yoga Sutras.

There was little training about how to MUCH to talk, reading the room when people might need a space to just be quiet.  Also there was little about the conservation of words. You can say more about alignment and phiolsphy if you can get people in and out of poses in less words.  The best thing I got out of Anusara teacher training was this formula:

Verb, Body Part, Direction

For example: Step your right foot forward, stretch your arms up, or hop your feet forward.  This is clear and gets new teachers away from "Your gonna step your right foot to the front of the mat, and then...." Just simply tell me where to go.  So how did we get from this to too much talking?
Easy: John Friend does it.  He fills each asana, each moment with his 30 years of knowledge and passion.  He could weave a heart theme, inspire me to move deeper into Triangle pose, and talk about community at the same time.  It was powerful. I am not John Friend, and my students are not like me.

I teach full time, and am single.  I spend my day mostly alone, sleeping, eating, working on my computer, writing, or teaching. For those few hours a day that I am in the studio/ gym I am happy to chat it up in class, before and after class. This is not the day most of my students come from. Theirs is a world that is busy, full of meetings, children, more meetings, lectures at school, so they need QUIET.


What I need and want my students need are different things. My students need a space to move and let the yoga speak for itself. And doesn't the feeling, the experience of yoga tell you most of what you need to know anyway? Don't you already know that yoga calms the mind? Don't you already know that you are part of nature? Don't you already know that yoga connects you to something bigger?



I hope you do, if not keep practicing. 
"Practice yoga, and all is coming!"

Changes 2012

The school / system / organization called Anusara has kicked out the founder John Friend. About half of the teachers have left.  I'm not sure where I stand.  I'm not sure what to do.  I became an "Anusara- Inspired" Teacher in the fall of 2010 and now less than two years later, I feel like all I have worked for is gone.  Yes the teachings I still have, but if it doesn't continue as a school of yoga what do I call my classes?

So what do we do when something we have no control of changes? We hang on.  We hold on to what we know. Yoga feels good. Yoga takes me out of my head, calms me, and inspires me to be a better person. It has healed me.  I used to have trouble sleeping, stress headaces, that is gone.  I used to have intense sciatica-like hip pain, that is gone.  I can more than touch my toes, do cool back bends, handstands (at the wall) and that's all nice.  It just feels good to move with the breath.

Beyond what it's done for me physically - it's connected me to me.  The more I connect to myself less I care about what others say and feel about me.  The more centered I become the less other people's drama gets in.  Conflict, disagreement, arguments, controversy, it's part of life.  We all come from different backgrounds, want different things, have different ideas of how to get there.  Difference is good, challenges are good.  People who see the world in a different way, challenges our view.  This is our "off the mat" yoga, to see the challenge, the annoyance, the other side, and not let it rock our steady foundation.  The word ASANA yes means pose, Trikonasana, Three angles Pose, or Triange Pose. But if we dig deeper we find it means "mastery of sitting still". That is being still when the world around us changes.  To see someone else upset and not let it upset us.

So when it gets challenging this it when to return to the mat over and over.  Keep connecting with that which is always there, your breath (thank god), that for today I can still do downward facing dog, that if things are tough for now, at least we know they will keep changing.

Hang on. Just Breathe.

Namaste,

Alice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asana