30 day yoga challenge

One of the studios where I teach has just run a 30 day challenge. I found it really hard. Not because I participated myself but because I kept getting drawn into conversations I didn’t want to have about it with the students. The judgmental part of my brain just wanted to laugh out loud at the very idea. You really want to know why I’m not doing it myself? Let me count the ways…

But I’m a professional. I’m hired to teach anyone who shows up. I don’t get to pick my students, not should I of course. So I opened my ears and listened to them. If I am to meet them in their practice, it would help to know more about their yoga, not to impose my yoga.

So over the course of the weeks I gently probed their motivation for taking it on, their expectations and their fears, how they navigated the ups and downs, and what they learned along the way. And of course it was amazing. For the students I talked to, it wasn’t the superficial frenzy of mindless class attendance that I had irritably assumed. It was a balancing act of life and yoga, energy and enthusiasm; I heard about their courage to try different styles of classes and to experiment with practising at different times of day. They met new people on the same challenge, they gave and received moral support, they saw more possibilities in themselves than they had before. Who could object to any of that.

Plus they boosted attendance in my own class which is not the most popular on the schedule 🙂 Of course, even I could be grateful for that! And they were so inspiring I like to think it helped soften my rigid and judgmental attitude.

Though not sufficiently, it must be said, to stifle my sardonic laugh when one of my teachers then gave me a 30 day challenge of my very own! Not studio attendance, not 108 sun salutations or any of the yoga clichés I like to stand against. No, my 30 day challenge is to chant the so’ham mantra daily using the traditional Vedic tones.

How hard can this be? I regularly chant before my meditation practice and this is one of my favourite mantras. Or at least it was! Suddenly imposing this on me as a daily ritual has brought out my rebellious streak. Currently I’m fighting against it, sulkily fulfilling the letter not the spirit of the practice.

I am laughing at myself as I fidget and wriggle in discomfort at the request to ‘obey’ this gentle instruction from a teacher I like and — I like to think– I respect… And it’s OK. Within 30 days I think I’ll settle in, stop resisting something I genuinely want to embrace. The ego will eventually take a back seat, once it’s gone through the usual pattern. Samskaras, kleshas, the deep wounding of past disciplines and punishments. My authority issues. My need to fight.

This work isn’t like that. The outcome won’t be a confrontation, I know my efforts will be lovingly received. Support and help will be readily offered. My patient teachers keep their judgmental attitudes much more under check than I do. I have much to live up to.