my yoga journey
My class laughed when I said I was going to miss them while I'm away for a few weeks. They often laugh incredulously at the things I say. They don't believe that I will actually miss them, just as they don't believe that teaching times are my favourite times of the working week, that I... Continue Reading →
Had we but world enough and time ..... But at my back I always hear Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; (Andrew Marvell) One of my teachers asked me last week how my own teaching was going. "Really well" burst from my lips before my usual reticence caught up to the conversation. "As far as I... Continue Reading →
Facebook just alerted me to the fact that it's been two years now since I obtained my yoga teaching certificate. So I've been teaching that long! A 'time flies' moment if ever there was. How can I have learnt so much AND so little in this time? I remember one of the things that vexed... Continue Reading →
So guru purnima is coming up and this is always a time of year when I take a little more time around and through my practice to reflect on my teachers, what they offer me, how I respond to that and how I might carry forward their teachings within my practice -- or not (yet).... Continue Reading →
I was talking recently with a student who volunteered that she finds meditation in noisy places easier than in silence. She has stopped getting up so early for practice because she found the deep silence too difficult, whereas the noise of rush-hour traffic was much easier! I've found this to be true for myself too.... Continue Reading →
So I just gave my Second Ever Yoga Workshop today. I'm feeling super-proud and a teeny bit accomplished! But I'm keeping things really modest, baby steps and all. The groups were really small, a handful of students each time, and the second workshop was essentially a repeat of the first for those missed it. Repetition... Continue Reading →
Holding space. It's an expression that pops up a lot in yoga, as perhaps in more directly therapeutic work. I guess the idea is about creating a safe container for someone, to allow them to have their time and space. The teacher's role is to provide the context for the examination but not the answers.... Continue Reading →
I walked in on coffee-time conversation at work this week, with colleagues discussing how they hated the fact that the gym instructors don’t actually do the class themselves. The point was that they just didn’t believe some things were possible. The teacher screams at them to do another set of reps, to go deeper, push... Continue Reading →
I was listening to a couple of really established international-circuit teachers talking recently on a podcast about how when they started out they offered their teaching for free, then asked for a minimal contribution from students, until they were ultimately kind of pressured into asking a proper fee. It sounds very noble. But I get... Continue Reading →
