Teaching

I taught! Well, I guess I’ve already taught 5 yoga classes in Abilene for subbing (one entirely on the fly). But now that I know more, I am teaching better!  I just finished my second teaching class today! So now, I can sit back and coast, learning from others! Ahhhh.

As part of our training, we teach two hour-fifteen-minute classes and get critiqued by our students and by our two teachers. It’s really wonderful for helping one improve because there’s a lot of things you do without even realizing it. Plus, it’s much better feedback than someone simply not coming back to your class!

Our teachers here want to work on our language and keep yoga more refined. Therefore, we are not to say “butt,” “those,” or sound in any way like an aerobics instructor. Additionally, speaking in commands, rather than “and now we are going to lift our heads…” brings more authority to one’s teaching (and eliminates pronoun confusion – whose head? our head? do we share a head? …you see what I mean.)

Anyway, I got some great feedback and I know that my instruction will only get better with practice. It’s still a little nerve-racking, but I talk myself down by saying, “hey, this is your job! do you get nervous when you go to work? no… so go to work!” It helped today. Everyone says I don’t seem nervous at all – but I know my teaching is FAR better with less nerves.

I’ve got some great stock phrases for you! Some of these I’m totally adding to my bag of tricks and some are just fun!

Imagine your sternum is the spine of a book and your ribs the pages. Use your shoulder blades to push the pages back opening the spine of the book.

Soften and melt between the shoulder blades.

Float back to chaturanga (push up position).

Windmill the arms.

Rainbow the arms.

Inhale like you’re breathing in the smell of chocolate.

Support the muscles with the breath.

Breathe into your neck, hips, arms, etc.

Bring your awareness to your hamstrings, IT band, latissimus dorsi, etc.

Spiral the back foot to the floor, squaring the hips, inhale and lift into virabhadrasana I.

Sweep through to cobra, opening the heart.

Exhale, hollow the belly and swan dive to forward fold.

Microbend your knees.

Take it to your edge, but don’t jump over.