Teaching Yoga is like Ustrasana.

Teaching yoga is like Ustrasana. Ustrasana, or Camel pose, can provide 1 of 2 ‘good’ outcomes - the liberating in-the-moment-back-opening-feel-good ‘good’ or the exhausting I-think-I’m-going-to-throw-up-or-pass-out-but-I-know-this-is-good-for-me ‘good.’ For me, moreso than not, it’s the latter. And on the rare occasion that it’s the former, I bask in all it’s glory. As a newly certified yoga teacher - 7 months into my teaching practice to be exact - I find this analogy to be enlightening. In the classroom, some days feel good and some not so good. But all, inherently, are ‘good’ because I learn to breathe through my shortcomings and sacrifice the self. When energy is high, my students and I are on the same wavelength working, together, through the practice. Teaching is liberating. On other days - when the energy is low and my pace is off - my students look at me like I’m a nut. I have to stir up enough positive energy left over from the previous liberating class to pull us all through this next one. Teaching is exhausting. I need a really long Sivasana when I finally make it home.

In these early days of teaching, I’ve learned that the teaching is just as difficult as the doing. It takes focus, attention, discipline, energy, time. A day in the classroom, either teaching or practicing, can tell all: liberation or exhaustion. Is it me? Or is it just me today? Yoga tells me to breathe through it and next time, it will be better. It usually is.