Yin like never before.
This evening I taught a class of amazing students... and the first one was me. I was entering the class to teach as a substitute teacher and left as a much more fulfilled student of the Universe. After coming from an event where my energy was very low, a feeling of awkwardness was settling into my bones and I wondered what I was going to do to bring about peace for the 11 students I was about to teach. Could I muster up the focus needed to bring about inner harmony or inner peace for each of these people?! Make that 12... I was one of them.
I welcomed each one joyfully and with a broad grin on my face. I was, as my teacher and mentor mentions... “fake it till you make it” ... although I was only half faking it. I really was beginning to feel more excited about where I was. With each hello I fell into a new groove deeper and deeper. I resigned myself to the new energy that was starting to build in the class... peace.
Beginning by sitting on my mat at the front of the class with big breath... I asked the question: Who knows anything about the Shakuhachi Flute (Japanese flute)? With no one hand going up, I knew I that my students were in for a treat. I do now play the flute yet, but I do have a lovely sound recording of the flute playing that I had wafting on the sounds waves behind my voice as I described the way the flute is played and the reason for the breath... in and out, and the ......... pause ......... between each.
My next question to each of them was... where is the pause in your lives? Where do you feel the Prana (life force energy) in each of your lives that sustains you just as the notes are sustained in the playing of the Shakuhachi? The class went smoothly and effortlessly without any nervousness on my part. I felt secure in the movements I was asking my students to move into. Giving variations for advanced poses and adjustments for those with more limited mobility. Everyone was seemingly blissified at the end of the session as I had more questions and more compliments than I have ever gotten before in a class.
Even this morning was a breath of fresh air as I guided another sub-ed class for my friend Chris Brandt of meditation. Tonight’s class was a premier of my combination Yin-Meditation that I will be launching this week at Prana Yoga Studio. And it was the confirmation that I needed. It was received with open minds and hearts. Flowing this energy not only lightened my spirit, but also those of everyone else in class and I realized that I DO have something special to offer (a fret in my life on and off when I feel like I’m not realizing my potential and not stepping fully into the light)... I am a teacher. Maybe not a teacher as defined by society dictates by having the proper paperwork, but by the way in which my passion reaches out to share information to all those that are seeking to know more... expand past their limitations and to embrace the amazing energy that we all experiences every day of our lives.
Teacher, student... student, teacher... I am and always will be.
Image: Inner Peace - Debbie Miller (amazing artist)