Today I really noticed that I have a lot of work on letting go as a teacher of yoga. Often my mind attempts to make judgments when students seam to be non-compliant, that is to say they are not doing the postures that I am asking, or they look frustrated or bored. Even though I know logically that for so very many reasons a person may choose to not do a posture and they might be dealing with some heavy issues that make them seam like they are unhappy, most likely it has nothing to do with me or with the posture.
Enforcing my vision of the Yamas and Niyamas on another goes against the very principles I am attempting to cultivate. I consider ahimsa to be acceptance, and I have to accept that others are going through crap that I am not privy to and if its about me than I am bound to find out without having to assume all about it.
More often than not as a practitioner I can just stay focused completely on my own mat, although aware of others around me I am intent on my own personal practice rather than observing others and their practice. But as a teacher you have to be aware of others in their practice. I don't for a moment believe that a posture must be done in a particular way for it to be correct other than that it feels correct to the practitioner over time. I support natural and authentic movement. When we start to get into refinements like the heel must intersect the arche of the foot in warrior 2 or the foot must be turned in 45 degrees in warrior 1. I can not find anything that holds up to peer reviewed scrutiny that actually supports these thought processes. They work for some and dont work for others. There are 8.4 million possible combinations to put your body into and many are detrimental combinations for you but helpful to another. Acceptance.
I am considering to make public each of my yoga teacher training notes as I complete each weekend of teaching. Will have to go through them and clean them up.
Metta!
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