Yoga Journal #14: Habit forming
Had a different teacher for practice today – enjoyed her class although Holly is probably still my favourite?! (if there is such a thing in yoga!?) Super interesting that some of the yogis really liked when she said “breathe in for nothing” – (I guess it helps you keep track of where you are as a teacher?) but for me that wording doesn’t fit well because ‘breathing in’ still has a purpose and is always for something (oxygen/life/general staying alive) – even if there is no specific movement connected to it.
I think it’s really good to analyse these things now before I start picking up habits of saying things that i’m not consciously choosing to say – feel already a bit like that with “tuck the pelvis under” so want to stop that before it becomes a habit.
Loved the class because it was a bit more challenging in terms of “fun’ stuff like arm balances/crow etc – but I think that the whole yoga journey is actually teaching me to pull back a lot more and rather just be completely “in” the more “mundane” yoga. To quote Holly “it’s not WHAT you do – it’s HOW you do it.”
Learning all the standing sequence + finishing sequence – has made me really excited for my home practice – because now I feel like there is a bit more structure to everything.
We taught a partner this evening – I taught Diouldé and felt ok with it. Teaching yoga is definitely much more difficult than the teachers make it look and I think that it’s definitely easy to get caught up in what to say or to give too much information – It’s REALLY helped that I’ve had two days of teaching Warren the Sun Salutations – felt confident with that – even though I feel like I’m constantly repeating myself.
Am setting myself the task this week of learning the sequence of the standing postures.
The timing was good for my teaching practice – so felt happy with that – even though I left out a pose and had to go back!
Also want to learn the pose names for all the standing postures – will be this evening’s work – No TV Monday is actually rather a good thing – soon to be joined by meat free Monday… hehe…. maybe.