Recently I was offered the chance to teach a small informal yoga class for some of my husbands's colleagues. It was flattering to be considered and I was glad that others were feeling curious about yoga and its possible benefits. To be able to inspire others about yoga through teaching would be exciting and gratifying- to spread my love of yoga. I am a teacher and I do practice yoga- I could do it. It would be outside my comfort zone a little in that I would be teaching adults and teaching something I haven't taught before to any great extent. It would be an opportunity to reach past my comfort zone. I'm curious about teaching yoga anyway- could it be something I could do more than part time?
However, I thought very deeply about the chance to teach this group and something was making me hesitate. Yes, it was a little uncomfortable, but I could work throughout that. I've been pushing my limitations and trying new things; I'm comfortable with being uncomfortable. At one point I had decided to go ahead and try it, thinking my hesitation was about feeling uncomfortable and I even felt pretty good about that choice- that I was meeting this opportunity and challenge. But later that night my concern grew quickly and acutely- I changed my mind and decided not to do it; that immediately felt like the right choice.
After some more thought, I realized that my choice was based on a deep respect for yoga. That teaching it, like teaching Montessori, requires the support of a complete and comprehensive pedagogy, including extensive training in the understanding and practice of the philosophy and strategy. Even for such a small beginners' group, those practioners deserve the same level of competency from their teacher as an advanced group does.
It has set me to thinking more about teaching yoga as a real possibility. I will keep meditating on that, make some pros and cons lists, think about how it might fit into or shape my life, talk with my husband . . . Maybe sometime down the road it will be something I will decide to do, with all the support of a proper training.
Martha, this is an important process to go through and to share...and I like the questioning it's led to for you. I have the same reservations about teaching myself, but I thought I would share a link to a recent post showing the other perspective:
ReplyDeletehttp://lifesaltar.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/buddhist-reflections-from-student-to-teacher/
You are sharing and teaching informally in this space and in your everyday life. A true gift! Perhaps at some point you will add to it the formal aspect too.
Thank you, Katherine, for that perspective. There is a leap of faith in oneself new (and seasoned) teachers have to take- I still make that every day in my classroom- and a willingness to leave oneself open. The process of coming to a decision about this little yoga group, I think, has been at least as important as the decision itself.
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