Tuesday a.m. class:
Class was full, not much space. Lots of smiling faces. The class before was over 5 mins late which gave us a late start. Funny, no room up front for me to put my mat down except just in front of the stereo which means no one can see me in the mirror should I do a posture example. Started class with a breathing exercise, which I have heard many teachers do not do at the gym, but regardless of where it is taught, breathing is the foundation of Yoga and we are not really doing Yoga if we are not breathing properly. So I do it anyway. Class seemed to go well. I explain that a Mudra is a sacred hand gesture with a purpose. You don't go to reach for something over head on a shelf and kind of bend your arm and have a weak wrist and make a feeble attempt to take whatever your reaching for down, so why would we do a weak armed overhead reach? In ½ Moon Standing I have to continuously remind people to extend the arms and grip the hands. It is a challenge as an instructor to know when to shut up and just let some in the class do the postures incorrectly. That explains why when I take some peoples class the instructor just says three or four generic instructions and then are quiet and ½ the class is doing the posture incorrectly and potentially hurting themselves.
I was inspired to teach Warrior three on the right side in the flow and forgot to instruct it on the left side. So my class is probably feeling imbalanced all day and wondering why they are walking in circles…joke. Wonder why everyone claps at the end of Yoga, feels awkward to me as if I had just done a performance. A thank you means so much more, not to be ungrateful; it just does not seem to fit with Yoga.
