The Greatest Gift You Can Give is the Gift of Health

Teacher Training is in full gear.

We are beginning each day at 7 am with a vinyasa yoga practice, so they can experience the poses we work on later in the day in an embodied and flowing way . It seems like every other day the energy shifts. The first day, there was excitement and energy, the second day they were droopy. The third day, bright again; today not so enthusiastic. Of course, I'm 'in it' with them, so I'm working hard to be certain that I'm not projecting my energy level on to them. For my yoga teacher training friends, we've moved into an exploration of the Virasana family, and so today's practice involved Parsvottanasana, Parvrtta Trikonasana, Natarajasana. We don't have a great selection of props: a few zabatons (meditation cushions) and plenty of bath towels, so we've had to improvise the support for virasana and revolved triangle.

Today they practiced teaching Lunging Surya Namaskara(s), too reluctant to give up their scripts. There was plenty of laughter in the room as they split off into 4 groups, and they seemed quite energized by the challenge. Today they also collectively realized HOW HARD it is to teach yoga! Anything done well looks easy. Now they know how high the bar has been set. I have full faith that each one of them can realize this goal, as long as they are willing to work hard.

After work I took a "pranayama (yoga breathing techniques) and meditation" class. The teacher told me he was a Doctor in the South of India, and now is living in Dubai teaching yoga. He said the greatest gift you can give anyone is the gift of health and vitality. I love looking at the 'job' of teaching yoga as that: the opportunity to give health and vitality. I was the only student for this one-hour class, and he seemed really happy that I was there. He said he's been to my website, and I think he may want to come to Wake Up Yoga to give Ayurvedic consultations and workshops on pranayama and meditation. He ended up leading me through about 75 minutes of pranayama, offered in a very different method than I'd ever experienced before, and then a guided savasana (relaxation). He talked me through relaxing different parts of my body, and before we even left the right leg, I was 'gone, daddy, gone.' I drifted to that really sweet place that's not connected to form and enjoyed that journey. Since I am so fired up to be doing what I'm doing here, I'm not really in touch with how much energy it consumes commandeering this training. It was quite refreshing to let go for a short while. Happily, I sneaked back into my body just as he was telling me to wiggle my fingers and toes, and I don't think I snored at all! He wanted to lead me into meditation at this point, but Raju was downstairs waiting for me. I promised the teacher ... whose name is Panda, that I would practice with him again, and I yawned the entire ride home.