 There’s a dirty promise lurking in the world of Instagram. It says if you practice yoga in your underwear in your kitchen, drink green smoothies from glass jars, and have a mala to match each phase of the moon, you will have “made it.”
Your life will be perfect. If you become a teacher, sponsored by a yoga apparel company, adored by followers, you will find peace. Your anxiety will roll over and die. While you might know that these things are not true, you might still hope they are. You might play along, “just to see” if it does actually work out. (it won’t). BUT WAIT. That’s actually ok. It’s ok to want everything to work out, and while apparel sponsorship might get you the equanimity you desire, I find I feel just the same amount of wonderment or disdain whether I was paid to wear the pants or not. I have always had anxiety. I have always practiced yoga. My anxiety is incredibly productive. She can juggle insurmountable tasks, and when left unsupervised, will create more chaos and work than she could ever accomplish, out of self preservation. Is there anything else in the house that could be alphabetized? ARE YOU SURE??? If I don’t practice yoga, she starts to get the upper hand. And she’s pernicious. I lose track of this sometimes, as a teacher. Sometimes I forget that teaching yoga is not practicing yoga, and if I teach and teach and teach at the expense of my practice, I find myself overcome by tears at a rest stop, starting a meditation timer to try again. And again. And again. And so I’m writing to tell you that this is the game. I still sometimes wake to the strong-willed toddler of my own inner neurosis, and by sometimes, I mean often. But I know what to do, and I’m better at remembering earlier. I have more tools, more friends, more guides. It used to take me until 3pm to remember that eating helps, or that phoning a friend is better than mining Facebook for real connection. Go to class. Start the meditation timer. Find a cushion. Lie down. Repeat. Lately I feel like a wet and wandered dog stumbling into a class. The teacher thinks I’m there to evaluate them, or believes because I have taught for a long time that I’m there to judge. “I just need to practice,” I have whispered. Because I don’t care if it’s a “brilliant” sequence, or a “great” soundtrack, or “stellar” adjustments. I am just trying to surrender to my human-ness. Yoga classes are like 12 Step meetings and chocolate chip cookies: even a not-so-great one is still pretty good. Almost always worth it. Because life continues to unfold after you get the letters, the gold stars, the sponsorship deals, the writing advance, or whatever it is you’ve told yourself will be the line of demarkation beyond which you will have made it. Life will not get easier. You will just get better at it.
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 I recently had a rough flight. Bumpy landing. Maybe lost a wheel or two. Maybe refused an oxygen mask in lieu of muscling through impossible circumstances. But the flight is over, and we’re walking away, and I find I don’t need to talk about it anymore.
(This is a metaphor). The last chapter of my life is in the crash-landing position, heaving, with its head between its knees. Wondering which way is up, and if there is a ground, and if we’ll make it. Simultaneously, I have become terrified of flying. I do it anyway, and pretend to be cool, except when I also jump six inches when someone taps me on the shoulder with pretzel mix and a napkin. (Who eats pretzels with a napkin, the Queen?) When I start to panic, I listen to Jaya Lakshmi & Ananda Yogiji, and in my fever, often have a visual of a plane full of white ninjas, the Kundalini tribe, chanting, smiling, and washing their cares away in that sweeping motion - arms over the head. Wahe Guru. Mantra. The power of words, intention, repetition. It gets me through the flights, and it’s getting me through this. (I think I can.) We start teaching mantra for a the same variety of reasons we teach anything: we saw someone else do it, we think we’re supposed to, it’s on a list of objectives provided by a studio, we want to be cool, we actually understand and like it. If I teach mantra, it’s usually dividing the class in three and starting the right side first: “Row, row, row your boat…” Which, as it turns out, is a pretty decent mantra. In my class we bless the rains down in Africa. We howl with Shakira. We groove with the X Ambassadors who believe we are SO gorgeous, and we like our sugar with coffee and cream. Thoughts become words, and words become actions, and this makes words a really interesting middle man between what you’re doing (actions) and why you’re doing it (thoughts). Yoga says change your words, change your life. (I’m paraphrasing). The genre and the language are less important than your connection to the meaning. When you are in the Seat of the Teacher, you are flying the plane, my darling. Your thought-mantra gets blasted over the PA system while the message you’re trying so artfully to convey with your spoken words can get lost. It’s a lot of responsibility, and it starts with you. Mantra is your oxygen mask. It won’t teach the class or fly the plane, but it will help you think clearly. (Don’t forget it). |
PROGRAMS for Yoga Teachers:YIN Archives
September 2019
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