A Teaching Moment

I'm not sure what a pigeon has to do with anything,
 but I took this picture and I like it.

If you follow me on Twitter or in real life, then you'd know that I've passed my certification for yoga teaching!  Anyway, I have been teaching family and friends throughout my training, but had not taught strangers in a class...until yesterday.

My planned debut was actually supposed to be next week, Hosh, a non profit karma yoga studio where I normally practice.  (I will still be teaching next week, probably Wednesday morning, so stay tuned for announcements!).  When I found out I was going to be doing a trial class for Hosh, I decided to stop by Yoganesh where my teacher training had been held, to talk to one of my teachers about it.  Yoganesh is also having a crazy $30 for 30 days of yoga deal right  now*, so I decided to stop in and have class and maybe a chat.

I got there a little early for the 12:15 Lunch Express class and sat talking with with the lovely owner of the studio, Norma.  A few minutes before class starts, I ask where the teacher is.  Norma hastily makes a call and it turns out that the instructor was in Massachusetts!  I tell Norma that she should teach the class instead, and she said, "No, you should teach the class."  So I did!



As I said, I have been practicing with family, friends and my fellow yoga teacher trainees, but I always had planned ahead for those sessions.  This was an impromptu class with people I had never seen before!  Thank god my sister made it to the class so keep me grounded. I wound up teaching a very Vinyasa class, as I figured that is what people wanted for a short lunchtime class and one person had requested it.  I normally don't like traditional Vinyasa classes because I find Sun Salutations repetitive and kind of boring, but I had a lot of fun figuring out variations to teach on the sequence.

Overall, I think it went pretty well (not to toot my own horn, but toot toot).  I spoke with some of the students after the class and it seemed like they had a good time.  It's funny how teaching feels comfortable and almost natural now.  Even though I had no advanced warning about teaching this class, it felt like I was slipping into my second skin when I sat on the teacher mat.

I think sometimes jumping in is the best way to go at something, and I believe that this is an auspicious beginning to my yoga teaching path!

*Seriously guys, take advantage of this deal.  Yoganesh is a wonderful space and has lovely team of people that teach and run it.