On teachers...

So, I'm going to BEGIN this post with my Yoga Minutes, for days 100-112!  Note my minutes over the first 7 days in particular:

 Grab-ass=not a helpful teaching technique...

4/14: 90 min

4/15: 75 min
4/16: 60 min

4/17: 90 min

4/18: 30 min

4/19: 90 min

4/20: 30 min

4/21: 90 min

4/22: 35 min

4/23: 90 min

4/24: 30 min

4/25: 30 min

4/26: 35 min

So note that on 5 of those first 7 days I did 60 or more minutes of yoga.  Does Jess have a life, you may wonder.  Amazingly, I do, but that's not my point.  What this indicates it that I went to a yoga class on each of those 5 days.  Here's what the numbers don't show: I went to 5 different teachers' classes on those 5 days.    

Yes, this is a lot of yoga, but that's nothing new.  But I don't think I've ever taken classes with so many different yoga teachers in one week before.  Now I take regular, weekly classes with two different teachers (Denise and Wendy) with the occasional Thursday AM with Rainey or Thursday PM with Meg tossed in for good measure.  These are all Anusara yoga teachers and they often take classes from one another, or teach together--frequently, in one week, Denise, Wendy, and Rainey all will give a lot of attention to the relationship between the pelvic loop and the kidney loop (I could explain these.  Really.  But I'm not going to, except to say that they have to do with alignment), but each teacher approaches the loops with different suggestions and uses different poses in which to apply the techniques.  Sometimes, I wish they didn't draw so much inspiration from this tight Anusara yoga community, but generally, I find that the subtle differences in their approach enriches my understanding of the principals being taught.  Generally, I like the crisscross a lot.

Likewise, it is often refreshing to go to a class outside of the Anusara tradition just to remind me of how many different styles of yoga there are, how practicing in a quick-paced flow class feels versus Anusara's slower pace (which does not equate to "easier," FYI), how each style/school of yoga emphasizes slightly different elements/principals, and how each requires a different kind of attention and care while practicing.  I learn a lot every time I practice yoga somewhere new with someone new.

But doesn't taking yoga classes at all these different places suck up a lot of money?  And really, after doing yoga for over a decade, do I really need that much instruction?  An article that ran in the New York Times this past weekend addressed questions such as these. I'll let you peruse the article if you desire, but here's the gist:

The article is about this yoga studio chain called Yoga to the People and its founder, Greg Gumucio.  The studio's mission statement/manifesto on their website proclaims, "There will be no correct clothes, There will be no proper payment, There will be no right answers ... No ego no script no pedestals."  The NYT article continues that there also are "no “glorified” teachers or star yogis. You can’t even find out who is teaching which class when, or reserve a spot with a specific instructor." (itals. mine) 

The seed for Gumucio's studios was first planted when he was studying with Bikram Choudhury, who advised him to take everyone's classes and report back to him.  Gumucio did so and was frustrated by one particular teacher.  Back to the NYT: "Mr. Choudhury was not sympathetic. Just the opposite, telling Mr. Gumucio to, in essence, suck it up and go back to the class — that the problem wasn’t with the instructor, but with Mr. Gumucio himself. “You are your own teacher,” Mr. Gumucio said he was told. “You are responsible for your own experience.”" (itals. mine)

I both respect and cringe at Gumucio's yoga philosophy.  I really like the no egos, no correct clothes, no proper payment attitude, because those are all things that keep people away from yoga who might really benefit from it and ultimately enjoy it. I know I get a little nauseated by yoga show-offs who occasionally come to one of the classes I regularly attend, and proceed to do insane poses with their body that aren't remotely like the poses the rest of us are doing, and of course they're wearing hipster yoga togs and are ripped like He-Man.  And I've put off buying a new yoga mat for 4-6 months now because they are ridiculously expensive.  I spend a TON of money on yoga classes--I don't know exactly how much, but it's definitely a four-figure amount.  I love the idea of yoga for all.

I also agree that you are your own teacher.  If something feels good to me, I'm sorry, but no teacher in the world can tell me that it doesn't.  Or if something hurts me.  I learn a great deal from my body every time I hit the mat.  I don't go to the mat and assume I know what I can and can not do that day.  I have to spend time figuring my body out, like the Sudoku puzzle in the daily newspaper. What's tight today, how tired am I, what does my body tell me now and what will it tell me in 10 minutes?  What challenges are reasonable to take on--which ones might I rock and which ones might be a little disastrous?  If I move in this way, I can bend more that way, but am I strong enough in that place to prevent strain in that spot?

 If I  listen to my body now, will I be able to do this at her age???

So, with all that I learn from my body, do I need to go to these classes?  I guess I don't NEED to, but I feel that I learn more from myself due to how much I learn from my teachers.  Does it have to be Wendy, Denise, and those specific teachers?  I guess not, but they are really good teachers, which means I learn more from them, giving me more to build on at home, so that I can learn more from myself too.  

These thoughts are in regards to where I am with my practice now, however.  This is very important to recognize and consider.  It took me years to build the understanding of my body that I have now.  I could not always tell when something hurt because my muscles were burning in a "good" way, and when something hurt because my body was bending beyond the point of safety and into the zone where muscles get torn and joints dislocated.  I didn't understand how to harmonize my muscles, joints, and bones to bend deeper, or anything about muscle energy and magnetizing my shoulders on my back, etc.  I had to learn the general guidelines and limitations of a reasonably fit human being's body, and I had to learn how to do all those poses, and do them correctly!  

My teachers were invaluable at that point in my practice.  I am so thankful to my first "good" yoga teacher, Jeri at the Moscow Yoga Center in Moscow, Idaho.  My very first two teachers were not good teachers; honestly, they could have been gymnastics or kickboxing instructors for all I learned about yoga from them. Only after I started studying with Jeri did I really start to understand what yoga was all about, and that I liked it.  The right teacher matters a great deal sometimes.

And per "bad teachers," well, they certainly exist.  At this point in my practice, if I run into a teacher who is questionable, I have the knowledge to tune him or her out during a class and just follow my inner teacher based upon the wisdom of my body in the moment.  I absolutely agree with Choudhury that I am responsible for my own experience in such a situation.  I am lucky that my very first teachers were not dangerous in their mediocrity, just not very helpful, and again, I'm so glad I studied with Jeri before I studied with the individual who I refer to as "The Yoga Nazi" because I could recognize that he pushed students in an aggressive way that risked injuries,  in addition to just not being very peaceful!  I wasn't a great student of myself yet, but I'd learned a lot to know when to be cautious.

In closing, I am thankful to my teachers and I am thankful for my body's wisdom and I am thankful for how my practice at home and my practice in class work in symphony together.  When I think of the interplay between the two, I can really understand and appreciate when my different teachers all seem to be teaching the same principal in their separate ways--this is the teacher inside each of them putting their own spin on what they've learned from those who teach them.  Just like I do when I come to my mat at home again and again.

Namaste!