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SPACE March WEEK 10
Practice Teach
Friday 11:30am - 1:00pm
Date: 3.8.24

Prep
What has been most transformational, or meaningful for you? What do you want more of before March 31?

Call Flow
11:30-11:45 am Openings: Butterfly Hug
11:45 am - 12:15 pm Talk Topics: Transformational Teaching
12:15 - 12:45 pm Forum/Conversation: What has been most transformational, or meaningful for you? What do you want more of before March 31
12:45 - 1 pm Questions and Closing

Openings: Butterfly hug
Look around and let your vision long and something neutral, something pleasant.

Create a safe environment for the nervous system
Orient students visually and audible.
Students cannot receive if the energy is not permeable, nor can you

Codify your articulation - find a way of saying what you want to say and say it in the same-ish way again and again. It is easy for people to tune out if they think they already know something. Trimming down language so it’s precise is important, but also transformational. Remember that practice is the ultimate teacher and the most important lessons come from an inner transmission.

Internal experience is your outward transmission - does that make sense?

Transformational teaching is a long-term commitment.

Time and repetition .. then the practice speaks for itself.
(I don’t have to be any good, I don’t have to be any good .. because the practice speaks for itself), all I need to do is have a practice, an internal experience and then let that come through. Not immediately. Like when you are talking people through a practice, which is were you all are now, I’m not talking about you being in your own practice while teaching and then just speaking that, but have a practice and let that internalize, steep, soak, settle, and then .. in time, open and bring that through.

Does that make sense? What part of that is helpful to you?

So the key is that there is nothing to manufacture.
When you are steeped in practice and you don’t .. - to quote Selena, who I think quotes someone else, I think Martin Shaw - Martin Shaw wrote a book called Scatterlings, just that name will tell you a lot about him. He has this very slow, meandering, way of telling stories where you might be thinking, what's the point, you have to hang in there. Which side note: I am very into right now, taking time, giving it time, meander, circle. “Be wary the quick route” so ..

“There is nothing to manufacture. When you are steeped in practice and you don’t have to be a “peddler of meaning. Meaning takes an interpretive heart.”

Technique builds competency and this frees the imagination.
There is no end game. There is not like a point where you reach absolute correct aligned pose, or a perfect technique where like your right foot is at a perfect 38.5 degree angle and the left foot in perfectly aligned, or like on the otherside your know is life way over your ankle, I’ve seen pictures in books where im thinking thats an interesting way to do that pose. No .. technique evolves, you evolve. Let the practice evolve you.

This can feel like a lot. Questions like “how’ come to mind.
The yoga mat, the yoga practice can be like a raft. One of things we can do through our practice and all that I have mentioned already is cultivate a nervous system that can withstand any disturbance or any catastrophe. There is constant disruption.

We want to be present for the whole experience. Where we cultivate, over time, “Grandmother, or Grandfather Wisdom (they start to look the same eventually, wink) - we start to see the BIG container.

Next key is do not look for your students to feed you.
In Level Two, it was back in November, .. I shared some of these keys from Roshi Joan Halifax, about edge states, do you remember? Before that I shared a quote from Dr. Martin Shaw, part of that quote was

.. (Tread carefully when you tread on holy ground.) We societally make fetish of the word transformation sometimes forgetting the question of “into what” on the other side.”

Ok going back to Roshi Joan. She defined edge states as states that are necessary for a compassionate, courageous life and teaching. They’re necessary for survival and they are precious resources that can become dangerous and cause harm.

The edge states are altruism, empathy, integrity, respect, and engagement “assets of the heart and mind that exemplify caring, connection, virtue, and strength”, and she says that we can end up sliding into the “toxic water”s of the edge states unless our footing is firm.

Altruism becomes pathological altruism, when our altruism becomes harmful to ourselves or those we serve. Rescuing, enabling. Or so we’re draining our inner resources because our boundaries fail. (I’ve had students where they want what I cannot or will not or have no business giving .. this happened last year (or rather the year before) where even as I held was good boundaries, this student I think was wanting me to give them what they wanted or was looking to me to provide that, when they needed to take steps themselves, not have me hold their hand.

Empathy can slide into empathic distress. Taking on too much suffering, identifying too intensely with the pain of others. Or unable to act because we’re overwhelmed. Again boundaries will be a salve here. We can learn to simultaneously have our eyes open to suffering and keep a lid on our limbic system. Have you heard that phrase,“Say hallelujah anyway” This means even in the midst, we can sing praises say hallelujah, we can still find joy, maybe in spite of global destruction, war, bombs dropping on children, families, anyone, land, turtles.

Integrity becomes moral suffering if we are out of alignment in pursuit of wealth or status or other things. Staying in your integrity.

Respect can disappear into disrespect when we’re in disparaging competition, jealousy, envy, etc. and we move away from kindness and civility. I do not want to hear you saying anything ill towards another yoga teacher or student. In fact I don’t want to hear that about anyone. Because curses. In Indian mythology, I’m in this study group about the Mahabharata .. just speaking the words will curse not only that person but like the whole village and every generation for all eternity. So have admiration and express that.

Engagement in our work can create purpose and meaning but if we overwork as teachers, if we work with places we don’t align with in our core values, if we lack efficacy, if we don’t tend to our own cup, we can cause physical and psychological collapse.

Love is the basis of transformational teaching, the basis of protecting yourself and your students, the basis of keeping your edge states clean.

There are the 4 Bramavihara (Divine Abodes) in Buddhism: loving kindness metta or miatri, compassion karuna, equanimity upekkha, and empathetic Joy mudita

Being a transformative teacher is this cultivation that your practice would speak for itself in the ways in which you offer your attention and respect.

Now some other considerations, again this is review
Theme: theme your classes with intelligence. Take a universal principle, personalize it, bring it into the body, and then universalize it again. I have been doing this with chakras for the last 7 months. My theme for each month is a different chakra.

Preparation: come prepared and with a plan.

Nervous System Containment: Open and close classes in the same way, Steady and ground your own energy first. Be trauma informed. (Justine Beck, who teaches at Arise is a trauma informed somatic yoga teacher and coach).

Studentship: Remain a dedicated student. For the whole of your life. Learn to ask better questions. Know you don't have the answers and know .. Practice is the ultimate teacher and there is no teaching as powerful as your inner transmission.

Do your personal work: Continue to explore your own shadow, stay committed to your personal work. Regularly check in with your intentions and motivations.

Finally, I want to quote Roshki Joan Halifax ..

"Viewing ourselves as “saving”, “fixing”, and “helping” others can feed our latent tendencies towards power, self-importance, narcissism, and even deception of ourselves and others."

Ok, now some more practical, not that these were not practical, but Schuylar Grant (she and her partner were instrumental in getting Wanderlust going, shared 11 Best Practices for Teaching Transformational Yoga Classes. She delineates between sequencing, languaging, and how to stay in the flow. So we’ll start with talking about sequencing.

Sequencing

Let there be a clear beginning, middle, and end. An arch with a an opening that builds to a peak the closes after a period of rest, a direction that drives the class and takes people on a journey
Theme your classes - don’t be random. Have a plan.
Don’t overload the body because that sucks. This might seem obvious but take the same about of time on each side so as not to overload the body. Let your sequencing be balanced, mindful, and intentional
“Keep your flow dynamic and your holds substantial”

Languaging

Say what you mean, mean what you say. Allow for a sense of arriving into a pose or place within the practice. Be judicious.
Give students permission and options - scale the rigor up and down and keep all levels in mind. Give students permission to serve themselves and to meet themselves where they are.
(Don’t use demonstrating and a cruch) You have power as a teacher, demonstration pulls focus (which can be valuable for a time). Use concise cues and info as to what you do when you arrive (and take yourself out of the visual focus). Let your intention be that you could become invisible and your students could just be listening to your cueing and know what to do.
Don’t be afraid to be quiet.It is ok to listen to yourself and shut up. Do you sound like the person you want to be? Silence is golden. When you are quiet, you let people have their own experience and you let them marinate in their own experience.

Staying in the Flow

Have all the props at the ready
Let the music be intentional - that has an arc as part of the class or neutral and bpm specific (40 - 60 bpm for slow, 60-90 for power flow). The rhythm of the music supports the temp or feeling of the class

How to win friends and influence people

More rest, a little bit more time at the end, be efficient in the beginning and provide a long savasana so that the whole experience is systematically restorative and students feel amazing

Helping, Fixing, and Serving by Rachel Naomi Remen, MD (KItchen Table Wisdom, author)
Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life.

When you help, you see life is weak when you fix, you see life is broken when you serve, you see life as whole. Helping and fixing might be the work of the ego and service, the work of the soul.

Service rests on the premise that the nature of life is a secret holy mystery that has unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that purpose. From the perspective of service we are all connected. Your suffering is like my suffering and your joy is like my joy, the impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing.

Serving is different from helping. Helping is not a relationship between equals. A helper might see others as weaker than they are, needier than they are. People often feel the inequality. The danger in helping is that we might inevitably take away from people more than we could ever give them. We might diminish their self-esteem, sense of worth, or integrity.

When we help, we become aware of our own strength but when we serve we don't serve with our strength, we serve with ourselves and we draw from all of our experiences. Our limitations serve. Our wounds serve, even our darkness can serve. My pain is the source of my compassion, my woundedness the key to my empathy.

Serving makes us aware of our wholeness. And it’s the power of wholeness in us, that serves the wholeness in others and the wholeness in life. The wholeness in you is the same as the wholeness in me. Service is a relationship between equals. Our service strengthens us as well as others.

Helping and fixing are draining and over time. We might burn out, but service is renewing. When we serve, our work itself will renew us. In helping we might find a sense of satisfaction. In serving we find a sense of gratitude.

What is most professional is not always what best serves and strengthens the wholeness of others.

Helping and fixing create distance between people and experience of difference. We cannot serve at a distance, we can only serve that to which we are profoundly connected. Tha which we are willing to touch.

Helping and fixing are strategies to repair life. We serve life not because it is broken, but because it is holy.

Serving requires us to know that our humanity is more powerful than our expertise.

All the helping and fixing leaves us wounded in some important and fundamental ways. Only service heals. Service is not an experience of strength or expertise, service is an experience of mystery and surrender. Helpers and fixers feel casual, servers might experience, from time to time, a sense of being used by larger unknown forces. Those who serve have traded a sense of mystery for an experience of mystery and in doing so have transformed their work and their lives into practice.

Forum: Now, I would like for you to share what has been most transformational, or meaningful for you? And what, besides technique, do you want more of before March 31.

Side note on cueing: placement/foundation, length of spine/space, breath - magic

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