Friday, May 20, 2011

TGIF - Wonderful Friday!

The end of week 5. Whew! :-)

I have to say that getting back to yoga has made this week SO much more bearable. Certainly I am feeling much more like my old self. My body is returning to normal, and it has been nice to wake up every day feeling sane and (fairly) rational rather than totally overwhelmed.

All you teachers who have been through TT will know that by week 5 peops are falling apart all over the place, so I feel I'm coping really well.
Watch out next week, 'cos I'll be back in full swing and ready to "charge forward" through to the end with my "smiling happy face", "chest open like a flower petal blooming"!

So, some notes from our latest posture clinic which was taken by Shelby from a studio here in the States (?) She was brilliant at getting people to try different things to bring out their personality and emphasized that WE have to be willing to get out of our comfort zone when teaching as we are asking all our students to get out of theirs and they will respond better to us when we do this.

She said we have a choice to be just another yoga teacher or a yoga teacher that yogis will make a special effort to come and take a class with. But its up to US to make that difference.

Needless to say I want to be the latter! HOW to get there is something I'm still working on though. Something Brandy said yesterday, (she is the current world yoga champion) was that we had to find what we liked about the posture and express that. Particuarly in the Floor Series as the postures are much less dynamic than the Standing Series so its harder to keep the students engaged and motivated to work hard.

Her advice was to record ourselves to see how we sound. Hmm....yeah ok. And that when we are saying the dialogue we have to really "go over the top" in our delivery - because chances are it will NOT sound as uncomfortable or over the top as it does to our own ears. Something I think I will try out in the privacy of my room before I let loose in dialogue clinic.... :-)

So that being said, I'm off with dictaphone in hand to go and practice delivering Pavanamuktasana / Wind Removing Pose. Though how I'm going to make a colon cleaning posture sounds exciting I'm not sure! LOL