Weekly Newsletter

Are Your Clients Making Progress?

Namaskaram

This week I have been thinking of my practice and my own progress through the years as well as looking at my clients, their limitations and how I can continue to help to deepen their practice on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level.

I think on a deeper level it comes back to having a great sense of compassion for ourselves from day to day and towards our students in what they are feeling and how their bodies are physically changing.

Osho, one of my favorite writers has a great book on compassion. Today this quote resonated for me.

“Nobody is separate. When the illusion of separation drops, compassion arises. Compassion is not a discipline.” –Osho-

He has many great books on various subjects ranging from compassion to creativity to fear to jealously. They are simple, easy reads but often lead to profound thought. I often give them to clients. This is one I really recommend:

The other day I was at one of my clients house teaching a session. At times his wife will pass by the room, stop, stare, pause and then usually put in her two cents about her opinion of her husband’s body and the pose he is in at the time.

Sometimes it is positive but usually, it is quite negative. My client usually ignores her comments and remains focused but if she says something offensive or unsupportive , usually it will cause us to have a moment of discussion.

He was doing ardha chandrasana against the wall. As with so many of our clients, this one has very tight hips. It has been a work in progress since we started and he has come a long way but we still have to continue to open up that part of his body.

His wife remarked that he had no external rotation of his hip. Then she asked “ How long will it take for him to do that pose better and have more rotation.”

I saw the sour and annoyed look on my clients face and decided before a war broke out I would quickly answer the question and lead him back to the privacy of his mat. My reply was “Well, he has come a long way since he started. It depends on the person’s body. It could take one person five months and another five or more years. Part of your yoga practice is being ok with how your body is and knowing that in time with consistent practice and patience and compassion, your body will change and adjust over time."

My client then turned to me and asked me how long it took me to get into crow pose. I said “Wow, I can’t even remember but it was a while. When I first started practicing yoga it took me a year or so just to understand how to breathe in co-ordination with the movement.” I reassured him to not look at where his body isn’t but how far has actually come. Even as teachers, I think there are many moments in our own practices where we have to come back to a beginner’s mind.

In the past six months I have had to have a lot of compassion with how I have had to modify my practice and honor my body and all of the changes it is going through. When one can look deeper into our individual need and not practice from where we think we should or want to be that is a surrendering to the spiritual practice of yoga.

Lately some of my clients are frustrated with their bodies and how they are feeling. Some days they feel like they are going backwards rather than forwards.

I remind then that everyday is different. Some days you wake up feeling great and loose and other days you feel extremely stiff and like you are 30 years older. But just the fact that you came on your mat and showed up, however your feeling is what being in the practice means.

Harlan is doing a weekend training in San Francisco with Shiva Rea this weekend. Tomorrow they are doing a fire practice which includes 108 prostrations or push ups.. He is tired and sore. We spoke earlier and he mentioned he didn’t know how he would get through it as he is still sore from the fire practice we did the day before he left. I told him to take it easy and not to think he had to do all He may need to modify them and only do half the amount. Nobody is keeping tabs on you my dear Harlan.

With his type A personality, I think it is his lesson to sometimes know that less can actually be more on so many levels. Enjoy!

[Note from Harlan: I survived and didn't need to modify them.]

Dream, create and continue to inspire.

“Love is the sound between the sounds, the eye in the midst of the seeing. Love is who we are and how we are and why we came to be.

Today-and always-remember that love is at the center of you. Of everything.

-an exert from 365 Days of love.

Om shanti,

Hari Om,

Love, Sara.

What's The Worst Thing That Happened To You As A Yoga Teacher?

Hey everyone. It's Harlan and I'm in San Francisco airport on the way home from my yoga teacher training. This was the last module of my 200 hour teacher training. That's right folks - now it's down to the paperwork and I'm on to the next level of the journey.

With Shiva Rea as my "river guide," I've been enjoying the growth and I'm looking forward to continuing to grow.

Take a deep breathe. Your jobs are safe. I'm not planning on giving up my career as an Internet marketer to teach yoga. :-)

During the training, Shiva asked the class for questions of what was the worst thing that happened to them while they were teaching a yoga class and what did they do.

Here were some examples:

Example Number One:

A man came late to class every time and insisted on a position in the front row.

He disrupted class when he came in and didn't have a good sense of balance. In addition, he very often did his own thing in class and was a distraction when he did something different from the rest of the class.

Example Number Two:

A make student came to class wearing loose fitting shorts and not wearing underwear. During the class, he frequently - shall we say delicately - became exposed.

Example Number Three:

During a teacher training, a class member who had strong personal issues came late every day and did not participate in the practice. During every opportunity, she explained what she would have done instead. The class objected to her presence as a member and wanted the teacher to force her out.

Please join us on our forum and post your suggestions and your own horror stories and what you did.

Here's where to go:

What Would Your Do?

Om Shanti Shalommmm,