It's been a while since I've had a class with Danielle, and it was quite nice. Lenette and Janna were both taking, and its always good to have instructors taking class. For some reason, it just seems to pump the energy way up.
Class was very normal for me. Nothing was particularly outstanding like Sunday's balancing series. And nothing was very far off either. My back was limiting me just a little bit, but its no longer a matter for real concern.
I'm still a day behind on the meditations. Yesterday's meditation was about how, when we start a practice, we must follow the guidance of others. But with thought and dedication, we can gradually become our teachers. I've always thought that that was the point of just about all education. And good teaching program will lead a person to the point where he can start to teach himself. So I'm left wondering what this observation has to do with yoga, except that its as true there as elsewhere.
I was going to go on to today's meditation, but I read it and I'm going to have to think about it some. So, still a day behind.
2 comments:
One of my teachers is always saying that you are your own best yoga teacher, and I've read this in other yoga books as well. I think the idea is that your body will show you the way, but my observation has been that your body's instructions should be in sort of a partnership with the external instruction you receive. This is really no different from saying "listen to your body."
So I guess I'm saying I've never given much credit to the idea that you are your own best yoga teacher. I listen to my body, of course, but a lot of times I'd just be doing poses the wrong way. How can you keep from getting hurt if you do that?
This is one of those "one day, eventually, in the future" type things. So, when I get to the point where my spine is perfectly flat from the base of the skull to the tailbone in Wind Relieving pose, by then I may also be my best yoga teacher.
On the spiritual side, the parallel I guess would be to trust your heart, or your intuition, or maybe your conscience.
There are people in class who seem to have no body awareness whatsoever. I've seen people get corrected on the first set of a pose, on the most basic alignment issue, and then fall back into the mistake immediately going into the second set. Or people who are told to stand with their feet together, heels and toes touching, and they have no idea that their feet are four to six inches apart. The question for a good teacher here, is how do you get someone to "listen" to their body, when they appear to be deaf? What will trigger the W-A-T-E-R moment that might open an entirely new kind of language and experience? (And I sometimes feel like I could use just that sort of awakening.)
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