Teaching What is in My Heart

My current yoga read is Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life by one of my favorite authors and yogis, Judith Hanson Lasater. Judith has been a yoga instructor since 1971. Although I started practicing yoga in the early 1980s, I've only been teaching yoga since 2014. As a relatively new yoga instructor, these words (on page 132 of her book) spoke to me...

"I like to say that I teach for myself and practice for my students. What I mean is that although I certainly pay attention to the needs of the students, I teach what is in my heart. I try to let go of my fears that I might not be teaching what they want or in a manner that pleases everyone. Instead, I offer the teaching as my gift. In order not to get too impressed with my performance of an advanced pose or too depressed about my physical limitations, I try to focus on my personal practice as a learning experience that will allow me to share yoga more purely with my students. This attitude helps me remember to teach and practice in the spirit of service."