Out of my Comfort zone

For the last 5 months I have enjoyed seeing the students of the level 1 teacher training grow and develop themselves into aspiring teachers. The process of becoming a yoga teacher is a process of personal transformation. It's a process where time after time you get thrown out of your comfort zone to do something new, something where you feel exposed and judged. This 'thing' that you loved so much (called yoga ;-) ) changes into something new and for a while most of us are not sure if we actually like the change... It's an amazing process to see and I'm very grateful to be able to guide people through this life changing process. I have to say that after teaching yoga for over 17 years it's very rare to be out of my comfort zone when teaching myself. I have taught many different groups of people including for example people with double hip replacements, people under cancer treatment, students with depression and severe anxiety, people with spinal injuries, teenagers dealing with addictions, women in all stages of pregnancy, mums with little bubs, and a group of rugby league players (quite likely the hardest group I've taught...). I trust my intuition and my preparation (where possible) and really enjoy dealing with these kind of deviations. Most of the time I actually see these students as as 'the cream on my cake'.

Ok so last week I taught and filmed my first online class. As I do, I was well prepared; I knew my sequence and the message I'd liked to get across. I had the right equipment and location, and some beautiful yogi's to teach... Nothing to indicate how terrible I'd feel teaching this class! I was so self conscious, heard everything I said back in my head, no idea how to position myself or how to address the camera. After struggling myself through this hour I had a stress headache and was quite disillusioned! I hadn't felt that uncomfortable for a LONG time! Even though I absolutely hated the experience, at the same time I loved it. I realised that this is how my level 1 students feel when they start teaching each other! After a bit of 'regrouping' I decided that this way of teaching my online courses is not really my thing. It doesn't feel authentic to me and so I have decided to do it differently which worked so much better for me :-) The result can be seen in my first free one hour online class and even though there's plenty of room for improvement I'm very happy with it. It would be great if you'd like to give it a go and I would love to know what you think!! Love and light