Gratitude and my second class
(This is the walk from the reception at yoga barn to our shaala (शाळा) , our little container for the duration of the course. It's a lovely little walk :)
Mine (if you haven't guessed from the title of this post already) was Gratitude. What I'm writing here will be a part of my language at the class with my students and partly also my explanation and other tangents for why i ended up with this theme. I've often in life lost track of what I have, while I obsess over what I don't. And it took my months and months, of being consciously grateful everyday and for everything, for it be become a part of me and in my being and a part of everything i do. This is my main crib about Facebook. At one point in life, I was so obsessed over the things I don't have, the parties I don't go to, the vacations everyone but me seems to be going on, all thanks to Facebook. I'm not saying that needs to be the case with everyone and is definitely the relationship people have with Facebook, but it was mine. And I'm so glad I took the decision to quit and never go back. It was such a negative influence only because i was constantly concerned about all the things I do not have instead of thanking God and being grateful for all the wonderful things I do have!
And when i discovered this revolutionary way of living (well, it was for me) I try my best to share it with other people, and they often want to slap me. When you're sad, upset and going through a tough time in life, you want the other person to understand you, empathise with you, curse with you, not say : but look at all the good that is happening in your life. :| . Weird right? But it's true. All of us love to wallow in our own sorrows and how dare anyone try and get us out of our misery and offer help and make us count the good things in life, don't they see they're impeding the process i'm involved it right now : of un-counting my blessings. Haha. As pathetic as that sounds, it's true. Everyone goes through it. I do too. I try my best to snap out of it as soon as possible. But it's human. We are all a way involved in some kinda of self-destruction.
Emily said this to the class the other day, and it has come up quite often in how people react to love and happiness and their ideas of their own worthiness. And I've seen it happen with a few people. Sometimes with my thoughts as well. Whenever we are blessed with something nice, someone nice, say you meet someone you really like and things are going well for the both of you, you can't believe your own luck and good fortune and all this happiness. So you question it and then you proceed to destroy it, yourself. Have you seen that? I've seen that.
The quote I share with the class was one from the Secret. Remember that book that came out and everyone wanted to buy it because it offered, the answer to one of life's biggest questions. How can we all be happy and attract more happiness our way? The quote is about that :
"Gratitude is a powerful process for shifting your energy and bringing more of what you want into your life. Be grateful for what you already have and it will attract more good things."
And then I said...
"With that I invite you all think about that one thing you are most grateful for in your lives and send a small thank you out into the universe for it. Close your eyes and join your palms in front of your heart center and let's start class with the sound of one OM. For OM one long inhale.
And then we inhaled. I would love to share my detailed step by step instructions for the sequence that I had built for the students, but that was not the purpose of this class. And Emily had made that very clear. If we wanted to, we could just repeat the sun salutation sequence. The reason behind asking us to teach this class was twofold :
1) To help us understand how to theme a class and universalize it in a way your students can also relate to your own theme.
2) To make us more comfortable about standing / sitting in front of your students and leads a class. Which was the whole purpose behind Module I : to make us comfortable with our own voices. And to make us realise, that once you get over hearing your own voice, the class will just flow naturally.
Even something as small as starting the class with OM and leading people through that chant and starting the sound "oooo...", THAT itself can be so intimidating when you're doing it as a teacher.
What i will definitely share here is the asanas I chose and how I think that relates to my theme.
1) Cat - Cow stretch : I love this exercise, it's the best way to wake me up for a class. After all the hard work of waking up, getting ready, taking the MRT to the studio and then finally arriving on your mat, you still then have to wake up mentally. And this asana always, without fail, succeeds in doing that. I also added a shoulder stretch, where in a neutral all-fours position, you thread your arms, under the opposite elbow to twist and stretch your shoulder.
2) Pushing yourself from all fours to adho mukha svanasana (downwad facing dog). Walking your hands back to your feet and bending forward in a uttanasana (forward fall)
3) Rising up to standing with an inhale and ending in anjalli mudra.
4) Get flowing with 3 surya namaskars A, thanking the sun and being grateful for it's light and the life it inhales into us every single day without asking for anything in return.
5) Stopping at the adho mukha svanasana from the 3rd surya namaskar and waking up your core. Raising your leg up and bringing it in to meet your nose, raising it up again and bringing it in to meet your opposite elbow, raising it up one last time and bringing it in to meet the same elbow.
6) Inhaling, raising the leg up and stepping forward in a crescent lunge, looking up, and sending your gratitude to the north.
7) Bringing your palms to heart center, in a namaste and twisting, getting the opposite elbow to touch the front knee, with your hands still at the center of your heart. Sending your thanks to everything the universe sends you, through this direction. Repeating on the other side to thank the opposite direction.
8) Coming back to crescent lunge and going down to plank pose and chaturgan-ing your way down to a vinyasa and coming into a tadasana from adho mukha svanasana.
9) Coming into Garudasana or the eagle pose and then coming into a variation, bending down and touching your elbows to the knee that is below, so that your finger tips point down, thanking mother earth for everything it sends you from the south, for the very ground we stand on. Repeat with opposite leg on top
10) From a vinyasa, come to sitting on the mat in a padmasana (lotus pose) or a simple cross legged position and go into yogi mudra, bowing down and touching your forehead to the earth, thanking all the yogis who've come before us.
11) From here, lie down in Shavasana.
12) Extending your body from both sides, wriggling your fingers and toes to wake them up and slowly turning to your right, almost like waking up in the morning and with that calm maintained coming into a seated position.
13) Bringing your palms in front of your heart, thanking yoga for everything it has given you, thanking your fellow yogis for sharing your energy with you and lastly, thanking yourself for you dedication to your practice.
14) Closing class with the sound of one OM, for OM, one inhale.
15) Namaste
Ta da! haha. I know I said, I won't write the detailed version of the class down, but when I start writing I can't stop. One of my many weaknesses! So there it was, my first themed class. It was a lot easier to write it, than to stand up in front of those three students ( Mie, Sarah and Mary) to actually TEACH!
It was lovely experience though, and after sometime, like i said before your voice and your instruction just flows. Preparation though is of SUPREME importance. At least in the beginning I feel. I am so glad I took time out in the evening to think about my theme and be genuine about the meaning it has in my life, looking up a quote that I connect to, and not just cut copy paste from the internet and then look for asanas that mean something and bring in their own beauty when added to the overall theme of your class. And all of this in a way that makes sense to everyone you might teach the next day!
Bookmarking that thought in my mind, i take your leave.
Namaste
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