Four Ways to Make Your Yoga Class Better for You

I recently started teaching a combined chair and gentle yoga class.  There are many abilities in the class, and it's the most difficult class I have taught, I believe.  I'm trying to satisfy everyone... trying to ensure everyone has a 'good' practice.  I have some students from previous gentle yoga classes who have returned because they like my style.  But this class is different.  So I'm trying to give them the experience they've had before.... yet it's a different class.

Every class will be different anyway.  Because there are different students.  Different moods.  Different energy in the room.  The teacher changes and evolves too.  After two classes, I've decided to stop trying to make the class the 'same' as before.

That said, there are ways to make your yoga class experience better if you feel it's not the experience you wanted.  I think these ideas are valuable for any yoga student in any class.

1. Drop expectations.  We enter into experiences thinking something will be a certain way.  When it is not the way we expected, we can feel disappointed.  Yet, it may have been a most wonderful experience if we did not have an expectation of it in the first place.  Allow the experience to be whatever it may be.
2. Pay attention to your breath.  Yeah, we say this in class over and over.  But if you find yourself judging the class or your self, come back to your breath.  Where do you feel it?  What rhythm does it have?  Does it speed up or slow down during certain poses?  Curiosity of breath will help you tune in to your own experience, rather than your mind being occupied with judgment.
3. Practice body awareness.  No matter what kind of class you are in, movement of your body will result in sensations.  Tune in and identify where in the body you can feel poses, what the sensations are, where your 'edge' is, how your body automatically moves, whether aligned posture is maintained throughout class, if/when you feel unpleasant sensations, etc.  Your practice is your own.  You do not and will not look like others in the class... so stop trying to look like them and find what your own body needs and wants.  That's where you will benefit from the practice most.  The teacher cannot know what you need.  As a student, your practice is to listen.
4. Notice reactions.  When you did not hear the teacher cue/say something, how do you react?  What do you do?  If the pose the teacher is teaching does not feel good, what is your response?  Did you know you do not have to do anything the teacher says?  Do what feels right for you.  Change or adapt if you need to.  If you do not know how to and the teacher is ok with questions, ask.  If it's a class in which distractions are limited or discouraged, simply sit or stand in a relaxing pose until the next teaching is right for you, and ask the teacher after class how you can adapt a pose that is not right for you.

If you are practicing all of these, you will be practicing yoga.  You will be benefiting.  It is when we fall out of these above practices and into judgment that the class then can become a 'bad class'.  Of course, you want a skilled yoga teacher, too.  But if a teacher is qualified, you can still have a beneficial class even if you do not like the teacher by following these four practices.

Namaste,

Tina

When the pancake burns

This winter past was crazy full.  I was barely keeping my head above water, although it was all good stuff, and I was happy to have it all in my life.  In my past, this was the norm.  I thrived from the busy-ness. 

Life has changed.

I still have a Type A attitude in me... but it does not work anymore. 

The craze lasted about five months, then my oldest daughter came home after a very difficult internship.  My emotions were certainly triggered during her time away and I was relieved she was home.  For the next few weeks, I tried to tend to her needs as we prepared for her upcoming wedding, after which she moved away again to finish her next degree, and I started to unwind.

I began a program for adrenal fatigue and burn-out (which has haunted me for years) and I stopped eating chips!  I 95% quit caffeine.  I went to bed between 8:30 and 10:00.  My energy slowly began to rise, I lost the pounds I packed on during the winter months, and I felt 'in the flow' again... nearing normal.  Pain is still there (and worsening), but higher energy made it possible to incorporate more physical exercise into my day.  I told my husband it is the least stressed I've felt in a long time.

My business is in a steady state - not growing due to me returning to school full-time in September do complete a Master's of Education in Counselling Psychology.  Yes, I'm pumped!  But I had several events scheduled for May that just landed in my lap.  I was grateful, to say the least.  Life seemed to be working its wonders since last Fall, and I truly felt like I was seeing success after success for the first time in years.  My 40s were a hot mess, as one of my students likes to say, and I was sooo done with that.

Then Monday happened.

My oldest had come for a weekend visit - well, it was really for a wedding dress fitting:)  I decided to make pancakes on Monday morning before she left for her long drive back to school.  My seven year old had to leave for school at 8:30, so breakfast was to take place at 7:30.... I had to be up by 6:45 to get ready. 

I slept in...

It was a rush, but everyone enjoyed the pancakes and many hugs were shared as my seven year old said good-bye to her sister as I walked her to school.  My phone ringer was turned off, but as I was going through the door, I noticed two missed calls from an unknown number.  I thought it was strange for calls that early in the morning, but I figured if they did not leave a voice mail, it was not important.  And I carried on.  When I returned, I poured a decaf coffee and sat to my computer.... it was going for 9:00.

An email.... from the person who had hired me to speak at her organization's conference breakfast.... that morning... at 8:30.

Yes.  I missed a speaking engagement!

Sweet lord.  I have never done this.  I have had to cancel things.  I have had to find substitutes for things.  I have had to decline things.  I have even missed meetings and called in advance to say I would not be there.  But I have never just not shown up for something like this.

I was all a fluster, but I could only imagine how this lady felt when I was not showing up and not answering my phone!   I wanted to fix this for her.

Well, she managed to figure it out on her end.  And I tried to help on my end with some offer... and I began the descent into self blame and shame.

This is where my mindfulness practice came in.  I felt the stress growing.  I could not fix it, and it was all my fault, and I messed it all up, and I felt like a failure, and someone had actually recommended me for this engagement, and I let them down too, and I lost the money, and my reputation will be ruined, and, and, and..... the self-criticism and negative thinking started to spiral.  And then I texted my soul sister.  And she laughed.  And I texted my husband.  And he said I'll be laughing at this in a few days. 

And I smiled.  Not because I messed up.  Not because it was not important.  But because it was done.  And I could not control it.  I still felt compassion for the event organizer, and I offered something to make up for it.  But feeling shitty about it was not fixing it.  So I smiled. 

Then I went to the kitchen and there was a pancake in the pan... which was still turned on.  And it was burnt.  And I laughed.

I'm thrilled that I can laugh at my imperfections again.  I'm a fucking normal human being.

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Learn more about the 5-week Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation here: Introduction to Mindfulness Meditation.  Classes begin July 11th!  Register at tina@pomroy.ca.

Love... Repeat

It's Love Day, and people who know me know that it's one of my favorite days of the year.

I often write on Valentine's Day.  I like to spread my love vibes around.  In our society we are often on the chase for something new, something better.  Yet, love is old.  It's done.  It's there all the time.  True love messages are repetitive.  So we skim over them without sinking into them.  We don't always walk the talk.  But, love is far from boring.  Love... meaningful love.... IS what brings joy and wow to life.  So, I'm repeating my past messages here.  I'm reminding myself that I do not need something new.  I do not even have to write a new blog.  I do not need to chase.  I can simply remind myself what really counts and re-share my past blogs <3

Last year I wrote about my solo love-in on Valentine's Day called Redefining Love Day.  It was about self love and acceptance versus external love and acceptance.

In 2016, I wrote about A Yogi Valentines.  It was about... yep.... self love.

And in 2012, I wrote Presence for Presents.  It was about celebrating love with presence.

I invite you to revisit and repeat the messages.  We can never have too much love.

"Love is the bridge between you and everything."  ~Rumi