Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Learning How You Teach

It is such a gift to be able to try to teach others how to teach.  I am not sure this can actually be done, but it says so on the brochure of most teacher training schools.

When we make the effort to explain what we do, we get to see it for ourselves.  This mindfulness creates a deeper relationship as well as shifts the process.

Today I realized that I teach asanas from internal actions.  I am totally unwilling to just suggest the name of a pose, without tuning it.  This is time consuming and results in too much talking, but it also results in a room full of poses that are dialed in from the inside and relatively comfortable and clear for the peeps attempting them.

But as I try to share these actions with the peeps in the Winter Teacher Training, I am not sharing them so that they will repeat them verbatim.  I am hoping, actually, that they will use them to start to internally map within their own bodies and bring forth new language.

In attempting to assist others on the path to teaching, all we can do is share everything and hope some of it is useful.



1 comment:

Kit said...

Yes! I've realized that I rarely use the names of asanas...but that I ask for movements and internal sensations that turn in to yoga asanas. Posture names are great shorthand but can lead to habitual movements ("this is the way I ALWAYS do triangle pose") rather than moments of exploration always arising. Lovely sharing Kira.