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October 14, 2014

Why I Stopped Going to Yoga Workshops.

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Given free reign I could easily have been a workshop junkie.

I love yoga workshops. Besides the exciting buzz in the room and the camaraderie amongst the friendly peers, I love hearing what teachers from all over the globe have to say.

Teachers who have found their own unique voice and have used their business smarts and the law of attraction to put themselves on the lucky list of travelling yogis who people line up to see.

A new perspective can open our minds and our bodies. Education is not about filling a pale but lighting a fire and going to yoga workshops and being presented with a class that has been meticulously planned and executed: the fires are certainly bright.

What’s not to like? If you are lucky enough to live in or near a city with a strong yoga community these events are pretty regular and unlike costly retreats, a couple of classes are usually pretty affordable.

So why did I stop?

Because I know enough.

Now, please don’t mistaken this comment as arrogance. I am not saying I know everything, far from it.

But I know enough.

As a person: I know enough to bring my practice back to the simple art of living mindfully. As a yoga teacher: I know enough to really dedicate myself to bringing my own unique gifts to the table. Running around the place looking to others for inspiration was keeping me from focusing on my own particular set of talents.

I have devoted my life to yoga; practicing, teaching, learning, reading, writing, studying. I have been living and breathing yoga for over 13 years now. Just like so many of us in this community and no different to any of the big name teachers travelling the scene.

I started to examine my mindset heading off to these events. Why was I going, what did I hope to achieve and how did it effect me after?

Firstly there was always a degree of fear of missing out (F.O.M.O.) that kept me going back for more. As teachers, we are forever students and I am hungry to learn. But what yoga has taught me is that there is more to learn from walking down the corridor of a hospital, or watching children playing in the park or chatting to an elderly person—indeed from living each moment fully—than an adjustment technique in a yoga workshop with a famous teacher.

Not to discredit any teacher, or any message they have: but after so many years of taking in the messages, it was time for me to start living it instead of learning it. The messages haven’t changed—it is only delivery that varied from teacher to teacher.
As a teacher myself it was time to focus on what my message was.

I am not for a second suggesting that our education should stop. I strongly believe that as teachers we have a duty to continue to learn and grow and train. But what I’ve learned is that you don’t have to spend your weekends traipsing around a plethora of yoga studios and following the big names in the yoga industry to keep your education up.

And then there is the never satiated state of the human ego. ‘I am not enough until I have mastered x, y and z pose. I don’t know enough until I have studied with so-and-so’. Where does it end and when does it stop? When can I put my hand on my heart and say ‘I am enough’ and bring that into my classroom with me. Because if I can’t say that, if I can’t show up and really believe that of myself, then I am a poor example to my students.

For now you will find me in my own studio, exploring deeper my own knowledge and my own experience. Learning to move just like me. Learning to teach from my true authentic self—that is all I can do.

We all have wings, we were born with them, and if yoga has taught me anything it’s that no one can take us to the sky but ourselves.

 

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Editor: Renée Picard

Photo: Wikimedia Commons 

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