Post Script
It's about 24 hours after I posted the 5-minute rant.
I walked over to Saptaparni, one of my favorite locations in Hyd and also the place that first trusted me enough to begin teaching. I was there to sign up for a [hopefully] phenomenal workshop coming up next week.
Last evening, I began teaching at Est, a popular gym started by the cricketer Azharuddin. We're running trial classes for a week to see if this could click. I never thought I'd teach at a gym, it's really not the ideal environment. But last evening, during the 3 classes that we ran through, about 20 gym junkies (men and women) gave it a try. I've NEVER had this much fun in a yoga class.
I watched them stroll into class with a wee bit of condescension written all over their face. "Yoga, ha. Too slow. What can it do for me. Fine, I'll try it. Let's see what she has to offer." One character walks up to me and says, "Look, I know your yoga is for mental peace and all that, but let me tell you, mentally, I'm solid, I'm SO fine. If you can help me physically, then, ya, I'll try it."
Hmm, how do we go about this?
Switching gears, I immediately shifted into bossy-bitch-mode and kicked off with 10 sun salutations and 40 minutes of non-stop movement. I walked around, stamped my foot, yelled across the room (hey, if BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois can do it, why can't I?) and tried really hard to keep them from constantly looking at themselves in the mirror. At the end of the class, when I opened the floor for questions, they couldn't stop talking. I drove home with a satisfied glint.
While this is not the way I would like to teach, perhaps it's necessary in order to crack certain stereotypes yoga carries. At the end of the day, while the gym is not an ideal place, the class shouldn't be about external physcial fitness, and yaada yaada yaada, it was a great start and we'll watch where it goes.
So from my 5-minute rant in the morning the day had zipped around to a really good one.
I walked over to Saptaparni, one of my favorite locations in Hyd and also the place that first trusted me enough to begin teaching. I was there to sign up for a [hopefully] phenomenal workshop coming up next week.
Last evening, I began teaching at Est, a popular gym started by the cricketer Azharuddin. We're running trial classes for a week to see if this could click. I never thought I'd teach at a gym, it's really not the ideal environment. But last evening, during the 3 classes that we ran through, about 20 gym junkies (men and women) gave it a try. I've NEVER had this much fun in a yoga class.
I watched them stroll into class with a wee bit of condescension written all over their face. "Yoga, ha. Too slow. What can it do for me. Fine, I'll try it. Let's see what she has to offer." One character walks up to me and says, "Look, I know your yoga is for mental peace and all that, but let me tell you, mentally, I'm solid, I'm SO fine. If you can help me physically, then, ya, I'll try it."
Hmm, how do we go about this?
Switching gears, I immediately shifted into bossy-bitch-mode and kicked off with 10 sun salutations and 40 minutes of non-stop movement. I walked around, stamped my foot, yelled across the room (hey, if BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois can do it, why can't I?) and tried really hard to keep them from constantly looking at themselves in the mirror. At the end of the class, when I opened the floor for questions, they couldn't stop talking. I drove home with a satisfied glint.
While this is not the way I would like to teach, perhaps it's necessary in order to crack certain stereotypes yoga carries. At the end of the day, while the gym is not an ideal place, the class shouldn't be about external physcial fitness, and yaada yaada yaada, it was a great start and we'll watch where it goes.
So from my 5-minute rant in the morning the day had zipped around to a really good one.
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