Teaching my first class

The final qualification to be certified to teach yoga is to do teach a class. We paired up to share the duties -- I would take the first 45 minutes of the class and my partner, Marine, would take the second half. It would be our first time teaching to people outside of our training since Abby, the property owner, invited people from the community to join.

For me, this was probably the most intimidating part because we are the in the French countryside… which means the likelihood one of my students would only speak French was almost 100% probability. Although this turned out to be true, it also is true that yoga is a universal language and people can use their eyes to follow along.

My responsibility to open the class is to first bring the students to focus on their breath and their mat. The challenge for me in these moments is patience since my personal style is to go-go-go! However this morning, this time was important me to get settled in the room and to calm the small bit of nerves I felt.

After the focus period, I led the class through a warm up mostly on the mat followed by a standing flow of my own design. We'd spent four days practicing with our partner, so by the time actually teaching to the class arrived, it felt like muscle memory. My focus then was to cue the students through the postures while staying intensely present to not just teach like a robot, but to share tips that address areas they need to work on. This part is hard. I can get so focused on the next pose that I move too quickly through the breath or perhaps don't spend the time to adjust the feet of own of my students. This will come with time and practice.

When the class ended, I felt such a rush - we'd done it! We came in as total nooobs at the start of the month to teaching yoga and now just a few weeks later successfully led an entire class through a yoga sequence. It's a feeling I won't forget soon, and I look forward to coming back to the states to lead my first yoga classes.

Namaste :)