Elements of an Approach: “I NEED YOU TO TELL ME IF I’M DOING IT RIGHT!”

I can’t even tell you how many drafts I have of this blog post. I think I need to write a book on this topic, a meandering stream-of-consciousness memoir/pedagogical manual. Please, give me a two year sabbatical and a six-figure advance, and I’ll get right to it. In all reality, I’ll create this in intermittent blog posts.

I think of the topic of teaching yoga often. All those thoughts were rattled and amplified and revised at the start of the pandemic, when I started teaching online. I still feel like I’m standing in the middle of a rushing river, trying to build a bridge, sink, swim, or grab an overhead branch to get the heck out.

I offer this short blog post as placeholder on the topics of teaching yoga, teaching online and how we might, and if we should, hold ourselves and our students accountable to a process of commitment and progression.

The title of this post was a sentiment I heard from quite a few people as I closed my little studio. I think it’s a natural reaction, and I don’t begrudge anyone who thinks this about their teacher or studio. Here’s what I’m beginning to unpack from that statement:

• A yoga student may perceive correct and incorrect binaries built into my teaching (though I don’t want to convey that).

• A yoga student may perceive safety from injury associated with being correct, and danger of injury with being incorrect (though I don’t think being correct is equal to safety).

• A yoga student may perceive accountability by virtue of my physical presence (though I don’t believe that I’ve ever taught that explicitly).

• A yoga student may value being correct, safe and accountable.

Of these, I’m not interested at all in teaching someone to be “correct.” I am interested in teaching “safety,” but I think that this is very nuanced and isn’t based on being correct. I’m very interested in accountability, but I don’t believe that it is my job, and it’s definitely not yoga, to outsource this to another person (as in, I’m not responsible for your asana practice).

These are starting points for a process of self-inquiry into my teaching (svadhyaya). I see conflict between my student’s expectations of me and yoga, and of my understanding of the philosophy of yoga. However, I don’t see conflict as problematic situations to turn from. Instead, it signifies that there is a relationship to develop and examine. All relationships have conflict, a good relationship respectfully accommodates tension.

Svadhyaya (self-inquiry, self-governance) is another element to my approach. Not just for me, to get clearer as a teacher, but one for my students as well. Unfortunately, yoga is pretty commodified, so it often appears that you’re purchasing an outcome or service, that the package is the outcome. For the people who go deep and stay for a long time, we realize that in the best circumstances, you can receive amazing guidance and inspiration, but never a proxy for your own efforts.