For most of us we’re teaching within the space of an hour, if we’re lucky. Most of us are opening up the studio, setting up, checking in everyone, and waiting for that last student to arrive before class. Class might start a little delayed, and so our hours get whittled down by the minute.
It’s OK not to teach everything. It’s expected that you get just a slice each class.
What’s more important is to know your scope of practice—learning what you teach well and refining it over time. I teach asana technique through peak pose sequencing, with a sweet, thick layer of yoga philosophy embedded into what I share throughout class. Mostly, I am sharing over and over again Yoga Sutra 1.2:
Yoga chitta vritti nirodah
Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.
Patanjali, Yoga Sutra 1.2
I often (not always) teach challenging, or what I call more physically demanding poses, out of this desire to still the fluctuations of the mind and cultivate presence. And every once in a while, I do get a question during class, like, “uhh, why?”.
And to that I respond, “were you anywhere else but here while you were trying this pose?” I mean, sometimes yes, we’re thinking about our grocery list or what is on the schedule this week, but usually a more physically demanding shape, something new or unexpected, requires our concentration. It requires that we remain present to our experience.
I find that the smaller and more literal those moments are where we touch into yoga philosophy in class are more powerful than if I were to try to teach the Yamas and Niyamas as a whole. There are books that can do that far better than I can.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
✨ Pick one pose and break it down over the course of class, and repeat that class for a week
✨ Pick one Sutra, Yama, Niyama, poem, etc. and teach it in several different ways over a month
✨ Teach what challenges are coming up for you in your own practice, and repeat it until you understand it better.
A studio, gym or community yoga class is a doorway, not a whole ass house. It’s a threshold and an invitation to welcome the practitioner into their own experience—one we can never truly know or control. It’s not our business to share everything, but instead share what wants to come through us today.