Advice to New Teachers: Own Your Limits
I believe yoga is a practice of wholeness grounded in teachings of totality that acknowledge the fullness of who we are—body, mind, emotions, and spirit. I believe yoga, at its essence, is aimed at helping us understand the very nature of the All-That-Is— from the simplest to the most complex configurations that exist; from the most subtle to the most dense. I believe yoga is complete, full, unbounded, and endless in its possibility for insight, healing, and transformation. Like my guru used to say, “There is no top end.”
That being said, I also believe that yoga classes, teachers, students, and communities are quite limited. On any given day, the limit may be my knowledge, training, or experience. Other days, the limit may be my student’s understanding, interest, or capacity. Most days we have limits on time. Some days we have no props or wall space. Some days, we are teaching a flow class and people desperately need some pose breakdown. Some days our hearts are broken by injustice and oppression and we are hired to teach hip anatomy.
I could go on. And, I am sure you could, too.
I personally do not find the fact of limitation a problem in and of itself. Limits are built into the human condition and the manifest world in which we are all participating. While the Great Consciousness may be omniscient, I have limited knowledge. While the All That Is may be omnipresent, I can only be in one place at one time. While The Everything may be omnipotent, I still can’t do everything I want to do when I want to do it. Limits are the nature of incarnation. For any thing to come into being— a person or a project— one must leave the realm of endless possibilities and take the path of choice and narrowed options. Shit, even deciding to have spaghetti for dinner means I am not having tacos, pizza, or veggie burgers.
See what I mean? Limits.
So, while I do not find limits in yoga a problem, I do find a problem in pretending I am unlimited, selling that falsehood to you to get you to study with me, and then bearing up against the inevitable upset that occurs when the truth of my limits are eventually exposed, which they will be. And look, don’t get me wrong, I want everyone to benefit from my offerings. I know we all have wounds to heal, needs to fulfill, and growth to nurture in ways too numerous to name. And my life’s deepest urges live in the stream of teachings and practices aimed at engaging those very processes of transformation. I am super into it.
That being said, I am an asana teacher who teaches public classes, workshops, and trainings. That means the scope of what I can contribute is limited by the very nature of the offering. Can asana heal all kinds of pain in the body? Sure. Can that happen in every asana class? Probably not. Is asana therapeutic and psychologically helpful? Sure. Is every yoga class a safe space? Clearly not. Can yoga community provide deep meaningful connections aimed at inclusivity, belonging, and unity? Yes. Is every community functional enough to deliver on that promise so that no one ever feels left out, different, misunderstood, or lonely? Not that I have seen. We can all improve at these tasks, but we will never provide a utopia. Utopias don’t exist and relinquishing the fantasy of utopia is a key feature of maturity.
On a practical level, this means making peace with the small bit we can do in the face of the ever-growing reality of what we can not do. For instance, at some point in my teaching life, I stopped talking about the therapeutic benefits of asana. When I teach trikonasana, I do my best to describe, inform, and otherwise educate my students about movement principles that can be applied to that pose. And, as luck would have it, well-aligned poses done within one’s capacity often produce healing outcomes. But I consider those healing outcomes a result of a well-executed trikonasana and my job is the trikonasana. If someone has a shoulder issue, I want to help them do the pose without harming their shoulder. I do not attempt to fix their shoulder. Many times, their shoulder will feel better, which is quite awesome. Of course, sometimes not.
Not everyone agrees with this perspective, nor do they need to. I am just saying, I own my limits. No matter how hard I try— and I have tried hard over the years— I can’t move a group through a general sequence, keep everyone safe, inspired, interested, challenged, supported, included at all levels of their being, while addressing systemic oppression, teaching philosophy that is not too spiritual but is spiritual enough, and also do yoga therapy of different kinds for different people in 75 minutes, including savasana. Actually, I can’t reliably do most of the stuff on that list. What I can do is teach a decent trikonasana class. Even still, some people will hate it, others will love it, some will laugh with me, and at least one person will simply wait for the whole thing to be over.
So, new teacher, no matter what how deeply you want to serve and how sincere your desire to contribute to helping humanity in the form of teaching yoga is, own your limits. By owning your limits, you set your own healing in motion and you will help others die to the fantasy of utopia that is keeping them constantly at odds with reality.
In teacher trainings, I teach two very important statements to my trainees that may help you on your path:
1.) “I am an asana teacher, I do not diagnose and I do not treat.” This might be followed up with, “But, let me see your pose and we can explore what might help or what might be useful to avoid.” Or whatever. The first sentence is the most important one. Write it down. Memorize it.
2.) “That is outside the scope of my current expertise.” Whether it is philosophy, Sanskrit, therapeutic applications, psychology or parenting, this is one of the most empowering sentences I have ever learned. And, when I am lucky enough to know experts in the area of their concern, I will often say, “I can refer you to someone who might be able to help.” I do this all the time with students who get MRI results back, who have strange, recurring injuries, or symptoms of all kinds that are plaguing them. Also, sometimes, I say, “I will ask some of my teachers, and get back to you.”
All right, well, I am probably beyond the limits of your interest at this point and I have exceeded my 1000-word limit so, you can see how well I am personally doing with the whole limit thing.
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