I love looking back at my old journals and found one I used to plan my first classes on the beach. I remember it being quite daunting: how to work out how to make it fit the time? (I borrowed a watch).. How to remember all the poses? (I wrote them on my hand!) The trickier part then was what to say to open and close a class? How to find different ways to welcome everyone and allow them to settle and connect?
Having a series of themes kind of happened by accident. Since we are online at the moment, it made sense to set the password as the theme of the class. In committing myself to having a theme, I thought.. well a series would be great, then I’ll know what’s coming and won’t need to search each week.
I’ve just come to the end of my first series. It was ten sessions, going through the 5 yamas and 5 niyamas which are written as a guide of how we can feel joy and peace in our hearts.
Yoga’s teachings have changed my life. A friend Jess described them as magic. I have to agree. The stories, poems, images and practices are so meaningful and heart warming to me that I want to share them as much as I can. And so I hope everyone that comes to my classes gets some magic.
Once I started seeing people come back each week, I wanted to shape the class in a way that was familiar. Having a theme has given me just that. At the moment they seem to go: 1. welcome and settle, 2. introduce the theme and how it makes sense to me, 3. read a story, poem or mantra, 4. teach the physical practice, peppering it with the theme and coming back to the mantra, 5. guide a meditation to close.
It’s quite hard (more so online) to know if what I’ve said has landed and meant something to the yoga lovers in the class. I’m learning that I’ll never really know what impact it’s had. Also, I suppose the ideas might sparkle on a different day a while from now. But, every now and again someone will send a message asking for the poem, or they’ll tell me that they particularly enjoyed the practice. That feeling of fulfilment and joy is massive and it keeps me going.
Using a series of themes as I plan my group classes is helping me to dig deeper in to lessons and concepts I first encountered in my teacher training and it’s really helping keep the magic alive. That magic grounds me and reminds me of the simple beauty of life, the knowledge that we’re exactly where we are meant to be and that cherishing that is what it’s all about.
The next series I’m choosing the 7 Chakras ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💗. Inspired by the fantastic @zararush and has me very excited to see what I learn as I create these practices!
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