Remind People How Capable and Wonderful They are - As Is.

For years I’ve listened to women talk about their bodies in dance, yoga and fitness studios. Rarely is it positive or accepting. It’s often negative, diminishing self talk about their physical appearance or ability. People apologize to me after class because they are tired, or injured and couldn’t do class to the fullest.

MOST PEOPLE FIGHT THEIR BODY EVERYDAY.

So until the meteor hits I’ll be fostering the opposite of that through the words I use to communicate what we are doing on the yoga mat. It is the easiest thing to say “listen to your body” but what’s that mean and how do we do it when we’ve been taught to ignore our gut instincts to listen to what the patriarchy says we need. So teachers make a class *hard* and people will say thank you, I won’t be able to walk tomorrow. Like that’s good. But it’s not good. It perpetuates the unspoken message that you gotta struggle and suffer or you’re not doing enough regardless the state of your nervous system and the tragedies happening in your neighborhood.

I’m not talking saving the world via yoga/fitness. I AM talking about using our time as a yoga teacher at the front of a class to remind people how powerful they are, how capable and strong they are. To subvert the dominant narrative heard EVERYWHERE to teach people how to set boundaries and not overextend themselves. It doesn’t matter how much you twist yourself up for the patriarchy it will never love you back, you will never be enough, because that’s the big P’s garbage tagline. It doesn’t have to be that way in yoga and fitness. Imagine if you and me and all our teacher friends started sprinkling counter messages into our classes. There’s another way and it’s a through-line I love to weave!

Here are 5 things I said this week in my drop-in yoga classes.

👉This is a hard pose, have reasonable expectations.

👉You might not need to fold forward in this pose if you already feel plenty of stretch.. you’re there, done.

👉Can you find a version of this that’s sustainable, that you can be in for a few breaths..

👉This is an option not a dare. (TY for that RR).

👉Any amount of the pose is still the pose.

Want more tips for teaching and doing really good yoga?