Is that Me?

I was excited to see myself on the "cover" of YogaJournal.com this morning. I went there cuz my pal Jackie tipped me off to an article about dreaming.

The Home Practice piece ran last year in the magazine and must have been re purposed for the site this week. It's always a good sign when you don't gag at your own past incarnation, but this is the risk we take when we decide to "publish."

At Lulu Bandha's we film every class I teach. I regularly produce yoga shorts we call N'cest-ce pas? The first incarnation of these, Home Sweet Home, are available on YouTube. I share longer practices we call Abhyasa and several past Ojai Yoga Crib workshops are filmed and waiting to be produced.

What we are teaching changes all the time. While there are certain themes that we find ourselves coming back to over and over again, how we are "packaging" them depends on more factors than we could even imagine. In fact the way we are teaching something might sound like it's totally the opposite than a year ago, even though it's pointing at the same idea.

The techniques of yoga are as varied as the people teaching them. And those people teaching are changing every moment. The people taking the class are changing all the time. Communication is a mysterious miracle. All time people come up to me saying they loved when I said, "xyz" in class when I never said anything close to "xyz." You cannot control what people take from your class, so give up now.

My identity as a yoga teacher is not up to me. What I end up teaching that day always depends on who shows up. And while I get excited about certain concepts and themes and ways of working, I have to be willing to drop all of that if it is not going to meet the person in front of me.

I love my job. I am incredibly grateful. Thank you.