Why Do You Teach?

I recently finished a week of yoga teacher training. As always, I met some of the most interesting and like-minded people.

Except one woman.

She was, of course, a yoga teacher. She taught at a YMCA in her hometown somewhere outside San Diego. All week long all she did was complain.

Sometimes people in her class leave before savasana. She always has to deal with new people. Some of the class wants it to be easier. Some want a harder class. Some won't follow her cues. People complain about her music. She isn't friends with any of the other yoga teachers where she works.

And on and on and on she went all week about her list of complaints teaching. She didn't seem very happy to be teaching or to be at the training.

Finally at lunch one day I couldn't take anymore. "Then why do you teach?" I asked.

Well you'd have thought I just asked her the final Jeopardy question. She was speechless. (Which at the risk of sounding snarky was kind of nice that she stopped whining for a moment).

She never did give me an answer. But I didn't hesitate to tell her that all teachers have those issues. It's part of teaching.

And to remember, its not our class. It's our student's class. We are just there to facilitate their practice that day.

And it's a big part of the reason that yoga teacher trainings, retreats and conferences are so important. They feed and nourish us as teachers. We get to take a break from being teacher and get to go back to being student again.

We get a reminder of what it's like to feel a little confused in class, not feel well on the mat and unsure of ourselves.

Taking a break from teaching makes us better teachers. Not just from the new information we learn, but for the rejuvenation it gives us. We can return more knowledgeable, rested and re-invigorated.

I encouraged her to take a break from teaching. To nourish herself. And then decide if she truly wanted to be a teacher. It's not for everyone.

But when you are meant to be a teacher, you know it deep inside you. And no amount of distractions keep you out of the yoga room.

The Spirit of a Teacher

This weekend I had the pleasure to help lead a series of SilverSneakers workshops. SilverSneakers is a fitness program for active older adults that includes cardio, strength training and even yoga.  I always enjoy these workshop weekends because most of the instructors you meet are eager and willing to learn. Even if they've been teaching fitness classes for years, they become students once again for a few hours. After the weekend of training, they go back to their fitness center refreshed, renewed and excited about teaching all over again.

Except, every once in a while, there will be the student sitting in the back of class with her arms folded, a bored look on her face and checking the time every five minutes. More often than not she's the one who's been teaching fitness for twenty years and is there only because she needs continuing education credits to renew her certifications.

It doesn't matter how up-to-date the training manual is or what new medical benefits of exercise I can share, her mind is closed. She already knows it all.

Except, she doesn't. None of us do.

The Bhagavad Gita says When you go to a teacher saying "I know a little bit, can you add a little more?" or "I know, but can you verify it?" you are just going to check your capabilities, not to learn anything new.

You're going because you need those CEC's. You have predetermined there is nothing new for you to learn.

The Gita goes on  If you want to learn, go empty and open. "I'm an empty cup; please pour in all you can." If you go with a cup already full, even if the teacher pours something good, where will it go? It's not that he or she is miserly, the teacher would like to pour, but it will overflow and go to waste. So empty your cup.


It's an honor to call ourselves teachers. Our students look to us for answers, so it's our duty to be sure we are educated and continue to study our chosen path. But it's also important to remember how to be a student. To remember to empty our cup every once in a while.

The best teachers I've studied under were the most humble. They were quick to knock themselves off any pedestal I put them on and always gave credit to those who taught them. 

Yoga tradition is passed down from teacher to student. There is always someone ahead showing the path, and someone behind waiting for you to show them the way. 

It's the spirit of a teacher. To carry on the passing of knowledge.