I have no particular interest in teaching yoga, which is a strange thing to say when the through-line of one’s life is quite clearly the ancient practice that one has been teaching in some way since 1996. But it is the truth of the matter, as I stand in the crossroads (and crosshairs) of where to go next.
Here are the things that are true:
Yoga is a personal practice that has held me together physically, emotionally, and spiritually for the full length of my memorable life. It started in 1985, and I really don’t have conscious memories of times before that. The movement bits of yoga have extricated me from stuckness, and kept me physically conditioned in a meaningful way.
I started teaching out of self preservation. When I migrated from my private elementary school to the dumpster fire of public junior high school, PE was the class that contributed singlehandedly to my anxiety and fear. Physical Education. Fucking PE. Who does this? I know and can appreciate that team sports can teach things like group dynamics and leadership and physical skill for those who are so inclined, but mandatory PE did none of those things for me.
My IQ is in the stratosphere, and yet, I cannot seem to process BOUNCE A BALL WHILE RUNNING, which is the sentinel rule of basketball. I can bounce the ball. I can run, hugging the ball to my chest. But the hopscotch bullshit that requires players to bounce/run? And the fact that that isn’t even the point of the sport, but somehow maneuvering a large, hard ball into an impossibly high net is the point? Too rich for my blood.
I broke three ribs and chipped two vertebrae in flag football, requiring months of painful PT. In the golf section, there was an unhelpful exercise whereby we were to ‘film our swing’ for postural analysis. It took me 27 tries to connect the stick to the ball, and once I did, I was so thrilled that I let go and it tumbled end over end into the football goalpost thing making a tremendous and echoing CLANG and earning me a solid “F” for eFfort.
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