I taught my first ever yoga class yesterday! Teaching a class was starting to become a roadblock for me. The longer I waited, the less and less I wanted to teach a class because I was so scared and nervous because it had been built up so much because of the time I waited until I taught it. Because and stuff. Oh, and I got paid for it too.
I subbed for a yoga teacher at this Fortune 500 company. I'm in Atlanta area, and there are really only two big companies I can think of headquartered in Atlanta. They had a PHAT gym. One of the girls in the class says, "They do that so we dont ever leave." And I dont think she meant that in a long term basis, but on a day to day basis. Plus, they had hot guys lifting weights.
I walk in and they have this huge semi circle front desk with this black guy behind it. He has an earpiece that he's talking into and he starts talking to me at the same time. The conversation goes something like this. Me: "Do I need to sign in or something." Him: "Yes, sign in here please. Girl, Mmmhmmm I know whatchu talkin' bout, he been trippin. The fitness center is through those glass doors to the right."
In the group fitness class studio they had a really complicated stereo system. It took me 3 minutes to find "open" "Play" and about five minutes to skip tracks later on in the class. There was the master volume and the cd player volume. And then another volume knob for a microphone. A huge box with a smaller box on top. I dont know what the smaller box did, but I guess it was an afterthought. And I dont know why the big music box couldnt do what the small music box on top did.
OMG, this company's gym had YOGA BLOCKS! Umm, most places just have mats.
The class had a slew of participants:
- a younger girl who looked like she could do a lot of the yoga-ey things. But she wouldnt jump to the front edge of her mat! I know I know, watch my ego, but I still think she could have done it.
- this really tall, kinda overweight, grey haired guy. But he knew his yoga stuff for realz. His trikonasana was a little higher up but his form was pretty sweet.
- this woman who had back issues. She basically said she needed back surgery and they wanted to fuse spine things together. Those types scare me because I dont want them to hurt themselves.
- another yoga instructor. i guess the company didnt know if i would really show up, so she came later and just took the class. i didnt know she was an instructor until she told me. she does more of an iyengar style, and not so much flow. (i could tell the whole class wasnt used to "my style" but its good for their body to be tested and try out new things).
- this thin, tall guy who was pretty inflexible.
- this total yoga NOOB. During down dog, I just had to press her whole hand to the ground because she was just using the tips of her fingers.
At the end of the class, I told the new girl to definitely come back next week because i was just the substitute. And she said she'd come. And I heard comments from her about how she was probably going to be sore. I didnt do much of the class with them, but I was kind of sore too.
I flubbed with my words at times, but I think I will find my voice as a yoga instructor with practice. At least Im not a doctor/surgeon, where if you flub people have to get new surgeries, unnecessary surgeries or die.