Fun with Vicki's Gang

It was really a great weekend in The Woodlands with Vicki and her gang. (Although Mark and Hannah, part of "my gang" came from Austin. Are they part of my gang- or did they allow me to join their gang? Hard to know. And also Jill came who is from Richmond but part "Austin Immersion gang" came as well.) I had a really great time teaching a meeting new people. There was even a woman there named Grace who is taking an Immersion in Berkely with my friends Noah and Sianna. Small world.

I think Friday nights of workshops are always the hardest class to teach. I always make a plan and invariably the plan I make is scrapped within a few moments of the class beginning. Sometimes I plan a too challenging class. Sometimes I plan a too basic class. Sometimes I plan a flow when it is obvious the group needs instruction in the basics first. It is funny because unless I know the group and have taught them before I rarely plan the "right" class.

(As a side note, even though in the 5 or so years that I have been teaching workshops I have rarely planned the "right" Friday night class, I always make a plan anyway. The planning is not so much because I am going to follow it no matter what but because it is an act of preparation, that to me tells the Universe I am willing and open and getting ready so PLEASE HELP ME. Planning is part of my own Adhikara- making myself ready. )

So in Friday night's class I had planned one thing and pretty quickly switched and taught what I thought was a good class, but not the class I written down. And then the rest of the weekend I was able to follow my plan almost exactly because, having met everyone, I could plan accordingly and we were able to build on the Friday night's sequence throughout the weekend.

One thing that was fun for me is that Vicki and I both have some background in Iyengar Yoga. In fact, John Friend was her teacher when he taught Iyengar Yoga. So was George Purvis, another great Texas yogi, who I think is fantastic. I think that perhaps because of that background she and I must teach similarly or she has trained her students to be great students and follow the teacher's lead even if it unfamiliar- because her students were very able to follow my teaching and were responsive to my teaching style.

The students enthusiastically watched demos and were interested in learning and practicing the subtleties of the poses which provided me with a very fertile teaching environment. As a teacher, there is nothing like having students willing to come to how I am teaching as opposed to having students who make me package what I have to say according to their expectations. (Small rant.) But that to me is what makes a good student and a good yogi- not the ability to bend but the ability to be present to learn. And it is a skill that we can cultivate as much as any asana. But I digress-

Vicki has a great group. Eager to learn, funny, open, affectionate with one another and I had a great time. Vicki told me that she would have invited me sooner "if she knew how much fun I was." She told me that she thought I would be much different than how I am based on her impressions of me from the workshops with John we have attended over the years. Hmm... I have actually found that over the years many of the Anusara Yoga practitioners I have met are pretty different one on one than in the big groups with John. I guess I am too. Probably for a lot of reasons. But that is another post for another time.

Anyway- Mom and Dad are on their way here. I still have not found a sub for Tuesday's advanced class so who knows- maybe I will end up seeing some of you this week after all. If I cannot find a sub for that class I may just go ahead and teach at 4:30 also. Anyway- if you follow such things, stay tuned to the blog and also to the YogaYoga schedule where it will be posted.