Summer Doldrums

Summertime, i'm learning, is the lean time for yoga teachers. the number of students in all of my classes has dropped off dramatically and i'm pretty sure this isn't about ME specifically. Summer, especially August, is prime vacation season. this year vacation season also came with the increase in energy costs and i'm sure that had some effect on the number of students in my classes also. so a few weeks i had no one in a class here or there... i also had the chance to work solo with people a few times. and the numbers at the health club, where i'd gotten up to 12 or 14, went back down to 4 or 5.

on one hand, it's very hard not to get discouraged when the numbers are low. the energy of the room seems to sink down and it feels like my voice is lost into the depths of space. but on the other hand, with low numbers it is easier to get into the more difficult poses or to get into poses that require more supervision.
in class at the health club the other night i had 6 people, one of them was a teacher who was in just to observe my class and get a feel for it. so i had five members and a teacher. so even though it is a level one class i was able to teach them handstands at the wall. in a roomful of 14 at very different skill, strength, flexibility, and listening to instruction level i would not have felt comfortable doing that. but knowing my crowd and being able to see them all at once made it possible. and the outcome was great because the true level one students really got to try something new and the level two students who just come to the level one class for fun got to work on the pose more slowly than they do in the level two classes. they got to build up to it with lots of poses beforehand and they got to ask questions without worrying about sounding too beginner.

so i just try to be grateful that i have the time to teach, no matter how many students actually make it through the door. i'll just keep putting myself and my words and my heart out there and see what happens. and i guess we'll see what september will bring.

Intentional Chocolate

When i was in Ohio, Ann and Todd shared this one minute shift video with us. The idea behind all of this and the reason to share is the reminder that our intentions.. our thoughts really do have profound impact on our lives. it is so easy to go through the day thinking negative thoughts and then attracting negative events to us. it is much harder but wiser to teach ourselves positive thinking and then watch as positive events are attracted to us. at any rate enjoy the one minute shift and then, this reminds me to offer gratitude and love before each meal.