Much to my amazement I still love teaching yoga classes. Whatever mood I am in when I show up to teach a class, joy of teaching makes me happier. This has been an invaluable gift over the last 14 years.
For what it’s worth though, yoga isn’t an intrinsically challenging undertaking. Not to denigrate teaching yoga classes at all but you pretty much know what is going to happen in the course of an hour and a half and you are essentially teaching the same things in each class with different variations.
It is different when I teach people to walk which is my main gig. I rarely know what to expect when sessions begin. It is always a challenge—not better than teaching yoga classes but different.
There was a time about ten years ago when I taught eighteen yoga classes each week which was genuinely mind numbing. I whittled that number down to a mere two classes a week for the past couple of years.
Teaching two classes a week is liberating. Each class is fresh, new and different. I don’t plan my classes in advance choosing instead to see who is in the room and at what level before I get to it.
This past January I added two classes in the neighborhood where I live (Third Root in Ditmas Park) and the dynamic changed a little bit. At four classes a week it is harder to avoid repeating oneself sequentially and, while this isn’t a terrible thing, it is a different vibe.
The students at the new studio are very different from my home base at Prema Yoga in Carroll Gardens which has also been a lot of fun to work with.
And now I am adding two more yoga classes to my teaching schedule at a lovely studio in Manhattan, Yogamaya. It is a beautiful space in Chelsea on 20th between 6th and 7th avenues. I taught there a couple of years ago when it first opened and am excited about returning their schedule.
I’ll be teaching Wednesdays and Fridays from 12-1:30.