My friend and colleague Sarah Henderson often says that “We are not teaching yoga, we are facilitating humanity.“ I caught a glimpse of that last Wednesday when she and I were leading a class for students with traumatic brain injury. Sarah and I flip-flop week to week with one of us teaching and the other supporting. Last Wednesday I was in the support role.
Midway through class, the caregiver for our student Charles shared with us that Charles had sailed from the East Coast to Hawaii on a sailboat. We know from our previous classes with Charles that he really likes the outdoors. Sarah quickly picked up on the ocean theme and started to create on the fly. Our movements and Yoga shapes became informed by scenes from the beach and feel of the ocean. She asked, “Charles did you ever surf?” And he answered “No, no, I never surfed.” Then she asked, “Well would you like to right now?” And he answered, “Right here?” And Sarah said, “Yeah, right here on our Yoga mat.” Charles said, “Well yeah. I’ll give it a try!”
She lead Charles through a series of surfing movements that from the outside might not of looked anything like “Yoga,” but she was guiding him through a sequence of Warrior II and Peaceful Warrior. Helping Charles extend and laterally flex his spine while simultaneously building strength in his legs. But that’s not all that was going on.
Knowing that Charles does really well with tactile feedback and loves sound, Sarah was creating the sensation of moving on the waves and encouraging Charles to visualize each wave coming in. She would often say, “Okay Charles are you ready? Here comes a big one,” encouraging him to make the sounds of the waves splashing against their body. When they finished that sequence Charles was grinning from ear to ear. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of.
On the outside most people wouldn’t recognize that this was a Yoga class. It was noisy, a bit unruly, and definitely not precise. There were no overt gestures to philosophy or conversations about the flow of prana and the alignment of the spine etc. What was present was human connection. What was present was breath, maybe not in a traditional pranayama type of way, but definitely in a way that created an experience in Charles’ nervous system. Charles showed up sort of low energy and left that class beaming.
You can’t do this work and have a rigid mindset. Presence is your greatest asset as a Yoga teacher. You must lean on everything you know one minute, and be ready to throw it all away the very next. Keep your heart open and be creative. I know last Wednesday, I left the studio humbled and amazed by what I’d witnessed.