On Being Open to the Possibilities

Something happened at the yoga studio today that I want to write about.

The teacher for the mid-day class is away this week, so another teacher subbed her class. It's a Level I/II class, which means that students will begin to learn some of the more advanced poses, such as inversions like handstand, headstand and shoulderstand. Because they are learning, students aren't expected to be proficient - each one will be at a different stage of the learning process. With handstand for example, some may only be at the point of learning where to place their hands on the floor and lifting one leg in the air. Others may be trying to kick up. And a few may get themselves up there for a terrifying but exhilarating two-and-half seconds.

Anyway, about two-thirds of the way through class, one student came out and started packing up her things. I could tell she was in a huff. She said, "I want to give you some feedback about the class. I always come to this class because we never do inversions and today we did two different ones."

I said, "Okay, I understand and I'm sorry you didn't like the class. But in a Level I/II class you should expect to be starting to learn inversions."

She said, "Learning to do them maybe, but not DOING them!" And she stormed out.

I stared after her thinking, but how will you ever learn to do them if you don't try doing them?

We all have our favorite yoga teachers, and it's normal to sometimes sigh with disappointment when we get to class and see that someone else is teaching. I know, because I've been there myself. But after a while I learned something important: Every time I stayed to take the sub's class, I learned something new. Even if I wasn't crazy about the person's style, there was always something, some instruction that got through to me in a new way, some new variation on an old pose, some useful insight about the practice that no one else had ever given me before.  And so I learned to get over myself and be more open to the gift that was being offered.

Yoga teachers, like all teachers, show up to give of themselves for not very much monetary reward. I don't mean to be too judgemental of this lady today (just a little judgemental :-) because it's such a human thing to want things to be the way we want them. It's just that I'm thinking more about this teacher who made the effort to prepare what she hoped would be a good and challenging class, and showed up to share what she knows about yoga. 

And it  makes me want to put out this plea for us all to be a little more grateful for that, to be a little less focused on getting what we think we want, and a little more willing to let go, open up, and perhaps trust that the gift that is being offered may actually be even better than what we thought we wanted.