Releasing the Ego a Yoga Story
I know that I have been really bad with posting lately and believe me I have beaten myself up about it so many times. In my defence I have been studying like mad on my Yoga Sport Science qualification and keeping up with my CPD and so many exciting things that I will fill you in on soon that time has just flown by without me realising. This is me getting back into writing this blog with the aim of posting once or twice a week which will reduce the demands on me and hopefully improve the quality of my posts.
So on to the actual point of this blog and the story of the ego in relation to yoga. Well anyone who has regularly been to a yoga class will have heard the teacher talk about releasing the ego and going within. The concept is exactly right and I had a wonderful experience teaching a Candlelit Class at Slice in Parsons Green on Friday evening which was a great way to demonstrate. As the class went on it the light gradually got darker and by the end the students could not really see what others were doing in the class so they could focus on themselves and what was going on within. This is generally hard to achieve in a class although I do my best to get students to close their eyes often to stop comparison but this still does not stop them trying to go somewhere they are not ready to go.
I have to be honest that it is difficult to teach partly because I cannot say I have completely let go of the ego and it is a continual journey. The reason this really came to mind is to do with some teachers I have come across who not only show off in class but also spend their time out of the class focussing on how wonderful they are, what they have achieved and making sure everyone knows about it. How can a teacher like this really teach you to release the ego when they are holding on to it firmly with two hands. My answer is they cannot apart from the fact you can see quite clearly what you should not be doing which is why you need to experience yoga from as many teachers as possible!
When a teacher is a long way to releasing the ego they can have a significant impact on your life. I have mentioned Rebecca and her yoga classes before and I have not told her this but I consider her a bit of a Guru for my yoga career. In terms of the way she teaches I have never known her show off and she never raves about how wonderful she is but she does encourage, support and make you see where you are on your journey and where you are going. I am very aware that I take a lot of what I learn in her classes and try and share it with my students. I do not copy her just steal bits, like I do from everyone I have ever learned from, it is how yoga develops.
So when you go to your next yoga class take some time to consider your teacher, what are they bringing you, do they encourage competition or acceptance, there is often a fine line and many teachers are unaware what side of the line they are on. If you regularly take a yoga class it is always a good idea to think about what you get out of it, what does the teacher give to you and what do they take from you. A yoga class is a two way thing and if the ego is involved too much you may find it blocks your development more than you realize.
Now for some more admin stuff on the blog, I know that it has largely been a recipe blog for the last year or so but the aim when I started it was for it to be recipes along with yoga, self-help and other useful little bits of info and I think it will go back that way. I mentioned above that I want to do 1-2 posts each week hopefully with 2 posts per month being recipes and the others having some different bits. For all my yoga students I just received a delivery of Magic Dot blocks so we will all be getting perfect jump throughs and hand balances soon! If anyone has any questions/comments on what I write about or general yoga questions please post them below of feel free to contact me and I will do my best to help.
