Spaciousness is a good thing
Sometimes it’s good to ease up on the pace of life. By Paula Hines
Do you teach yoga full-time or part-time? This is a question I’ve been asked regularly over the past decade. The answer varies. Speaking to others, I have found it is natural go through phases of teaching more and teaching less for various reasons. This past year or so, particularly since Covid, I have been in a phase of teaching less.
I have not minded this as much as I thought I would. One thing this past year has done is allow more space for reflection. On a very real personal level I have learned that grief and joy can co-exist. The ‘normal’ of the pre-Covid world did not work so well for me. Maybe it did not work so well for you either. While there are things that have fallen away or I have chosen to let go of, other things have come in. There have been some positives from this time that I want to hold on to.
As a result, I have come to the conclusion that I do not want to go back to things exactly as they were before. I have no desire to pack my schedule tightly week after week. I have no desire to jump onto anyone’s hamster wheel.
My time will not be dictated by the faux sense of urgency of others (and neither should yours, by the way).
Yes, there will be times when I am doing more, but I have no desire to be busy for the sake of it. (To be fair I’ve felt this way for a long while, but the events of this past year have confirmed it).
Instead, I choose to be open to possibility and doing more of the things that fill me up whether that’s alone or collaborating with others.
It has been interesting to observe how many people have endeavoured to carry on as ‘normal’ during a pandemic, then been surprised to find that doing so is tough. What if they dared to pause?
As yoga teachers, whether you teach full-time or part-time, we want to act from a place of service – we want to be helpers. However, if that ends up being to our detriment that’s no good. Where can you allow yourself more spaciousness, so that when you share yoga offerings you are doing so from a place of fullness rather than depletion?
Paula Hines is a London-based yoga teacher and writer (ucanyoga.co.uk)
Om Magazine
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