Namaste

Over 2 years ago I met my kula. My kula is my community of yoga folks that I travel with to Mexico. If you’ve read my previous blog post about the kula you know these people have my heart. I love them so, they love me unconditionally. I feel such peace and joy with my kula.

There’s one kula member that I met at the beginning of my first kula retreat. Actually we met in the back of the van on the way to the kula retreat. I’ll call her K. K and I became friends almost immediately. We found our common thread and we were instantly joined at the heart.

K really impresses me. She’s a fierce yogi- with over 15 years of experience, she is smart, she shows her vulnerability, and she doesn’t put up with shit from anyone. I have to admit when I first met her I was so impressed I may have even had a bit of friend worship. This infatuation helped me to ignore the fact that she can be a flake sometimes and will cancel or forget plans at the last minute. Sometimes we go weeks or months without even talking. These absences are okay for me. I am fine with ignoring the disconnects for the heart connections I get when we are together.

Over the last year K has been going to teacher training. I’m super impressed with the yogis who do teacher training. I am still working on the nerve to accept my yummy monkeys and crow poses that last all of 2 seconds and leave me with blisters on my elbows. I consider anyone who does yoga teacher training to be a total badass.

So, over the summer when K asked me if I would be her practice pupil for the preparation of when she teaches her first official yoga class I was thrilled. I was going to get to do yoga with my awesome friend who would teach me what goes on in her head and heart while she does yoga. She didn’t have to ask me twice.

When K started her training with me she was super nervous. Her heart came out during the introduction but as she went through class her words were stilted, shaky, and foreign. Had I not known that K was my friend who communicated more authentically I would have thought this was a pretty lame teacher. When K was done with that first class I gave her some feedback. I reminded her that I was her friend and what we were doing was having a conversation. Could she feel more comfortable knowing that teaching yoga was just a conversation among friends?

K’s next class with me went more smoothly. I I could see she was more comfortable with our connection on the mat. I found her confidence growing each week and I also found myself learning yoga in a new way from the perspective of a new teacher.

At the end of the summer, I had a lot of travel planned. Unfortunately I was unable to visit with K and have a final class before she did her official first yoga teaching. In support of K as well as my love for yoga I attended her first official class. K met me at the door with a big hug. I could feel her heart and connection in that hug. I could also feel her fear. Tears filled her eyes. “Remember we are all your friends”, I whispered. Once I went into the classroom and found a place for my mat K asked for another hug. She looked at me and said, “You are my anchor here. During this class when I feel lost I will teach to you”. Her statement moved me. During all of the time I had known K I had admired her. Now I realized through all this time she had admired me.

When K started her class the hesitation from our first class together emerged. I sent my heart space and positive vibes to the front of the class cheering her on and chanting in my head “We are your friends. It’s just a conversation”. Whenever our poses put our eyes to the front of the class I focused my eyes on K’s face, hoping she would glimpse my way and see that I was sending all my love her way. At one point in the middle of class as we all folded into our child’s pose the energy level of K’s voice changed. I could tell she was now open, vulnerable, and comfortable. Perhaps my positivity came through. Perhaps she helped herself. All I knew was at that point K was officially a yoga teacher even if she and I had been teaching each other all along.

I’m hopeful that the experience of our private yoga sessions and her official first class will put K at ease for future yoga lessons. She truly is a gifted teacher and she has so much to share with all of our hearts.