Are you good enough?

So I have been having thoughts recently, now that I am living and breathing as a real life yoga teacher, that how do you ever feel good enough or know that what you are doing is making a difference!

I know this is a constant bug bear that we all have somewhere deep inside of us, but I keep thinking about how you combat this when you are teaching someone something! Students, clients look to you as an inspiring force in their life and so the very nature of this can therefore feel like the president is set high and is wildly unachievable!

A lovely yogini once said to me “you never know what someone has been through when they arrive in front of you on their mat, so don’t be offended by any kind of reaction to your class or words” and surely this has to be true of a yoga teacher too, or infact anyone you come in to contact with in your Daily life! The difference being that as your yoga instructor, we are there to facilitate your practise and use our experience to adapt our words and class to what presents us at that very moment. I hope that this is something that being a teacher of something wonderful like yoga, that works to unify your mind, thoughts, body and breath, is something that regardless of my mood or emotional state when I enter my own class is still achievable. And because of all of this I have been beating myself up about not feeling I am being truly truthful with myself as a yogini.

This sounds like its heading to be a negative post, but I just had to have a bit of a structured think as to why my thoughts occasionally turn into negative ones!!

I see being a yoga teacher/instructor/guru as being able to give your class as a precious gift to your students, to allow them to work with their own bodies and mind and all learn, flow and practise together as one; sharing. When students come to me at the end of a class, to say they struggle with this, or this pose is not getting any easier, or they struggle to practise consistently each week, I want them to know that that is the very same for me and all of us. Nobody is perfect and I think this is the key point in this whole blurb and how boring would it be if we were!!

All too often do I not listen to my own advice (and I know I’m not the only one), it’s very easy to give it out but difficult to take!! The practise of one of the sutras/limbs that make up the holistic approach to yoga that Ashtanga speaks of, the practise of Ahimsa, non violence toward yourself! We need to push ourselves to keep a healthy mind and body and yoga facilitates this in the most fabulous way possible but realising that its ok to have off days, negative moments; it’s a natural part of being a complex being!We all have things we want to work on, to be happier, to better ourselves, to make more time for ourselves, to be a better friend and it may be today you think you have 10 things or 10 thousand things you wish you could do better, these things motivate us but if we are not careful can also get us down in the dumps! So this is where I must listen to what I’m about to write…

We are a work in progress and if you believe in yourself, people will believe in you, if you are constantly working on being an inspiration to yourself and others and most importantly smile and take time to listen to your body and others then you are good enough and it’s as simple as that!!!!

Categorised in: Yoga Teacher Training

This post was written by Laura Avery