I love this picture so much. It shows how I feel when I’m teaching yoga.

By all means, I don’t want to give the impression that I’m a perfect yoga teacher. I have the feeling that I’m just starting on my spiritual path and barely dipping my toes into the deep, rich waters of yoga.

So what do I like about this picture?

The Yoga Loft

First of all, it was taken at the Yoga Loft in Cabarete. The Yoga Loft is part of a small collective, aimed at providing ethical, sustainable, and healthy vacations, and it has been my home since 2016. I’m their marketing manager, and I also teach a couple of yoga classes there. It has a beautiful, hardwood deck overlooking the ocean. It’s a good place, and transformed the lives, or at least kicked off the transformation, of many people. This place is very dear to my heart and I will write more about it in a separate blog.

We are at the end of practice. My students surrender to the ultimate pose, corpse pose, savasana. It shows me in a peaceful state, full of gratitude and awe, watching over my students. Full of gratitude for the beautiful space I’m allowed to practice and teach in.

Teaching Yoga

I’m at peace in this photo because I’m holding space for human beings and keeping them safe. It’s a big responsibility and I feel the strength that comes from bearing it. We are strong and vulnerable at the same time when teaching and practicing yoga.

Everybody comes to yoga for different reasons, with their individual story and body. We are alone on our mats. Everyone’s allowed to have their own experience at their own pace. And yet, there’s this magical thing that happens in yoga. We are united and feel the same. We feel the same in a practice that even transcends space and time as it has been passed on from teacher to student over thousands of years. Even if it’s only for a little time, a community arises.

I’m grateful that these students allowed me to be their Sherpa. I’m in awe that we just made this entire journey together. We calmed the mind, feeling all the feels that come up during practice, releasing tensions, cleansing things that don’t serve us anymore, softening, strengthening. It’s mostly subtle shifts, and that’s ok. We connected with ourselves and our body. We connected with each other and supported the community.

The Gift of Yoga

They surrendered to the teacher and let themselves be guided. Everybody who has been practicing yoga before knows and appreciates this gift. The gift of being grounded, of being guided and supported in a community. Even if you’ve never been practicing with a student before (which happens quite a lot in a retreat venue where vacationers come and go), they immediately trust you and hand over control to you as their teacher.

I feel especially honored, as my students of that particular class were all fellow yoga teachers. You should have seen us, exchanging subtle smiles, knowing that the other person feels exactly the same in that moment, only to turn the attention inwards again and being in the present. Knowing that all is well.

Wrapping up

Does this all sound hyper woo-woo? The aeronautical engineer me from the past probably would think, ‘She totally snapped’, but maybe not. I was always an engineer who trusted in experience and intuition.

I’d love to hear from you. Share your thoughts in the comments.