Starbucks is down the block...

4 new, 18 total this morning. And they were REALLY chatty before class, took awhile to settle down.

But then AFTER class, during savasana, mere seconds after leaving the room, I turned back to go in again because I forgot the juice, and it was just as loud as before class, and I'm NOT ok with that, there are people trying to relax and hang out for a few minutes in total relaxation. And I had even asked to respect other peoples quiet time.

So as I walked through to get the juice, I called out to respect others in silence as they try to relax in a slightly more serious tone. Didn't lower the noise in the slightest. Two were hardcore talkers, but I think those let others get away with smaller chatter, but at full volume.

A regular came out and talked about how annoying it was, and she was really surprised at my coming BACK in to call them out, but was clearly grateful. Although she did say that the first thing they started talking about was how awesome it was….so how mad can I really stay?

Playtime photo shoot in the studio!!!!

Yoga Teacher Confessions.

I found this awesome blog post today, and I felt like I should share. I am guilty of many on her list, (ESPECIALLY putting people in childs so I can think what to do next). But here's a few more I've come up with;

• Sometimes I wonder if a student is hunching their shoulders up to their ears in any pose (but ESPECIALLY cobra) just to piss me off because I have given 9,000 cues about relaxing the shoulders down.

• Sometimes I want to tell a student the class is full even if its not because they have shown up as I am literally locking the door to start class and now i have to spend five minutes signing them in and waiting while everyone else waits. 

• Sometimes when I am laying the cool towels on their foreheads, I drip my own sweat on their mats, and I feel zero remorse because they get savasana and I still have to work. 

 Any one out there care to share their own?

Pictures from Partner Yoga!

I just posted a long post about the awesome Partner Yoga class we held this past weekend, now i finally got my hands on some of the pictures!!! Enjoy!!

Getting Handsy in Down Dog!

So a couple of years ago, I had taken a partner yoga class, and absolutely LOVED it. Then when I took my teacher training, we were lucky enough to have one evening dedicated to learning different partner yoga poses, only reigniting my interest in it.

So earlier in the winter, I approached the studio owner about teaching a partner themed class around Valentines Day, and she was totally into it, and told me to go for it. So I did more research, got a full sequence ready, made the corny lovey playlist and it was on the calendar for 12 couples to come get their down dog romance on. It helps that we actually have a bunch of guys that come to the studio, so we knew they'd at least be into it.

We did some pre planning of the class, mainly just going through the poses to make sure the three of us knew what each pose was. And she went to town on planning food and the little touches (ie. rose petals on their eyes before the cool towel during savasana).

I got there Friday night, expecting that she would lead the class since she is far more experienced, and it IS a special event for the studio. And immediately I am corrected that no, I will be the one lead teaching. Thank goodness I was the one to actually write the sequence, but it had still been a month since I'd looked at it. Cue cramming. Although, we had gained extra people to help assist. The owner, the only instructor that taught there before me, and then the two newest instructors. One of which was my old instructor from way back in the day at the rec center.

Couples started arriving, the instructors got them signed in and we took their mats to get them all set up before they even entered the studio, because we are full service! They were all really cute. 11 boy/girl combos and one what is guess was mother/daughter (all types of love for valentines!). Some were far more romantic than others. Lots of hand rubbing and back caressing. In fact, a couple of them might have even gone a little overboard, cause it takes a lot to get me blushing, but boy did some of them achieve that.

All different levels of skill. One couple NAILED every pose, despite a solid 2.5 foot height difference. His legs were literally her entire body. Another couple, I almost felt bad for her. He might as well have been a baby deer just born. Had I not seen him walk in successfully, I would have thought he didn't know what legs were for.

18-some poses, and we got through them all! There was a quick warm up, and a nice long savasana (lights off, god only knows what fully happened). It was only supposed to last an hour, but ended up being closer to 75 minutes, but knowing our studio, no one should be shocked by that. And through it all, the owner only interjected a few instructions, and even those were completely helpful and only adding to what I had already said. She did teach two poses, but because i had asked her to, because there were two poses that she added herself, and I really had no idea how to even get a couple started moving in that direction. But otherwise, she was super smiley and happy and bouncing through the whole class. She was like a ninja photographer snapping pictures from every position when not helping assist the poses. At one point, she was in full reclined hero to get the angle she wanted. It was really cute. And it only continued after the class. She took photos of all of us in front of the buffet, and kept giving hugs and high fives and was clearly ELATED with the outcome of the class, making me extremely happy and pleased with my own doing. The couples all seemed to love it too as they finally emerged from the dark savasana. Lots of compliments and saying they would love to do it again. So that was pretty awesome.

And all the compliments were BEFORE the buffet after. Champagne, sparkling green tea (still have to pretend to be yogis ;-) ), truffles, other chocolates, mousse cups, chocolate covered strawberries, the works. And it was all fantastic. Perfect cap to the class. And once everyone left, the instructors all stayed, and it was actually the first time we have all been together, so it became a totally chat time, eventually working into finding two of them boyfriends. We also got to meet the owner's husband and daughter, who I had yet to meet so far.

Overall, a total success. Who wants to wait all the way until next February to do another one? Certainly not me. Although, I think going further into acroyoga might be funner….. :-)

They ALL showed up....

This past weekend I was lucky enough to teach a Saturday morning yoga class. It's always a big class, but I knew it was going to be insane this weekend. I had nine of my friends telling me they were going to come to their first hot yoga class EVER. Well, seven hot yoga virgins, one had been two ONE hot yoga class, and one hot yoga instructor.

I have always wanted my friends to come to class with me, or even a class that I am teaching. But one or two at a time! So I can interact with them, give them some special attention, and if I'm teaching, I'll totally style the class around their needs. But when there are NINE of them. You're just screwed. I'll be honest, I didn't expect them all to show up. I figured a few would forget, a few would be hungover, and/or a few would just chicken out. They ALL showed. But so did 25 other students.

My biggest class has been 21 before Saturday. Usually 16-18. The studio itself has never been able to hold more than 31. We end up having to turn people away. But with the chaos of having only a half an hour turn around from the prior class to mine, we somehow crammed in THIRTY FOUR people into my class.

I was pretty nervous going in, knowing that many people that I personally know were going to be there. If its strangers, you can just get by knowing that they don't know you and if they don't like how you teach, they never have to go to a class you are scheduled to teach again. But when you know them, its so different, you want to please them! You NEED to please them. And with the varied level of bodies coming in, boy howdy I was in for it.

But with 34 people, I was literally brushing sides with my mat neighbors. Who thank GOD were Tim to my left and Nate to my right. The two people I want most next to me through that insanity. It got so hot and humid I thought I would black out. But thats when being the teacher feels the absolute best. Feel like passing out? Oh thats right childs pose for a few breaths, drink break, or lets just let the cool breeze in.

With the amount of people, I didn't get to talk to everyone in person afterwards, but I got immense praise from a few immediately after, including the people I most wanted to impress, and Facebook went wild later that day with how much everyone loved it. In fact, I think only one actually didn't like it. He thinks I tried to kill him with the heat. I think he just needs to buck it up. But he never down talked it to me, so Ill let it slide, at least he tried.

All in all, it went swimmingly, but lets just try to span out the friends and newbies from now on. Give my heart a few extra years to live.

But thank you to Tim, Nate, Chris, John, Creed, Jeff, Kayla, Sarah, and Matt for surviving that heat, you all did amazingly well!

Yoga Teaching Adventures Begin!!!

So I guess it's been long enough that I'm safe in posting about my new gig. I've finally put my 200 hour training to public use!

I really couldn't have asked for it to happen any better than it did. I wasn't really feeling in tune with the ONLY yoga studio in town, so imagine my happiness when I saw a new studio opening in September, and not only that, but HOT yoga, my true love! Oh yes.

I started going, almost obsessively. The studio is just gorgeous, clean, bright, beautiful. The owner is this total light of smiling joy and happy. Plus she knows her stuff (you know how annoyed I get at instructors that think an abs class with downward facing dog intermittently is "yoga"). She's completely knowledgable and uses it, love it. And people know it, I've seen zero advertising and she's turning people away at the door at max capacity, FOR A SUNDAY NIGHT CLASS. Yeah, that's what's up.

I was trying to play it cool, get well integrated before I brought up teaching, and before I knew it, October rolls around and she brings it up herself! I didn't even have to have the awkward ask for a job moment! It's just her teaching, with another instructor taking 2 or 3 classes a week (out of 20some). So the arms were wide open for another instructor!

I started the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, probably ideal, I figured since the holiday would give me a smaller class. WRONG. 17, first class ever. Including the owner, who of course was awesome, but it's still that much more intense.

I thought I would have a heart attack that morning at the gym beforehand. Literal panic attack. But I got to my car between the gym and the studio to find Tim had left me a good luck present. not that I could even look at it without wanting to throw up. I could barely breathe. Let alone keep my mouth wet enough to practice AND talk through a 105 class for an hour. It was brutal, I kept tripping over leg versus arm versus right versus left. But I made it through and got plenty of compliments at the end.

It's been a month of teaching Mondays and Wednesdays, including a Saturday fill in. It's taking longer than I thought to get acclimated. Getting rid of dry mouth talking in that heat is hard, impossible when you factor any nerves. I still trip on right versus left a lot. And your arm has three parts. Placing your knee at your hand is very different than your elbow in plank....

But I haven't had any haters! Only compliments. A lot of them are regulars, so that's awesome, but I have at least 1-2 new people in each class, meaning new to yoga, not just new to me. So that's a struggle to teach a class that is good for someone of my level (or to be honest, probably better than me) but yet good for someone who literally can't get from there hands and knees to standing in under a solid 60 seconds.

My first was for sure my biggest. Gone all the way down to 6. But I feel more comfortable every time. It's not even a public speaking thing. It's trying to remember the sequence I created, hoping its hard enough and takes up the full class. I'm getting better at adding stuff on the fly dependent on how I think it's going, but it still needs work. I have heard that my classes are more challenging though, so that's good in my mind. The more practice I get before the New Years Resolution crowd, the better.

I gotta say though, a perk of teaching, you get to call your own shots. We were starting a balance series last week, and I was like, geeze my neck hurts, I want to stretch it out. *lightbulb* "Ok, before we go into our balancing sequence, we're going to come to mountain and do neck rolls." That's right, because I CAN!

Because I am the yoga instructor. :-)