A real teacher...

Today was pretty exciting. For the first time we got to act like real teachers, admittedly it was only for a few moments at a time with a single student (who might have been my room mate), but we began learning how to talk a class into a pose and then adjust the students once there.

One thing that was especially great was the way our teacher explained her take on adjusting. For her, she said, being a teacher and adjusting a student in a pose is such a privilege because of the level of trust that person gives her. She told us that adjusting isn't about fixing someone. It's about correcting alignment; creating good patterns in the body to help prevent injury and enable the student to go further into a posture. Assisting someone in a pose is similar, here the student already has the correct alignment in a posture, you are simply helping them go deeper than they would be able to alone.

I loved every part of this class. Working in partners we played both role of student and teacher, being adjusted and adjusting. As a student I love adjustments, they help you go so much further in an asana; they help to show you the full potential of your body and give you confidence in your capabilities. I also loved taking the role of the teacher. For the first time my dream to teach seemed so real and tangible. I learnt so much about poses, alignment, saying commands, supporting students... I'll stop now... You can see I learnt a lot! It is an excitement that is difficult to put into words, but it is only day three. And I really, really can't wait to see what the next nineteen days will bring.