My first class at the Midwest Yoga Journal conference was with Sadie Nardini. I chatted with two women who assumed I was a yoga teacher. I was going to correct them until it hit me that I am actually a yoga teacher. I wanted to ask them why they assumed that since they weren't yoga teachers themselves. I don't think I look like a yoga teacher, but then again, what does a yoga teacher look like?!
The other day I was at my local food co-op, and the cashier said to me: You work out every day, don't you? And I wanted to ask, what gave me away? I don't consider myself to be the athletic type (probably because of those bad high school gym class memories), and yet it is true that I am physically active every day. I don't think it's so much a look as it is a feeling of health that one exudes. Another day I was talking to a dance teacher who said she could tell that I do yoga because of how I stand and walk. And here I thought I don't pay enough attention to my posture, especially since I had posture issues as a teenager and because I have scoliosis. I suppose all that yoga starts to show after a while.
I will be doing some subbing for the next 5 weeks at the yoga studio where I practice, which means I will actually start to be paid. The studio owner said: You are a professional yoga teacher now! Because I have been teaching at the gym that is in the building where I work as a salaried employee, I haven't been paid for any teaching up until now. It almost feels like I shouldn't get paid for something that I enjoy doing so much, but then again, how else am I going to pay for all the training? I am still trying to wrap my head around it all.
I almost didn't take the class from Sadie Nardini because she is a celebrity yoga teacher. From what I've read, she even has an agent. Whatever her status in the yoga world might be, I have to say that I liked her style. She told this that although she lives in NYC, her roots are Midwestern, which showed in her relaxed and quirky sense of humor.
The class with Sadie was about her core strength transforming methods. She asked us what we think the core is, quickly dispelling the notion that working the core is just the abs and getting a 6 pack. (And actually, as I learned in yoga school, it's more like an 8 pack.) According to Sadie, the core is where your inner truth resides, and the challenge is to align that inner truth with one's outer existence. She also talked about pelvic stability, the bandhas, and the whole core line from the inner arches to the crown. She referred us to the anatomical principles explored by Tom Myers in "Anatomy Trains". Tuning into our bodies through alignment allows us to deeper into our strength. Many of the poses we did had a rolling sort of feel to them - even when we came up into a lunge with the arms alongside the areas, the hands were the last to roll up. We also did a number of rolling planks. With a soundtrack that included one of my old favorites, Antibalas, the class had us sweating like crazy. The funny thing was that at the beginning when there was discussion, I was afraid there weren't be enough yoga. HA!
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