As a yoga instructor, there is nothing more enticing to me than the story behind the intention of class other than the pretzel poses themselves. An intention in class is a focus you can come back to when the mind starts to wander. The mind naturally wanders during quiet times, adding to the to-do list, or counting down the seconds until the pose is over.
I always set an intention. I have a few of my favorites but if it’s a good day my student’s will listen to stories of my life. Most of them are opening old scars, new and fresh one’s, or feeling victorious in something I accomplished like a mile stone. I do not do it for attention or to let everyone know everything about me. I do it because no one is alone.
This blog is very public, and I am not yet ready for all the intimate stories of my life. But I do have quite a few to share! Later….
I tell my story briefly before class to give a little background of myself. To let everyone, know yoga instructors are not the calmest of people, nor are we the most put together, and most certainly have struggles and battles like everyone else.
My intentions for class wrap around a struggle in my lifetime. Whether deep wounds or as simple as learning to communicate kindlier with others. You never know what you might get when you come to one of my classes. I want to give my student’s an experience. A focus of class because what we do in yoga is NOT easy. For you skeptic readers, go take a class at a legit studio and report back. In my last couple diary posts I posted about how I left my job a month after my first yoga class, just about 4 years ago. I digress…
I share my stories to connect with others. It is super scary to put it all out there, don’t get me wrong I do not share every detail, just the important ones I feel other’s need to hear to tie in a long with my focus of class. I connect this way with other humans, with people who either have experienced a similar situation or challenge, a friend, a friend of a friend, a friend of a friend of a friend whose cousin went through the same experience. Not all my experiences are heavy hearted or super private. It’s as simple as me trying to set up this blog all by myself and learning to short code my recipe so you all can try them!
In my last two weekly posts I spoke about a challenge I have been battling all this year. I never said what it was, and I still won’t. I have touched on it in my classes a lot lately and a student of mine reached out 3 weeks ago and we planned to go have coffee just to get to know each other. I remember her saying I am so real, and my posts are so raw. I am just like all of you! I feel what is private is private, but I never mind sharing a story because if it is one person I connect with or five people I connect with, I know I am not alone, and neither are you.
I stay true to openness when appropriate. Many times, I have heard, “I’m stuck in traffic and I hear Stacie’s voice saying relax your jaw.” I have spoke about Houston traffic and bringing my awareness to the jaw bone in my classes. Learning to relax because there is nothing you can do about it. It is the small things but also the big things that matter just as equally.
So, we grabbed coffee today and turns out we are more similar than opposite. We have battles each of us never would have known if it wasn’t for the raw openness of me sharing who I am and my real life situations. And as well as her reaching out to me and being completely supportive with anything I say. I love a good judgement free zone, don’t you? I have made a friend for life. Some else who understands the pains and triumphs.
Communication is something I feel this world lacks. A way to speaking kindly, a way to connect, a way to share who we are in a space that is free from judgment, questions, comments, ugly looks, etc.
It’s refreshing to know I am not alone. I am a real person with real feelings and had a real conversation today that surfaced from an intimate real-life story in my class. Personal doesn’t mean go without saying, untold, restricted. It is looking into the raw emotional everyone has and understanding we are there for each other in victory and defeat.