Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Your Ego and Your Teaching

Just a quick link to my latest article for Yoga Journal's My Yoga Mentor newsletter called "Your Ego and Your Teaching." (Check out their new website, especially the "Build Your Own Sequence" feature). The research and the interviews for this piece are what inspired the postings for the last month or so. It was very hard to condense it all into 750 words, so you got some of what I had to leave out. Even if you aren't a yoga teacher, there is some good advice for how to deal with one's inner control freak ("I put that woman down hours ago...").

Also, please be patient with my erratic posting these days. I am trying to juggle the responsibilities of mother-of-two-hood and, although I have a lot of help from my parents right now, I only have about a half an hour every night to do anything non-child related (which is usually taking a shower). Hopefully I'll get it together a bit more in a month or so and be more regular ("Don't hold your breath, sister," laughs all of you out there with two or more kids).

Cheers!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hello, i'm new to your blog and yoga blogs on the whole, really (I love a good cooking blog!).

your blog and your entry in particular on july 23, practicing yoga, is really speaking to me right now. i have been doing an iyengar yoga class for about four or five years (where i live in hobart, Australia, the yoga culture is smaller than I gather it is in America). I ot into it to increase my suppleness and flexibility.

but only in the last couple of months has it clicked as something more than a once a week class. it's only recently that I’ve started rolling out my mat at home, by myself, apart from my weekly class; and doing this has seeped into my mind (and body) that this is wonderful -- but what else is there to yoga? in other words, i've been ramping my physical stuff up and this has caused my spiritual or emotional practice to expand too. i've started to think of yoga as more than asana -- but i'd love more guidance and information to help me study and practice this. any help, references or ideas to help me explore this more?

thank you for your thought provoking blog.

elizabeth

Brenda P. said...

Hi Elizabeth,
I've been on a yoga-but-not-asana kick all summer, so check out some of the other postings. Also, if you feel ready to move on to pranayama, read Richard Rosen's "Pranayama" (listed in books section). It is very insightful and can get you started on an in-depth breathing practice.

BKS Iyengar would approve of your discovery (I think). He says you should spend a long time growing comfortable with asana until you start to move deeper into your practice. Sounds like you are ready!

Keep me posted,
Brenda

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the article.
As a teacher in a small Northern California town (and another yoga blogger), I appreciated this piece when I received it from Yoga Journal. It was filled with good reminders about how I mix my personality and my teaching.

Suzi