VEENA VASUDEVAN

Great Teachers

I woke up today in a melancholy mood. The day I had been dreading for a few weeks had arrived - my yoga teacher would teach one last class before moving to the west coast. When she told us a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised at how affected I was by this news.In the last few days, I’ve been thinking about my yoga journey and why it mattered so much that my teacher was moving. I began coming to this studio three years ago on a Saturday morning, in search of a respite from an otherwise stressful work week. After my first class, I knew I had found a special place. The atmosphere was calm, the teacher I had was really thoughtful, supportive and welcoming and the studio itself was beautiful - a little intimate corner carved out in an otherwise bustling city.About a year and a half ago, a new teacher, we'll call her Jane, started to teach my Saturday morning class. The first time I attended her class, I left a little deflated. Jane’s sequences included many advanced poses that required strength, confidence and knowledge I hadn't developed yet. Those first few months with her, I struggled to keep up and was simultaneously conscious of the other students aptitude, strength and confidence Despite my feelings and my occasional frustration at not being able to do everything, I continued to attend because I still loved the practice of yoga. During her first few months as our teacher, I remember a session where Jane had us doing a very difficult sequence and people were exhausted but she implored us to push on. "I know it hurts and I know you want to stop, but push through it, don't give up, remain here, remain present, don’t give up because you can do it.” Her words hit me - I had always found it easier to stop, to slow down or to give up because my arm muscles were screaming or my abs just didn't work that way. But hearing her words of encouragement and to some degree, her incredulity that we would give up I was pushed to persevere.Thinking more about my experiences I realized there were two other things that really helped me over the last year. First, Jane always began class with an adage, a quote or a short reading from a seminal yoga text. She'd weave these themes into the class, as we moved through sequence after sequence and then close with a complimentary quote or adage. It always seemed that no matter what the theme, it somehow connected to where I was in life. Her approach helped me to see the bridge between the philosophy of yoga and the physical practice.Then there was the idea of breath; the idea of using the inhale and exhale to move in and out of a pose. Every time we would move into a pose that would challenge us physically, Jane would make sure to remind us to use our breath to regulate our actions. Intensely focus on breathing helps you to forget about the challenge in front of you - because the second you think about how hard something is, it becomes unattainable. For example, if you think about what a tree pose from side plank really is; balancing your weight in one hand and leg, while the other leg balances on your standing leg, it will intimidate you. But if you breathe through it and just focus on inhaling and exhaling, the pose will happen, or at least that's the hope.Looking back to when I began these flow classes with Jane, I would never even attempt to do the more difficult poses. I would just simply give up. Over time, I gained the confidence and strength to try poses that once seemed out of reach. I attribute a lot of this mental and physical growth to my teacher who consistently told us that we were capable of achieving anything, we just needed to focus, breathe, listen to our bodies and perhaps most important, soften our hearts.A great teacher can transform our lives. They can take the shy students who don't think they can achieve and foster in them a belief that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to. They can aid in the learning process by providing examples, by modeling and by making connections between class and our own lives. They can create a space so welcoming that students are excited about taking chances. This is what Jane did for me. So thanks to Jane and to all the teachers out there who help students to grow, learn, and change.