I’m not sure whether is the ‘busy-ness’ of what I have created for myself here on Mallorca, or the fact that ‘every day life’ without the excitement and newness of new cities, different students and varied landscape has kept me away, but I haven’t really felt like Blogging in the last several weeks. But today, I am in the airport in Palma in the early morning awaiting a flight to Hamburg and feeling a myriad of emotions to be back to traveling and teaching.
The last several weeks here on Mallorca have literally been non-stop. I find myself scheduled to the hour with great and exciting things and doing the best I can to focus on the training manual and necessary communications in the interim.
Last weekend Pau, another AcroYoga teacher from Barcelona, came to the island and we co-taught each of our first AcroYoga workshops! I have had been hosting weekly Jam’s on the beach (which are still happening as of yesterday even in the cold strong wind) and feeling great energy building around AcroYoga and spending time and teaching with Pau was a great experience. We first met several weeks before when he was here with a Thai Massage master from Japan teaching and there was an instant AcroYoga brotherhood connection. It was really great and we both felt it. I told him I had the workshop on the 25th and would love for him to come co-teach with me and he made it happen. He is a vibrant multi-lingual Spaniard with a deep connection to the teachings of Yoga and currently passionate about cutlivating Acro here in Spain. As I learned in the Acro Teacher Training, one of my biggest edges in co-teaching is building a shared and balanced voice with co-teachers as I can be rather dominating while teaching. We arranged a timeline for the class, made a teaching plan and set forth….we had 13 students which was great for our first one and the process was very exciting and also expanding for me. With my experience leading groups and teaching workshops, I did find myself wanting to support Pau in developing this in himself while not being an overbearing asshole! This was a good place for me work on that and it worked out well. There were challenges and there were some timing issues that I was ‘confronted’ with and I kept telling myself: Equal voice… the students are learning… it ended up being a great success and he will come back to Mallorca at the end of Nov. and we’ll make a whole weekend together!
Things at YogaYou have been really interesting. My classes have exploded in attendance and I feel very connected to the art of teaching and leading. The room is a big open space and the students are literally from all over the world, speaking many different languages and coming with very different experiences of Yoga (if any!). This ‘challenge / opportunity’ means that my classes have been fairly consistent with building foundations of hands and feet, focusing on breathing and learning to listen! Which are all important qualities for students of all levels anyway. This week, there has been some nasty weather and class size has dropped off and I took the opportunity to take it up a notch with a few of the classes as only the regulars come to a few classes. it was exciting for me to get to present more advanced material. I am really enjoying having consistent students and helping them to develop new awareness in the foundations and in their practice. I haven’t had this in a while since being a traveling teacher. It has felt empowering and satisfying as a teacher to see growth and development in all areas of Yoga within a few weeks of consistent contact with students rather then the blast open that workshops and retreats have. it has opened me to a (slight!) desire to find this some where in the future…and in the meantime, I keep getting invitations to wonderful exotic places and opportunities to keep traveling that are truly too good to pass up! So I am here until the end of December with literally a full agenda of weekend workshops on the island and in Barcelona and the weekdays full of classes, work time, meetings, practice time and social engagements….
There is another aspect of YogaYou that has been really challenging which is a shift in ownership and operations that has felt like I am in the middle of an ugly divorce. This has resulted in a series of missed communications, an uncertainty of operating systems, roles and functions and a general energetic uneasiness at the studio. I won’t go into it too deeply, but just to say that it has been tough to get things taken care of and have a positive feeling about teaching at a studio who’s owners, managers and staff are not practicing Yoga on or off the mat. Sometime the best teachers of what we want to do/be in our lives are those that show us what we do not want to do/be.
In addition to weekly AcroYoga jams, I have held 3 Kirtans in the lat month at the studio and have been blown wide open each time at the openness of the people and the energy we are creating. I am very happy to have community to chant again.
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I just finished the weekend in Hamburg and feel revived again after getting back to leading workshops and a bit of travel. Its really interesting how accustomed to this role I have gotten into. I was feeling great in Mallorca, but just taking one weekend away to be a traveling teacher again has left me recharged.
The workshops were great successes too! I made Vinyasa on Friday night that was really fun. Theme: We are Spiritual Beings having a Human Experience. Very juicy and good flows…positive vibes as well. Tobias from Cologne came up to co-teach Acro with me on Saturday and we went out to dinner on Friday and met some friends from girls who live here but I met in Mallorca. It was good fun to see them…but we made it an early night as we had 2 Acroworkshops on Saturday that were both great success. I am feeling really inspired and connected to the AcroYoga work and co-teaching with a different teacher was really great. We made solid outlines, time frames and clea roles and both of us balanced each other nicely. The students all loved it as well…photos coming soon. This morning, i taught The Natural Link and once again feel very connected to my Green Yoga work…good stuff all around.
So I go back to Palma tomorrow…I am happy to go back and see people I have been getting close to and spending quality time with very special people there. And at the same time….after one weekend on the road again, I am connected again to my ‘gypsy’ roots!
