Teachers: Think Before You Speak

I’ve finally gotten back to yoga. It’s been a long time- Since late September or early October. Between the sprained ankle and the thrown out back I was having some serious movement issues.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the classes that my favorite teacher offers. They are basic yoga classes but they are challenging for me. She doesn’t do lots of modifications and her sun salutation sequences are speedy on a slow day. So, I decided to try out a new teacher and showed up to the January 1 Gentle/Basic yoga class. The owner was there and queried if I was new, so I explained that I’d actually been going twice a week but couldn’t keep up with the former teacher just yet.

Sunday’s class was terrific. Just challenging enough in tempo but with plenty of modifications. The teacher was also hands on, which is very different for me, but it was tremendously helpful- especially since I was really worried about reinjuring my lower back. He came over during cobra and helped me ease my lower back out of whatever jacked-up position it was in (I was using it too much in the pose) etc.

So, I decided that class would be a new good one for me. As per my past practice, I want to go to class two days a week. I went back to yoga today for the Gentle Yoga class given by one of the owners. It was a complete personality shift from Sunday’s class. And a bit discouraging.

We were all sitting on our mats and the teacher was asking what we wanted. I asked for hip openers, others asked for shoulders, and one woman asked for core work. The teacher began to explain that you can work on Core in any move in yoga by lifting your pelvic floor, and pulling your belly button back. And as she sat at the front of the room she said “I don’t look like this unless I’m holding my stomach in,” she let her stomach out, grabbed the ¼ inch of belly fat she has and said “I look like a big fat LONG PAUSE teacher” Switch to my head. What do I , who is clearly and obviously the fattest person in the class start to wonder… What word was going to go there? What was the word going to be after Big and Fat before the teacher realized that there was actually someone big and fat in her class? It was… unsettling, and frankly, my first thought was to just get off the mat and leave the class. But I didn’t because I needed to be there and be on that mat this afternoon. So I stayed through the class. Which turned out to be an excellent class—I never thought about doing sun salutations to Katy Perry’s Firework and overall the class was full of joy. Still, I’m not sure that I’ll go back to this specific class with this specific teacher. Luckily there are plenty of other classes to go to. That said, if you are a yoga teacher, really think about what you say before you say it. It might make the difference in someone returning to your class or never coming back.