How Can You Best Serve? Drop the Should's and Teach What You Know

I rediscovered myself in 2016. I was so ready to live as my authentic self, but that meant changing how I taught yoga. And that scared me.

Freshly re-bloomed from my first week in Path of Love, I was booked to teach a yoga class at a huge event in Colorado just a few weeks later. I had taught this kind of yoga class so many times before, but the anticipation for this one was new. I realized I didn’t really want to teach a whole lot of asana anymore.

I was nervous to teach because I had no idea what was going to come pouring out of me.

Everything about me those days felt new.

In the few years leading up to that class, I’d been struggling with my teaching. I’d felt like a “bad” yoga teacher because I hadn’t felt passionate about asana, sequencing, alignment or philosophy - at all. When people kept asking me for teacher trainings and immersions and RYT certifications, all I felt was… Bleh. I had no interest in teaching people how the bones should stack in Mountain pose, what muscles to engage in Warrior II, or any of the things you’ll find in a standard yoga teacher training manual.

I didn’t care that much about Sanskrit. I didn’t care that much about poses. All I’ve ever wanted to do was talk about love. I didn’t give a whole lot of shit about anything else. But hey, I’m Yoga Girl. So yoga, much of which is focused on poses and structure and body, comes with the gig.

Touring was exhausting me and I was beginning to realize it’s because I’d put the essence of my teaching, my true offering to this world, on the sideline. I’d been so stuck on the idea of what yoga “usually is” and what people expect from me that I hadn’t given the truth that I speak enough room to grow. Even though I know this is why so many people come to my classes.

It’s why you fly in from different states and countries to practice; it’s why you wait for hours in line outside the strange venues we pack people into for these classes; it’s why you squeeze your mat in next to a thousand others; It’s why you listen to the words I say.

You don’t give a whole lot of shit about “yoga” either. You care about the true meaning of it. You care about union. You care about letting go. Above all, you care about love.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I decided to begin teaching from that moment on.

Asana is a wonderful tool and it plays a big role in how we open up, but it’s not the end-game.

__Love is the end-game. __

Love is what poured out of me on that stage in the grass meadow of Vail. We practiced yoga, but I also guided hundreds of people to sit knee-to-knee and share the depths of their hearts with complete strangers. I’d never guided that in a yoga class before, but doing it gave me the chills that tell you you’re onto something big. Sharing has been a huge part of my teaching ever since.

Since that yoga class in Colorado, I dove back into studying yogic philosophy and how I can make sure I’m honoring yoga’s roots in my classes. I even launched a 200hr Yoga Teacher Training. We discuss Sanskrit, the 8 Limbs and the Kleshas, we bring in alignment experts...

But everything I teach ultimately comes from the intention of knowing love. That part, my main message and purpose, is no longer on the sideline.

Once I made my true essence the forefront of what I do, everything shifted in the most beautiful ways. It led to the creation of this website, for one; a place for everyone to heal, grow, connect and be their own yoga girl and leader of change.

Tell me below, are you letting your message lead what you do? If you’re not sure what your message is, ask yourself this: What do you wish everyone knew?

What if you were the one to tell them? (Guess what - You are!)

X,

Rachel