We the Students

People are often surprised when I tell them how important attending classes as an instructor is to me. People are even more surprised when I tell them I pay to attend other studios. My response is simple: We are all students. I don’t flatter myself to believe that because I am qualified to teach yoga I have somehow achieved yoga in its entirety. Perhaps the opposite has transpired because as I teach I become more and more aware of how little I know. Yes, I am well versed in body adjustments, and healthy body movements, and breath cues; however, that moment when an instructor adjusts my shoulders in a posture is just as transformative as the first time an instructor pressed down on my shoulders in Savanasa (final mediation). 

Continual learning is important to every process in life. We are all students of everything we do. If we stop moving forward with a student mindset we become stagnant, stuck, underdeveloped, and overconfident. Carol Dweck is one of my favorite psychological researchers. She outline the importance of what she has coined the "growth mindset." This refers to the way we think about ourselves in terms of our environment. As we become socialized every choice we make shifts our world in one direction or another. So while some people say we are a product of our environment, on the contrary - our environment is a product of our choices. Granted some people are given more forgiving environments to begin their journey, and we should be open to helping those who need to trudge through murkier water to reach the sunshine. 

You can always learn more, grow more, transform more, and be more. This is not to say never be satisfied; however, if you're never hungry - you never start the search.