May 24, 2015

When we teach, we touch. It is what teaching is designed to do. With our intention or objective, with our words and language constructs, with our eyes, voice and touch, we reach out across space and we reach through layers of form, experience and resistance. We reach through the layers that cloak as we seek to touch the essence beyond the barriers. We hold the yoga’s sacred intention in our hands as we adjust students in poses. With our eyes, we practice seeing and touching touch the beauty within each student. We touch.

As a yoga teacher, I contemplate my touch. I reflect on the moments my touch has been harsh. Was the harshness my frustration or a clear intention to penetrate barriers? Was I harsh in service of touching the soul or in destroying an ego (theirs) in service of another (mine)? I consider the impact I have on the students. Did I touch each student in the class in a real and meaningful way? Did I compliment as much as constructively adjust? Did I clear the path to the soul with my “touch” or did I lose this in the process of moving through the poses?

We come to yoga, as we come into life, with a yearning to be touched. We deeply desire that contact within ourselves. Each class, we are asking to touch our soul in our pilgrimage to Savasana. Our teacher is the guide and the model for this process. How we as teachers touch the soul of the student is how we ask them to touch that part of themselves.