Some things I've been doing: been taking Christina Sell's 12 week tutorial: The Art of Teaching and it has been helping me in getting clearer on my theme. Prepping about the theme beforehand, being clear on how it ties to Anusara philosophy and to cit ananda, and tying it to one of the UPA's is brilliant. I mean I know this, right? Every Anusara teacher knows to do this. But somehow having Christina explain it so succinctly made it even more accessible for me. Christina gives you a clear formula to use and then you get to practice it every day. And like that, you just get better. Being so clear (or at least trying to be! I still have a lot to learn!) makes me less likely to go into a "god-I-hope-they-like-me" place. It actually connects me to my power.

I think one of the mistakes I've made in the past, was to be too married to my class plan, and miss out on opportunities that come in every class; opportunites of teaching and growth. Like in today's Strong class at Black Dog Yoga. We were doing Ustrasana and a student couldn't touch his heels. He even asked a question about it. So I had everyone turn around and do Ustrasana with their pubic bone against the wall. And lo and behold, he could then touch his heels. Normally I would stop there and move on to some other pose that was written on my notebook. But instead, I had them move away from the wall and try it again. And he could do it! On his own, without the wall. This was huge for me as a teacher! Normally I use in my classes tons of props, walls and partners. It's fun and exhilarating. It gets people excited about getting close to the pose. But afterwards, did it help get the students do the pose? 

So now I'm more conscious of that. Now I'm using partnering and props to demonstrate a principle of alignment. And then have the students try it on their own. Apply what they learned. I think that often out of our love for partnering, we end up relying too much on a partner, and we are not learning how to do poses on our own.

One time John Friend came to LA- gosh this was about four years ago. John had a private practice with about 15 of us, at Ross Rayburn's old studio Yogainsideout. I was so honored to have been invited. Anyway, we were doing drop backs, and I was the only teacher in the room who couldn't do them on my own. I remember Jessica J. helped me, and even John helped me. And that day, that very same day. I went to the park in front of my apartment. and took a deep breath and went for it. And I actually did my first drop back on my own! So it goes like that, we empower the students so that they can do poses on their own!

One last thing as I reflect on my classes so far this week. I am so fired up and so stoked from Christina and Noah's workshop that I might have tapped into my inner bitch. Oh dear. 

Well, it seems like that to me, since I'm so used to being sweet all the time. 

Now I'm walking in to my classes with a clear focus and I cannot wait to share the teachings. I'm not interested in being liked, in being popular- hell I would rather have a small class filled with people who want to learn than a packed class with no adhikara. 

Today we were about to do Sirsasana 1 and a student who seemed distracted said in a very slow way, "can I ask a question?" 

"Yes," I said.

"Well, it's about another pose..."

"Then no." I said.  "Please ask it when we come out of Headstand."

OMG- I would never say that before!

But you see, I was instructing the class on Headstand, people were already up, and I wanted to stay focused.

So then after our Headstand I asked him what the question was and he asked something about chair pose- and I answered it

I know it doesn't sound like a huge deal but telling someone to hold a question until I'm ready for it- wow, that is a new one.

We'll see how this new Maria Cristina goes.

Maybe it's the old Maria Cristina, who was simply waiting for so long to get out?