Monday, August 4, 2008

how much environmental distraction is too much [when practicing or teaching]?

I am sure there are people out there who have never taken a yoga class in an environment that is nothing less than serene, "zen" and heavenly.

For the rest of us, have you ever been taking (or, for that matter, teaching) a class where the number of distractions present makes it almost impossible to be present? Or more specifically, where sounds from the racquetball elimination game and the nursery behind the neighboring walls are competing for attention, or where the room temperature is in the general vicinity of an industrial freezer, or where people are coming and going like a speed dating service?

Ok, I might be dramatizing it a bit. But only a little bit. The question is this: at what point does an environment make it impossible for yoga to happen? Or does it ever?--Is my struggle to concentrate in the midst of construction noises, for example, a sign of my non-enlightenment?

I am serious here. This is not a question I like asking, because it could (and probably will) turn out that the second answer is the correct one. But I do need feedback.

So: where is the line between living (or practicing) in the midst of confusion and distraction while being calm and in the moment AND teaching or practicing in an environment that is soooo not conducive to yoga that the struggle to overcome it ceases to be yoga at all?

Am I the only one with this dilemma? please comment.

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About Me

I owe my passion for yoga and its transformative nature to my teachers, namely Max Strom. I have been teaching since December, 2006. I teach an all-levels vinyasa flow class, which focuses on the breath as the key to change and healing. As my teacher, Max, says, we just add the poses to the breath. I have completed a 30-hour teacher training with Max in Kansas City and another 54-hour training with him in Greenville; a 230-hour, 9-month intensive with Max's students and owners of North Main Yoga studio, Brian and Liz Delaney; and a Yin Yoga teacher training with Shala Worsley from the Asheville Yoga Center. Most recently, I have begun studying Thai Yoga Massage privately with Asheville therapist Lia Pardy. In April, I will enroll in the Asheville School of Massage & Yoga to pursue my massage therapist license.