Learning to teach yoga — there’s a lot to it. Learning the asanas, pranayama (breathwork), communications, the verbal/visual feedback loop, linking asanas, sequencing asanas, anatomy and physiology of the physical, energy, and pranic bodies…

Chanting, Sanskrit, philosophy, scriptures, teaching different levels of ability, teaching for conditions like pregnancy or disability, teaching different styles of yoga…

Whew. We’re probably going to go way over 200 hours, and that’s okay.

And probably in August or September, I will be teaching a four-class series. If you’re interested, please let me know.

I’m grateful that one of our first assignments is to practice pranayama for 5 minutes a day.

On Saturday Eleanor taught viloma breathing, inhaling into the bottom one-third of lungs, holding, inhaling into the middle one-third, holding, inhaling into the upper one-third, holding, and then one long smooth exhalation.

I observed myself trying too hard, overdoing it, filling my lungs up so full I had to expand to be able to exhale, holding by locking down. Just as I like to go to my edge in asana practice, so I was going to my edge in pranayama.

Eleanor said “different edge.” Aha!

At home I practiced taking deep full breaths, but natural deep full breaths, and holding with a minimum of effort. Actually, rather than holding, I just paused from inhaling.

Very gentle, very different experience.

I will be good at this when I finish my training.