There is a stereotype about everyone, including yoga teachers. For example, this is the kind of stuff I hear all the time:
- "Oh, you yoga types, you're always so calm...."
- "I wish I was the sort who didn't get upset over anything like you yoga people...."
- "Of course this didn't bother you...."
It's like people expect us to have been born as yoga teachers - to have always lived in a sort of perpetual Nirvana state, always calm and smiling, always ready to do a Downward Dog or Warrior I.
Are you kidding me?
I tell everyone who will listen that I began doing yoga because it was either start doing yoga or start drinking heavily. At the time I discovered yoga I was the manager of a large computer corporation's Technical Writing department. Oh, how I hated that job.
The stress of having my performance judged based on the performance of others was horrendous. How much control can you exert over a group of writers? Talk about herding cats.
I came home every day feeling awful. So I started doing yoga using my TV and a VCR tape my neighbor gave me and found that it really did help.
Then I progressed to taking actual classes with other people, which was a big step for me. Do yoga in front of other people?! What if they're all really skinny and really flexible and I look like one of those hippos from "Fantasia"?
But I did it, and found that the people in the classes did NOT look like the people on the VCR tapes and the yoga clothing catalogs. They looked like me. Whew!
And now I'm a yoga teacher because I truly believe in the power of yoga to heal anyone's body and anyone's spirit.
But I'm also a mom, a wife, a friend, a daughter, a business owner, a pet owner and a resident of Earth here in the early 21st century. In other words, I have stress and anxiety just like you.
I've learned to handle this stress more effectively than in the past but honestly, I can still be found yelling and waving my arms over my head periodically. Just ask my husband.
My point is this - don't be afraid to come to yoga because you think we "yoga types" are better at this "being calm" stuff than you. We weren't born more calm, or more flexible, or more anything. We're just people who've discovered that moving your body and calming your mind through yoga makes you feel better.
Works for me!
