It was finally the day where I had to teach my first community class. Sure enough, my nerves were not cooperating and I was panicking beyond belief, pacing up and down the studio, recording a 140 heart rate while doing so. Public speaking was never really my thing, much less having to teach a full hour class. I guess it did help a little that those were my friends and family that I was teaching though. Nonetheless, I strong-armed my way through it and before I could even process and collect my thoughts, it was already over!
Truth be told, I was pretty bummed after because I felt I fell short of my own expectations, and ended up entertaining all the “If Onlys” and “What Ifs” from the one-hour class that was, ironically, playing on an endless loop in my head.
We all aspire to be that perfect versions of ourselves, and sometimes set such unimaginable standards for ourselves that when we fall, there isn’t anything left to catch us at the bottom. My biggest takeaway from my first teaching session was not how terribly I fell from this, but, as cliché as it sounds, that it is actually OK to fall and make mistakes, and to fully accept graciously that to grow, we must first learn to embrace failure. We all could afford to be kinder to ourselves, and in doing so, we can in turn be kinder to those around us as well.
Emilyn
200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21