Taught my first full 1 hour (ok 55 minutes) class today! I was so anxious about it because up till today we had only taught at most 6-pose sequence, and now we had to try and teach a full sequence! I spent last night trying to memorise my entire sequence, and when I thought I was ready and was starting to settle down to sleep, I remembered we had to prepare a music playlist too. So I spent another hour scrolling frantically through Spotify.
Anyway, I was the second person to teach today, and I was totally on edge the whole time I was waiting for my turn. When it was finally my turn to teach, I was still pretty flustered and I think it was pretty obvious. I kept getting distracted by random thoughts like ‘will they like my sequence?’ or ‘will my class be too short?’. My mind was racing so much I forgot a couple of poses in my sequence.
After a while though, I slowly got into the groove of things. I became more attentive about what my ‘students’ were doing and concentrated on what I was supposed to be teaching. I think I managed to wrap it up pretty okay. I realised that teaching actually requires not just a lot of focus on the task at hand, but also the ability to deal with the distracting thoughts in your head. We need to focus on the sequence, watch the students, correct them, make sure you’re audible etc. Since there’s so much to focus on, you can’t really afford to let your thoughts get a hold of you. I guess it’s a good way to practice dharana too!
I’m still slightly nervous, but I’m also much more excited to try teaching actual classes! Hopefully all goes well 🙂
Nia
RYT200 Aug’20 Weekend
