Yoga teaching: do not label your students
As teachers, we must encourage our students to understand themselves based on their internal reference points rather than those of the external world. This practice will affect our teaching in practical and subtle ways.
Guiding others is an art of infinite subtlety, although it is seldom appreciated as such. As our understanding and mastery of the art of teaching develops, so will the well-being of our students. Deepening that understanding means recognizing that all of our instruction and guidance must rest on one particular foundation: helping our students become “internally referential.”
We understand who we are based on our perceptions of the world around us. We learn to compare ourselves to others and value ourselves according to how we compare ourselves to them. Through this process, we become “externally referential”: we make sense of ourselves by referring to external standards. By the time we become adults, our conceptions of ourselves are largely based on what we have been told by our parents, family, friends, teachers, and the commercial media. We do things to look good or be popular, not necessarily because they are our soul’s desire or our life’s true purpose. To compound the problem, advertisers incessantly bombard us with messages that say, at the root, “You’re falling short compared to others. You better buy your way out of this embarrassing situation.”
Defining ourselves in terms of external references is a dead end because it means ignoring the desires of the soul. As yoga teachers, we must work to help our students understand this. In fact, one of our main jobs is to change the paradigm from external reference to internal reference. Our job is to help our students, especially beginners, become aware of who they are, as opposed to what they have been told they are. One way of doing this is by challenging common practice and not telling our students what they are. Instead of putting them into categories and destroying their uniqueness with labels, we can tell our students what they can do to change, grow, and find themselves.
Here’s an example of this philosophy in action: Teachers commonly tell students, “You’re too stiff, so don’t do this pose or you might hurt yourself.” Instead, tell the student, “I’d rather you do this variation of the pose for now.” In this case, the student does not have a label placed on him by the teacher and is not bound by the teacher’s perception of who he is. The teacher’s role is to know the difference between someone who is rigid and someone who is flexible and how to help both students become more balanced. We must find ways to do this without creating or reinforcing a negative and diminishing belief.
As another example, I regularly see students unable to do certain poses due to illness or stiffness. I say, “I want you to get ready to do the pose that others are doing using the wall or using a belt. And after you practice it for a short time, your body will blossom and you won’t need the prop.” more.” I give them a method by which they can remove rigidity without reinforcing the fact that they are rigid and incapable. Most students already feel incapable, so confirming it out loud only makes it more of an obstacle. In some cases, they will be doomed to fight rigidity in both their bodies and minds for the rest of their lives.
© Aadil Palkhivala 2008