He is nobody, but somebody.
Finding a yoga teacher whom one can have good chemistry with seems as difficult as finding one love. How long have I been doing yoga on and off for? One decade perhaps, or could be more. I joined a yoga retreat once in the upstate NY and tried so many different kinds of yoga here and there, yet I never found "wow-he/she-must-be-the-one!" type of instructor. What I can't stand about certain yoga institutions is that most of those students have a certain attitude. They have a faith in one particular yoga and if you are not in, they give you a cold look. With the portrait of the yogi on the wall, he/she was worshipped like a god and you are asked too. I'm fine, as long as I like an atmosphere and a teacher, but I never met anybody who satisfies, calms and encourages me to keep going. So, I stopped going to those yoga institutions.
Last fall, I joined a gym in NYC. (I guess officially I am a New Yorker...) Then I started taking so many classes like a Pilate, hatha yoga, core yoga and so forth. Well, hopping one class to another, I sometimes found a teacher as annoyed as a fly in the air. (I can't stand her voice! I can't stand her energy! She goes too FAST!! She is just showing off!!! My complains never stops.) Yet, you know, it is just the gym after all and what can I expect I was OK that I could do excises without chanting or the picture of an overwhelming looking Indian smiling at least.
It was indeed one Sunday when everything changed. I went to one class called a somatic yoga. What's that? Although I had no idea about it, I dragged myself to try this unfamiliar thing in order to get myself out of a boring and cold Sunday. Then, there the instructor was. The minute he walked in the class, I sensed something good. He moved like a king with dignity and divinity. Every step he took was like a dance. He was so so grounded.
It was like love at first sight. "Yes...Yes Yes!! “
Here are some things that I like about him and his class.
First, he doesn't start with making a sound of "OM." Yes.
Second, his music choice is fantastic. It is an ambient music with a little touch of Indian flavor. not too cheesy, not too dramatic, not too Indian. (One teacher put hip-hop during the class....speechless.) This class is supposed to be one-hour class; yet, he always goes over one hour and it turns out to be 2-hour intensive class. I have no idea where he comes from, yet certainly he is not American or Indian. He has a thick accent. So, it took me a while to get used to his English. He goes, "drop your heath." and I ask myself "Which the hell part of a body is heath?" I had to look around people and found later this "heath" meant "head." He always checks everybody in the class, unlike the one who shows one unimaginable tangled-up convoluted crazy posture after another and expects us to follow. Even demonstrating the difficult posture: he puts one hand and one leg on the floor and the other leg and hand are up in the air, he calls an attention with a whistle, "there, in the back of the room, be careful. Let your shoulder down." He must have another set of eyes on the back of his "heath."
It has been a few month since that miracle Sunday, yet I still don't know what the somatic yoga is. The practice is not like the yoga for the yoga's sake, not like an acrobatic exercise. A kind of stretch? Something like that. In this practice, we are to focus on our spine to widen. Anyway, what ever it is, I feel so light and serene after the class. I go even if it rains or snows. I go even if I feel tired like a dead fish. Knowing that I will feel as grounded as he looks, I will feel as calm as he looks, I can’t miss the class.
Someone in a position where he/she teaches something have to to have charisma or persuasive power. More importantly, to influence people, one doesn’t need to rely on the name, verbal explanations, or someone's picture on the wall. This teacher whom I still don’t know his name or his background is a living proof that one can influence people by just doing his business or being as he is. That's the thing I appreciate and respect the most. Yes, I found him in just one of the regular gyms in NYC. Right, he is nobody, but somebody. Very Somebody to me.
Last fall, I joined a gym in NYC. (I guess officially I am a New Yorker...) Then I started taking so many classes like a Pilate, hatha yoga, core yoga and so forth. Well, hopping one class to another, I sometimes found a teacher as annoyed as a fly in the air. (I can't stand her voice! I can't stand her energy! She goes too FAST!! She is just showing off!!! My complains never stops.) Yet, you know, it is just the gym after all and what can I expect I was OK that I could do excises without chanting or the picture of an overwhelming looking Indian smiling at least.
It was indeed one Sunday when everything changed. I went to one class called a somatic yoga. What's that? Although I had no idea about it, I dragged myself to try this unfamiliar thing in order to get myself out of a boring and cold Sunday. Then, there the instructor was. The minute he walked in the class, I sensed something good. He moved like a king with dignity and divinity. Every step he took was like a dance. He was so so grounded.
It was like love at first sight. "Yes...Yes Yes!! “
Here are some things that I like about him and his class.
First, he doesn't start with making a sound of "OM." Yes.
Second, his music choice is fantastic. It is an ambient music with a little touch of Indian flavor. not too cheesy, not too dramatic, not too Indian. (One teacher put hip-hop during the class....speechless.) This class is supposed to be one-hour class; yet, he always goes over one hour and it turns out to be 2-hour intensive class. I have no idea where he comes from, yet certainly he is not American or Indian. He has a thick accent. So, it took me a while to get used to his English. He goes, "drop your heath." and I ask myself "Which the hell part of a body is heath?" I had to look around people and found later this "heath" meant "head." He always checks everybody in the class, unlike the one who shows one unimaginable tangled-up convoluted crazy posture after another and expects us to follow. Even demonstrating the difficult posture: he puts one hand and one leg on the floor and the other leg and hand are up in the air, he calls an attention with a whistle, "there, in the back of the room, be careful. Let your shoulder down." He must have another set of eyes on the back of his "heath."
It has been a few month since that miracle Sunday, yet I still don't know what the somatic yoga is. The practice is not like the yoga for the yoga's sake, not like an acrobatic exercise. A kind of stretch? Something like that. In this practice, we are to focus on our spine to widen. Anyway, what ever it is, I feel so light and serene after the class. I go even if it rains or snows. I go even if I feel tired like a dead fish. Knowing that I will feel as grounded as he looks, I will feel as calm as he looks, I can’t miss the class.
Someone in a position where he/she teaches something have to to have charisma or persuasive power. More importantly, to influence people, one doesn’t need to rely on the name, verbal explanations, or someone's picture on the wall. This teacher whom I still don’t know his name or his background is a living proof that one can influence people by just doing his business or being as he is. That's the thing I appreciate and respect the most. Yes, I found him in just one of the regular gyms in NYC. Right, he is nobody, but somebody. Very Somebody to me.
posted by seeds at 4:44 PM
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