| If we wish to teach our students life's greatest | | | | inner balance that leads to bliss. When I feel this, I |
| lesson-that it is only love that really matters-we must | | | | am living my dharma. I am fulfilled. |
| start by learning to love the work of teaching. | | | | Mother Theresa said, "We can do no great |
| Perhaps the greatest service we can do for our | | | | things-only small things with great love." The most |
| students is to remind them in both obvious and | | | | important thing we can do for our students is to feel |
| subtle ways to find their true calling in life, and to | | | | a great love for our teaching and our practice. If you |
| provide them with tools to help them on their quest. | | | | have lost your love of teaching, it is time to learn |
| As our students physically open their hearts while | | | | something new. Just as married couples need to take |
| doing back bends and become more aware of their | | | | time out for themselves and go on "dates" to |
| feelings from doing inversions, they cultivate the | | | | restore feelings of love and joy, we need to take |
| sensitivity to separate what is essential from what is | | | | time to renew and refresh the love of our craft. Just |
| merely urgent. It is only when we take care of what | | | | as our bodies need regular asana practice to be |
| is essential that we can die without regret. | | | | restored, so our teaching needs regular care in order |
| As yoga teachers, perhaps our central practice is to | | | | to remain healthy and vibrant. Find a teacher, take a |
| watch everything we teach-every method, every | | | | workshop, go on a retreat. Find a mentor who truly |
| word, every action-and ask if the approach is merely | | | | loves yoga so that you can absorb some of that |
| a means to achieving a greater pose or a deeper | | | | love and inspiration. Going to workshops or retreats |
| breath, or is it essentially helping my student to love | | | | and studying with master teachers is not indulgent, |
| their life more? Are you merely teaching poses or are | | | | but essential. |
| you teaching students to love more abundantly and | | | | Another way to renew our love of teaching is to |
| die contented?" | | | | remind ourselves that we are participating in the |
| As teachers, we must first love ourselves and our | | | | cosmic drama. As we help others embody their |
| work. We can do no better than to follow this | | | | dharma, we are assisting the spirits that guide their |
| timeless advice of doing what you love, love what | | | | lives. As we love our students and enter into the |
| you are doing, and deliver more than you promise. | | | | mystery of their unfolding, our teaching is filled with |
| The true passion for teaching lives only within | | | | unexpected magic. |
| teachers who love both their subject and the | | | | The greatest service we can give our students is to |
| teaching. This is because they know they are living | | | | love our own practice--our teaching, our students, |
| their dharma. When I feel my dharma, I have no | | | | and, above all, our own self. Then, as we breathe our |
| choice but to be in love with my subject and my | | | | last, we will smile knowing that we have lived, loved, |
| teaching. Then teaching is no longer a job, but a | | | | and died without regret. |
| fulfilling way of self-expression that allows me to | | | | If we wish to teach our students life's greatest |
| manifest the love I feel for who I am. It is a way of | | | | lesson-that it is only love that really matters-we must |
| spreading the joy and peace of yoga and creating an | | | | start by learning to love the work of teaching. |