Teaching yoga is challenging.

You have to be able to hold space and help others go into the fire so that they may experience growth and transformation. It costs you something. I find if I am not tired at the end of a day of teaching then I didn’t do a good job. If I am tired and the students aren’t tired then they didn’t do their part. If we both are tired but feel happy and more calm, more at peace, like we went into battle together and fought a good fight — then we achieved something. And let go of the need to always feel happy. This is intense work. Some days you leave your class and you feel vulnerable and raw and some of your stuff came to the surface. Remember, you are going to get messy before you become clean. As a yoga teacher I want to keep the students in the place where they are out of their comfort zone but not too far out and getting overwhelmed. If they are working too hard then I have to remind them to relax and have fun, and if they are not working hard enough then I have to remind them to concentrate, push a little harder, try, go into the fire. My teacher, Annie Carpenter used to say, “You know what happens when you don’t try? Nothing.” I love that simple statement. And my teacher Dharma always says, “It doesn’t matter if you ever achieve anything in your asana practice, it’s the quality of your effort that matters.” Take responsibility for your practice, everyone. Find the balance between being out of your comfort zone but not so far out that you are overwhelmed. And find a teacher who can help you stay between those parameters, if you can’t do that yet on your own. The stronger you become as a student the less the teacher needs to help you. Eventually you don’t need the teacher to help hold space for you at all because you are strong enough to hold the space for yourself. You know when to push yourself and you know when to back off. Once you’ve reached this stage, you can help others on their journey. First, learn to hold the space for yourself. Then, teach others how to hold the space for themselves. Slowly, we all help each other along, waking up, and finding more balance and peace.