Last Monday night, I went to Sarah’s prenatal yoga class at East Eagle Yoga, with the idea that I could observe the class in preparation for teaching it in a few weeks. This was an all-around great idea. Arriving at the studio, I got to see J and a few of my other teacher training friends, who were wrapping up an earlier class. The prenatal class was great for me physically, a perfect workout for my recovering body (because I fell off the yoga wagon again: this time with an illness that led to an ear infection for YB and 3 1/2 days out of work and a possible sinus infection for me).
And professionally, it was great to observe Sarah teaching. She structured the class much the way I would, but she has so much experience with and passion for prenatal yoga, so I picked up some good language specific to the needs of a prenatal class. At one point, resting in mountain pose, Sarah talked about the importance of moving between tension and ease during childbirth: the ability to work hard during moments of tension and then relax completely in moments of ease. It was only a few words, but it really struck a chord with me, since if I hadn’t been able to relax completely between contractions, I don’t know how I would have made it through YB’s birth.
The other big thing I liked about Sarah’s class went beyond asana. She made time at the beginning of class for her students to talk about their pregnancies and share both physical and emotional concerns, and she shared some of her own worries as well, with her due date right around the corner. This felt so important, and it’s something I wish I’d had during my pregnancy. I’ll definitely be continuing this practice when I take over the class.
Overall, seeing Sarah teach refreshed my memory on the research I did last year when I was pregnant and teaching prenatal yoga. I feel like I can do this job in Sarah’s absence, do a good job of it, and offer something worthwhile to the students.
Rox Does Yoga 