As the lovely @nano_yogini – regular yoga teacher at my workplace, contacted me to ask if I would cover her class, while she was sunning herself in Oz, my heart skipped a beat, while my mind questioned if I’d be ready to teach, after just 2 weekends of training. I accepted her generous offer and started to feel a mix of nerves and excitement.

As the date came closer, my confidence peaked and dipped a few times. On the Friday, as I sent a reminder email, I started to think that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea after all. But as the week end went on, I taught my boyfriend and one of my lovely yogi teacher trainees, and I gained more confidence until this morning I was able to say – I am ready.

I spent an unnecessary amount of time on details, like picking a song to play as the students came into half pigeon. Every song I listened to wasn’t quite right, but eventually I chose Breathe me by Sia.

I was quite busy with work all day, so I didn’t have much time to think about the sequence I would be teaching, but I didn’t want to plan too much as I wanted to make sure I adapted the class to the energy in the room and to what the students needed.

I chose a photo of a mountain to project on the wall, I put a couple of drops of ‘Meliss’ essential oils on my wrists and I put my little red Buddha in front of my mat.

We started the class by taking some breaths together, which enabled me to feel more centered and grounded.

I did my best to make the 2 new yogis feel welcome and I emphasized the importance of listening to their bodies and not feeling like they had to do everything that the more advance students were doing.

The 60 minutes felt like 60 minutes – in our culture we like saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’, to a certain extent that is true, but tonight I realized that when you are fully present, every minute feels like a minute and it’s such a wonderful feeling.

As they came into Savasana and we took a sigh together, I turned the lights down and I felt serenity wash over me. I don’t feel like I taught them, I feel like I guided their minds and their bodies while helping them to use their breath. This is why I want to teach yoga, to enable others to BREATHE & FEEL.

I’d like to use this space to thank every single one of you for coming tonight! To those who I know, your support means the world to me! To those who I didn’t know, thank you for giving me an opportunity to teach you.

Namaste