Coronavirus Diaries #3: A Yoga Surprise

I finished my yoga teaching certificate a little over a year ago, then the karma teaching internship a little less than a year ago. After that I subbed a bit, but I never ended up on the regular schedule. Then the shutdown hit.

You’d expect that to be the end of my yoga teaching career. In fact, I’m teaching more than ever! It started as a way to connect with my friends, then my friend’s wife’s fencing school asked me to teach for them. Then the Boston Singers’ Resource asked me to do a workshop, and I decided to offer a weekly class geared towards musicians.

It is by no means a full-time gig; but this turn of events surprised me. I think there are several factors in play. Yoga happens to be a movement modality suited towards online classes. Although the experience is missing hands-on adjustments and closer attention by the teacher; it is easy to follow well-led verbal cues while peaking at the video while necessary. It is also possible to do yoga with minimal accoutrements.

Yoga retail hopes you don’t notice, but paper towel rolls make fine blocks, and pillows work well for placing under the hips. Almost anything long can become a yoga strap. It is also possible to teach a class that requires none of these things. A yoga mat is necessary, but many people already own one, even if it was used for other modalities before.

For me, live online yoga classes beat pre-recorded ones hands down. There is a connection, even when the teacher is not able to make it back to the screen to view the students.

I definitely lucked out with my particular path to teaching more, but I also know established teachers are seeing classes of twenty daily. It is certainly an interesting time to teach yoga, or anything.

Feel free to contact me for information about my current yoga (or voice) offerings. Photo above is my teaching setup.