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april 2019yogajournal.com.auWHEN I FIRST STARTED TEACHING,I had
noidea what I was supposed to do. I’d
spend the whole class trying to pretend
to be someone else. I remember
something Kathryn Budig once said.
She said that in the beginning of her
practice she was doing “a bad Maty
Ezraty” (her teacher). And I felt like I
was doing the poor man’s Joe Taft,
another yoga teacher who’s had a huge
influence on me—to the point where a
student actually asked me, “Is Joe Taft
your teacher?”
So, you go from this feeling of, I must
emulate somebody else, to thinking, I
just gotta figure out how to be myself.
I’m just going to try to be me in this
practice and see what happens. That
evolution, really looking within myself
and digging deeper into my own
practice, has had such a positive impact
on my teaching. I think that’s all
teaching is, ultimately: It’s just finding
yourself, living your own practice, and
then reflecting that to other people. It’s
as if in finding my own practice and
finding a linking of the light and theMove beyond cus on fin is sequence,
designed as a vehicle to help you turn your gaze inward and identify the instrument
of authenticity inside you, will leave a lasting impression.
By Jessamyn Stanley
FI O
VIE
dark, I found an instrument inside me. I
actually think of it like a trumpet.
To access it, I reach inside of my
body. (It’s very Walking Dead.) I reach
in and I find my trumpet. I pull it out
and I clean it off. I get all the gunk
and guts off of it, and then I put it to my
lips, and I start trying to play it. I’ve
never played this instrument before. I
don’t know how to play the trumpet. So,
I’m just experimenting randomly,
making sounds. But I’m having fun
’cause it’s my instrument, and it seems
natural to play it.
As I’m playing, somebody walks by.
They’re like, “Where’d you get that
instrument?” And I say, “I found it
inside myself!” They’re like, “Word!”
And I’m like, “Yes.” Then they ask, “Do
you think I have an instrument inside of
me?” And I say, “I know you do. Just look.”
They start looking for an instrument.
And they find one. They pull it out, and
it’s not the same instrument as the one
that I’m playing. It’s some other
instrument, but they’ve never played it
before either. And they start cleaningit off, pulling off the gunk, and then
they start to play.
And then we’re playing together.
We’re not playing the same song.
We don’t even know what we’re
playing. We’re just trying to find our
instruments, our own voices, but we’re
doing it around each other. And then
more people see us, and they come
over, and they start finding their
instruments. And before you know it,
we have a whole orchestra. So many
voices. This is not Jessamyn’s orchestra,
where everyone has to play in time.
Come through, pull out your
instrument, play it for yourself.
We’ll make a safe space to do that—
to be yourself. I think community
building is the best form of leadership.
It’s empowering other people to believe
in themselves, as opposed to trying to
get them to believe in something else
outside of themselves.
Try the sequence on the following
pages to help you embody this
exploration and find your own
instrument.