Te acher zone
Teacher’s Tales:
H
ave you ever been overcome with nerves? A recently
graduated teacher asked me about dealing with
teaching nerves and if this was something I ever
experienced.
Let me think, was this something I ever
experienced...? The answer is a Big Fat Yes!
I always feel slightly suspicious when someone says they never, ever
experience nerves. Nerves are perfectly normal and I embrace them as
a positive sign that I am not feeling complacent towards the thing I am
nervous about. For me, the nerves tend to come up when I am faced
with a new teaching scenario.
I think when you start teaching everything feels like a new scenario,
so it’s natural to feel more nervous, more often. On a related note,
I think this is also a great reason for newer teachers to not wait too
long to actually start teaching once they’ve completed training. The
longer you wait, the more the nerves can grow. In certain instances
it’s good to be pushed in the deep end (with love) into your first
teaching gigs. I saw an interview with Colleen Saidman-Yee where she
talked about telling her teacher, Sharon Gannon, that she couldn’t
possibly be a yoga teacher, listing all of the things that were wrongDon’t let nerves stand in your way of being a great teacher, writes Paula Hines
with her as reasons (ultimately due to her own fears). Colleen walked
out of Sharon’s office, resolved that she was never going to teach
yoga. Sharon’s response was to put Colleen on the teaching schedule
covering Sharon’s own fully booked class that very evening. A wreck
of nerves, Colleen taught the class and walked out feeling exhilarated.
And, some 20 years on, she is still sharing her gifts as a teacher. I feel
Colleen’s wise teacher saw something in her, knew that this was the
right thing to do and acted accordingly.
All that said, nerves can have a habit of coming up at the most
inconvenient times and if you allow them to overwhelm you, it’s all too
easy for your best efforts to be scuppered. From my experience so far,
I feel the best way to address this is to pause, take a step back and
observe. The chances are you are focusing on yourself. Usually, I’m
feeling self-conscious or worrying about what people are thinking. The
way to shift out of that is to focus on being of service. You’ll find those
nerves will soon shrink too.
Act from a place of service and you can’t go wrong.Paula Hines is a London-based yoga teacher and writer
(ucanyoga.co.uk)Te acher zone
Overcome with nerves