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Mercury Mayhem Meets the Real World

May 4, 2017 By Ali Valdez

Go anywhere out for lunch with a yoga buddy and record your conversation, and that of the table next to yours. Now play them back and see if the two conversations sound like they are even happening on the same planet.

“Blame Mercury Retrograde.” You won’t hear that at a Denny’s at 10am on a Thursday morning.

Last week, I made the fated choice of fumigating my house. Seldom, if ever, would I consider this but the moth situation was starting to create significant problems. I removed the dogs, took my daughter to school, and went back to fumigate. Cupboards empty and dishes pulled out, linens stripped, bathroom items tucked away. All of my bases were covered.

I picked up my daughter six hours later, went back to my office (internet was funky, cell wouldn’t open the browser), walked the dogs, and ate dinner. Arriving home late, I realized something was amiss. I returned to both my dishwasher and washing machine not working.

“Blame Mercury Retrograde.” You will hear about that over KeVitas at Whole Foods at 10:00am on a Thursday morning.

The next week, also in Mercury Retrograde, my car started smoking and I got a flat tire. My kid and I both got sick, probably from having tons of linens and dishes marinating in fumes prior to the repair of the appliances. Stuff breaks, things don’t work well. So what can we expect to go right?

Mercury retrograde might cross the wires of communication but, within this fractal relationship of planets and people, it can also teach us something we wouldn’t have otherwise seen on our own.

Fast forward to being in sweats and with a mild fever on a gorgeous sunny day. Here I sit at a pancake house adjacent to the shop repairing my tires. Incidentally, the place is packed. I am flummoxed by this, but no matter.

If you are not overweight, you are over sixty.

Because I am a ‘party top of one’, with a laptop, cell phone and two notebooks, I find myself surrounded by a host of adjacent tables. As I work, sipping my hot water with lemon and wait for my, you know it, gluten free breakfast, I hear the following conversations around me.

There are two older women talking about pre-Diabetes and brainstorming strategies for the necessary step of cutting out sugar. One is electing to go to artificial sweeteners in their coffee; the other has resorted to the green packets, stevia. I almost dropped my fork when one of them said “metabolic syndrome.” I couldn’t help but think God put me here at this place right now (maybe even orchestrated the nail in the road that I drove over) to allow me to experience this symphony of conversations.

The pancake house offers low-glycemic Agave syrup as an option and has added a full set of gluten-free replacements and vegan meat alternatives. Mercury has collided with the real world.

The manager greets a new set of women at a two top, “would you like some coffee ladies, or maybe some soda? Anything?” These ladies want their coffee.

The diagonal table is discussing bloat and the need to start eating gluten- free. One womaen is obstinate against the gluten-free movement, insisting instead that she has cut down and the only gluten she will eat is her one slice of morning toast. “I like my whole grains” she says a bit defiantly to her friend,  who holds her coffee mug between her palms like a cherished object.

The table to my left is an older man inquiring about the “veagan” (menu typo) sausage. He turns to his buddy and mentions something about cholesterol.

While I wait for my tire, while I work hard, I see others sitting together, having conversations and enjoying their less-than-healthy foods. Suddenly, it strikes me.

I am the f***ing alien. This IS the real world.


All of my normal conversations, which I love and cherish, fundamentally do not concern the majority of the population. Personally, I am okay with this. Although at this point, I am just dying for the tire company to call me. Why? Because I am the odd man out. Yoga is a beautiful thing; but I think at times we can get a little ahead of ourselves and lose sight of the forest from the trees.

As a practice, my teacher used to say “yoga is like top of pyramid; the one with eye.”

I think of the pyramid and eye on the back of a dollar bill and how it hovers, disconnected from the rest but in essence still very much a part. There seems to be too much focus on the separation of it all. Another popular division right now is that darn Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino. Love it or hate it, it’s been polarizing. Whether it’s the sugar content, the fat, the ‘buying one for kids’, or the hypocrisy of the Caramel Frappuccino, this new drink has created a minor chasm in our society.

I don’t want to disconnect even though I don’t always relate.

Recently I have joined an amazing team that focuses on developing programs for disease prevention. This has blessed me with access to research and insights about vast segments of our population that I wouldn’t necessarily see on a yoga retreat I am hosting in Bali, or within the four walls of my studio.

The focus of my work is not on raja yoga or esoteric Tantric philosophy. Now, it’s more about Diabetes prevention, heart health, chronic pain, weight management or, in other words, about every single conversation that I had the privilege of chiming into this morning. Conversations I would normally never hear because I am typically not in this environment.

Half of our population is at risk for pre-Diabetes or metabolic syndrome. Education and programs around food choices, unconscious behaviors, sugars and additives, and resilience will have greater and more far-reaching impacts than a simple down- dog.  Our lack of engagement in these meaningful areas of population health, the very baseline of our existence, will lead to higher mortality rates and an increasingly lower quality of living. These are meaningful and important conversations because they are about the wellbeing of my fellow man, the very issues and challenges facing the majority. I care about them, yet I spent the last few years in the yoga bubble forgetting about them.

Everything that went “wrong” this week was validating a big right.

Yoga is great, but I don’t want to forget the ways I might be of service to those for whom a yoga studio might not be an obvious first choice for solutions. We are all in it together; here to help and enable one another to a healthier, happier body, community, and world. I love floating in the eye, but am also willing to work with spackle and brick.

References:

Mercury Retrograde — astrostyle.com/mercery-retrograde

Filed Under: Gadabout, Lifestyle, Philosophy Tagged With: Ali valdez, diabetes prevention, insights, introspection, mercury retrograde, obesity, observations, perceptions, population health, Sattva Yoga Online, self reflection, serving others, svadyaya, yoga, yoga bubble

Five Things I Always Tell New Yoga Teachers

September 15, 2014 By Ali Valdez 1 Comment

Teaching is my life passion. I feel blessed to be able to honor this calling and want to do what I can to be of service to others, especially the next generation of yoga teachers.

Teaching is my life passion. I feel blessed to be able to honor this calling and want to do what I can to be of service to others, especially the next generation of yoga teachers.

by Ali Valdez

After years of leading 200 and 500 yoga teacher trainings, I find myself settling into a rhythm on certain topics. Naturally as the program evolves, things change, educational tools shift, new approaches are taken. One thing that never changes is the practical advice that I share the last weekend of every teacher training during the Business of Yoga section of the course, a topic that I also sometimes address at yoga conferences.

I hear a lot that yoga teacher trainings seldom cover topics on business. New graduates are pumped out a dime a dozen, and sent merrily on their way without a clue on what to do next. When I took my first teacher training, it was the same way, but I didn’t think about any of that stuff many moons back because I had my ‘real’ job, too.

For many years yoga was a hobby job, a weekend gig. But now, there are pockets to be found where yoga is the well-paying ‘real’ job.

This is creating competition, the need to differentiate and clearly define one’s offerings. It is also forcing the hand of innovation. Today in my program, people need to brand, develop workshops and create a business plan. The results are entirely a mixed bag. For some new yoga professionals, there are only two choices in their mind: yoga classes or open a studio. It’s a self-limiting paradigm in my opinion. So what to do? May I suggest getting to the root of things with my five practical tips for every new yoga teacher setting the foundation for their future work.

Know Yourself. The best thing any teacher training program can bring out is the divine essence of who you are. Once you can tap into the sweetness of that, skies the limit. You have been given some insights into the tools of yoga to start making wise choices, to live mindfully and to architect your reality. Apply these tools to get to the heart of who you really are. From that place, you can understand what you have to offer your students. Looking and copying what others are doing might help get you off the ground, but seldom keeps you flying. What are your strengths? Having a 200 hour certification is not a strength. Also what are your tendencies and habits? Don’t start something you know you lack the desire to do or the discipline to develop expertise or your offerings will fall flat or easily become outdated.

When I host sessions at yoga conferences, I always ask people to introduce themselves and tell me about their yoga. There are always a handful of people trying to drum up workshops across a smattering of yoga types in all sorts of environments.

Answer me with one thing you do brilliantly and that you love and start building from there. Remember one wheel can have many spokes. You can diversify once you have a solid base and credibility in the field.

Once you landed on your identity, then you have a place from which to prepare a kick ass resume, set up your website and get your marketing collaterals in order.

Remember, Yoga is a Spiritual Practice. This means the law of karma. Don’t be hasty to box up that Yoga Sutras; in fact keep it by your bed for nightly reminders of why you are here if you sign up to carry the mantle of yoga teacher. It’s a big deal because this is a service business. This is a community building business. As I tell my students:

“You are now in the business of transformation. Every day, you are in this practice and here to serve, not just one hour on Tuesday nights.”

You are signing up for important lessons, to meet challenges with grace, to do the ‘real’ work and to love and serve your students. No, this does not mean being sainted or being perfect, but it does mean being really honest about what you are bringing to the table.

Value Your Time & Expertise. Knowing your own value is sometimes a tricky thing to quantify. You are here to serve but you are not here to be taken for granted or advantage of by the people with whom you share your service. Do the math on the cost of being a yoga teacher. Do you know what you spend on gas, parking, or the value of your time sitting in traffic driving from point A to point B. Get a very clear understanding of what you are expected to do wherever you teach. I knew a studio that made you sign in guests 30 minutes before your class, clean the room and wipe down the mirrors afterwards.

All for the $30 they paid you to teach your packed :90 Bikram class that had 80 people. Not to mention waiting for the gal who wants to take a long shower and dry her hair before you can lock up. You’re three hours in at $10 per hour.

I know many, myself included, that takes the notion of seva way too far. You adore your home studio, it is a privilege to teach and it should come from the heart, an absolute love of the practice. But it’s also perfectly ok to get paid for your time. You should be compensated for your hard-earned skills just like any other job and do the seva on your own time, donating your income as you see fit to charitable causes. I had a few late nights lathering up the mirrors in a sudsy mountain, taking pride in making my home studio clean, warm and welcome for the next morning’s class. I was willing to do this when I saw the owner doing the same, many times we did them together.  Management seldom changes when you establish behavior patterns, for better or for worse. So best to clear that up at the start.

Stay Hungry to Learn. I was sharing with an intensive group this weekend about the one thing that really annoys me about teachers: those that quit learning. Two hundred hours is an arbitrary pimple on the ass of the vast bodily landscape of yoga. When people quit practicing, or pass up any further education, I get worried.

The two hundred hour can only provide you with highlights, a robust sampling of the fruits of yoga, but it really is prolonged learning and applying of new things that will keep the practice fresh and exciting but also meaningful for your students. Diversify and try new styles, read and research, set a hypothesis about the practice and set out to validate it. However you do it, don’t say you’re a yoga teacher and quit studying and stop practicing because you are too busy teaching yoga. This one I have never understood.

Never Forget Your Teacher. In the era of Instagram, words are few. (see my blog on said topic here). Always honor and acknowledge your teachers, learn about and understand their lineage. Every day with your sequencing and teaching you are representing something learned and handed down.

With yoga, you are holding a diamond in some shape or form. Some diamonds have higher CCCC than others.

There are thousands of teachers out there pounding the pavement with absolutely no idea where what they are teaching came from. So your studio branded their own signature flow, but that hardly makes for a lineage. It makes me bristle how many yoga teachers went their day unaware on August 20th at the passing of Mr. Iyengar.

When I travel around and practice in other places, I always read the teachers bio and the vision statement of the studio. I want who I have studied with to matter to those attending my programs. I want to be a part of a family tree, one with many branches but I need a solid trunk and deep root system to endure the change of seasons and grow stronger each year. Your teacher is not all the weekend workshops you attend. No system of substance can be mastered in just a few days, nor the wisdom from a true master fully extracted. Attend the workshops by all means (please see #4 on this list), but find your true teacher. Pick one and go deep in your studies. Also, when you need real advice on something, your weekend workshop teachers probably won’t even remember who you are.

As I type this, I just received a text from my beloved teacher, Andrey Lappa, whose book I am currently editing. See what I mean?!

Being a new yoga teacher is like graduating from college. You have the whole world in front of you. That is exciting but can also be scary. You need a plan, and that plan comes from knowing what makes you tick, continuing to do the work, staying true to the practice and remembering who helped love and get you there. Best of luck new teachers. If you have any questions, please reach out: info@sattvayogaonline.com.

Filed Under: Gadabout, General Tagged With: 200 hour teacher training, advice, business advice, business of yoga, new yoga teacher, sattva yoga, sattva yogaonline, self reflection, svadyaya, yoga, yoga sutras, yoga teacher


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