The ‘Inner Teacher’

You have an inner teacher that knows a lot more about your body than I ever could.

You may have heard me say this in class and I suppose it’s a poetic way of saying ‘trust your intuition’.

Asana, in Sanskrit means ‘pose’, but is directly translated as ‘seat’ or ‘seated quietly inside’. When I do my Asana, I imagine this inner teacher sitting close-eyed, cross-legged inside my mind.

She (or he) remains undisturbed, regardless of anything ‘‘I’’ do, I can be arguing with someone, running to get to class on time, or trapped under a pile of work, but still she sits there totally at peace.

She is the wise one, the one who knows, the one whose been here before and thinks ‘Oh here she goes again..’

She is the one I call on when I need to know something, who tells my own yoga teacher to ‘stick it where the sun doesn’t shine’ when they tell me to put my leg above my head or stretch a little further.

This is who we call on during class when I offer modifications, when I ask you to explore your ‘edge’, this is the one who will tell you ‘stop’, or ‘you can go further’.

This is one of our aims for the practice, to build a relationship with the inner teacher, to access that sense of stillness, of peace regardless of your external situation, this is what it means to ‘hurry slowly’.