Should You Theme Your Yin Yoga Classes?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hi Yanis, and welcome back to a yin Yoga. Podcast if you’re new around here, welcome, if you are a familiar welcome back

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just before we hop into today’s episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wanted to mention a couple of things.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: dear listener, if you’ve been around for a little while, if you have been listening to this podcast and you have been enjoying it, and you have found value in the content. I would be so grateful if you would just pause this right now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: whatever app you’re listening to it on. If you would go in and give it 5 stars. and if you’re on apple, you can even give it a written review.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know probably everybody’s annoyed at Podcasters for saying this all the time, but it really does help

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the more people that review and listen the more that apple or spotify, or wherever you’re listening to this, on starts to show people, the podcast in their searches. And that’s the best way for the podcast to grow and to reach more yin Yoga lovers.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you wouldn’t mind just taking a moment right now to pause to offer a little 5 star review. A written review. If you’re on apple

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that would be so great.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And if straight now you’re thinking, dah, Nick, I’ve already offered a review. Then would you do me the honor of screenshotting this episode, or your favorite, whichever, and sharing it on Instagram in your stories, and tag me at Nick Danu Yoga, or yin yoga podcast at Yan Yoga, podcast

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would be super grateful. Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So thank you for that in advance. Really appreciate it.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I wanted to share before we dive in today’s episode just very briefly

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about my in Yoga training. I’m not gonna go into all the details of what happens in that training and all the things you learn, because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that could be a whole episode. And you could just read that on the website. But did you know that I have a waitlist for my training? And I get a combination of people that are brand new, that have never taken a yin training

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and also have a lot of teachers that have taken other Yin trainings and taken mine as well, because it fills some of the gaps or the holes that they felt were in there

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Nyk Danu Yoga: other training. So it’s not unusual for people to take more than one training. If you’re a new teacher. This might be kinda like, wait what? I just got my 200. I’m supposed to keep doing this. Yes, you will keep studying for your whole Yoga career.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I just wanted to share a little bit of feedback that I got on my therapeutic in training.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I love the way that Nick really opened up the floor for discussion. In this training I felt like Nick was very open for all of us to share our experiences and willing to hold space for us

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to provide feedback and insight. It was nice for me to have take home homework. I felt like this was actually a really practical setup for me to create a class, to write it out in this way, and to break down each pose.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I especially appreciated the use of props and guided variations in the very permissive and inclusive structure that this training offered.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for example, offering the students to come into the easiest version of the pose first.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then offering lots of options with props. offering more words for beginners, and less for the most more advanced students.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The structure of the actual shapes that we learned. I learned some great new shapes, and the space was wonderfully held.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Thank you, Nick, for your experience. Empathy and expertise

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was appreciated.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All of the inclusive options you gave to cater to their unique experience and to meet them where they’re at. It was helpful to learn this and more about Ian.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that is from a former student named Tammy and Tammy actually did mentorship with me as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is something that I offer to anyone that has already done my Yin training program.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And once more and kind of more

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Nyk Danu Yoga: hands-on help from an experienced teacher. I offer mentorship. You have to have gone through my training, though. But yeah, mentorship is key in this industry.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay? So today’s topic, my friends.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: today’s topic was,

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Nyk Danu Yoga: something I’ve been meaning to talk about. And this often happens, I have a little list in my phone of subject ideas, a very long list actually in my phone of subject ideas.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then I’ll be in a Yoga teacher group or a Yin group on Facebook. And and somebody will ask a question that sparks it. And it’s like, okay, let’s do that one now.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that was the case for this one as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So as most episodes do, this, one will start with a tiny little story.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So today’s topic.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Should you theme your Yoga classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to theme or not to theme? That is the question.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So again, this was brought up

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in Yin group on Facebook. And I think that a lot of times, especially as new teachers, they see all of these posts in this group about all of these themed classes and often traditional Chinese medicine themed classes, which is.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, we’ll talk more about that in a moment, and we did a whole episode with Doctor Krina Smith.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Where? That was one of the highlights. So I’ll attach that below. If you’re listening in the podcast and somewhere around here, if you’re watching on Youtube. It’ll pop up a little card

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Nyk Danu Yoga: if you haven’t watched or listened to that episode. So we’ll talk a little bit more about this. Tcm. Part of it as well.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I think a lot of times students graduate their teacher training. And I know if you’re like me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: one of the first things that I realized when I finished my teacher training is that I was. I had some holes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s just say from my first program. And even though it was a great program. It was a 300 h, because it included a hundred hours of mentorship. There was still spots where I was like I don’t really feel confident in this area, one of which was anatomy, which is why I studied

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Nyk Danu Yoga: grillies anatomy, DVD. Which I talk about all the time now available streaming. You don’t have to do it, old school on DVD.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And the other area that I felt like I was really missing. Clarity was sequencing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I will probably do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s correct that I will actually do not probably do a whole other episode on sequencing, or at least the way I see sequencing. That won’t be this episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I think that sometimes when you graduate your teacher training program and you’re sort of feeling like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s these gaps in your sequencing knowledge. And then you look around and you see all these like really fancy classes that people are doing with themes and all this extra stuff. It can feel like a lot of pressure. So let’s just talk about that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Let’s talk about, do we need to them across?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Yes, no, maybe so. So story time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: way back, when I was probably about 2,006 ish somewhere around there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had been teaching for a couple of years, and I am a recovering type type type, a personality

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Nyk Danu Yoga: also have high functioning anxiety. and tend to be organized for the most part.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I was in the habit of one who was teaching, creating a sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I would

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Nyk Danu Yoga: come up with a theme.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that sequence would be based on a theme, and then I would have a matching meditation for that theme.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I would type this all up. This is before iphones and ipads for those of you younger folk.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I would type it all up. I would print it off, and then I would put it in a clear plastic sleeve thing so that it wouldn’t get wrecked in my bag or my my tea spilt. It wouldn’t wreck it, and I would toss that in my bag, and then that would be sort of the sequence that I taught for that week.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now I only really created one a week because I was teaching at different locations. So the odds that you know somebody was going to do it more than once a week was slim, and even if they did, repetition is good. Repetition is how we learn things. So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s how I did that for the first couple years. So I graduated in O 50, sorry! O 4. And then by oh, 6. Still doing this for my first couple of years

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I felt like.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: especially the sort of highly organized, anxious personality type that I am. I felt like having that structure of like this pose leads to this pose. And here’s what you know, meditation we’re going to do. And here’s the theme really helped me feel a little more at ease

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Nyk Danu Yoga: with my sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I did that for a couple of years. And then one day I showed up on a Monday. so first day of the week

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to a so to a private gym, that at the time I was teaching at, and realized that I had forgotten my secrets at home.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now to some personality types this might be no big deal, but to me, as a

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Nyk Danu Yoga: anxious type that was a huge deal. I was instantly going into panic mode in my mind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and thinking, Oh, my God, what the hell am I going to teach them?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And because it was a Monday. I couldn’t just kind of pause and reflect back to, okay, what did I teach yesterday? Okay, that’s what I’ll teach.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This was the beginning of the week. I didn’t have a plan. What the hell was I going to do without a plan? And so, as I started panicking

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Nyk Danu Yoga: before class, luckily I’m always chronically early to classes as well. That also goes with the anxious personality type. So I had time to kind of sit with myself and sort myself out.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I

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Nyk Danu Yoga: remember sitting there and just freaking out thinking, oh, my God, what am I gonna do? I don’t have a sequence. How am I going to teach this class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and you know we all have that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we have different voices in our head.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and if you don’t know that you have different voices in your head. It’s because you’re only listening to one of those voices.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so the bigger sort of wiser, more grounded

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Nyk Danu Yoga: part of myself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That voice stepped, stepped in and said, Hey.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: why don’t you make it a request class? So instead of freaking out and saying to the students, I forgot my sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: let’s cancel class, which is what my anxiety was telling me to do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: The wiser, more grounded, bigger part of myself said, Hey, let’s do a request class. And I thought.

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okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I could. I could do that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so that’s what I did.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I sat at the front of the room and I said, We’re gonna do something a little different. Today.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we’re going to do a request class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So as we go around the room, just let me know. You know. Kind of let everybody know your name again. and how you’re feeling today. what’s going on for you? Is there any source? Bots, tight spots, things that need to be addressed, etc.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And as everybody went around the room, was able to hear kind of what was going on with each person.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oddly enough, very similar from person to person lot of the same spots over and over again.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I immediately started to feel more calm.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I realized that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ve been writing out and typing out sequences for over 2 years, like I knew how to sequence. I just hadn’t done it off the cuff or on the fly, so to speak.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but that the knowledge was there because I’d been doing it. I’d been creating these and teaching these

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and saving them. I would often save them so that I could edit them afterwards if I was like. Oh, this part didn’t quite flow. Let’s move this over here, you know.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so I saved them all. So I had an whole little book full of sequences at home that I had done.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And I realized that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: actually, I knew how to sequence. I just had to calm down. And so I listen to their requests. Oh, I’ve got neck pain. I’ve got shoulder pain. I’ve got this going on. And I thought, okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I created a sequence off

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just there on the fly. similar to the sequences that I had probably done in the past.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: except with the difference being that now I knew what their personal struggles were that day, and so I made sure to add those in oh, so and so, and so, and so and so and so we’re talking about their neck. Let’s make sure we sneak a little neck stretch in at the beginning or at the end of class, or somebody was talking about their wrists. Let’s do something for that, and let’s do something for the shoulders.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so this class and this was a half a class. By the way, not a Yin class. This was long before I had any in training or experience.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: ended up just evolving on its own.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I did a similar little sort of half the flow that I would normally.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I added in these little extras for people that they needed, and spent more time on the areas of the body that they talked about that were feeling sore or tight.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I let my meditation be super simple. just something that I could do without a script. and we did a little bit of a longer Shavasan.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and almost unanimously. I think there was only 2 people that didn’t on their way out. Now they didn’t say anything negative. They just floated off with their day. But out of all of the classes I’ve taught

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that class had an amazing amount of feedback.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Almost everybody in that class stopped by on their way out to thank me and tell me that that was the best class I’d ever taught them yet.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So the class where I had no plan, no theme, nothing written out, and where I just

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Nyk Danu Yoga: asked them what they needed, and then was present to creating that and serving their needs

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Nyk Danu Yoga: was the best class I’d ever taught them. Hmm!

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Needless to say, I had to go home and sit with that that I had been spending all of this time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: creating these clever little sequences with themes and quotes and meditations, etc.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And the one where I did. None of that was the best class I’d ever taught them was the most useful class to the people in the room.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and what I realized is that not consciously but unconsciously.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I had been so attached to my themes and my meditations and my sequences. that I had forgotten to put the needs of the students

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as my primary focus.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, again, none of this was conscious, right? I was just doing what I was

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Nyk Danu Yoga: taught to do. You create a sequence right? You show up prepared. You teach your sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I was just doing what my anxious personality type preferred right, which is being prepared.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: being on script, making sure you have a plan.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But that day I realized that I actually needed to get out of my own way. and that I needed to center and focus on the needs of the people that were in front of me that day.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so from then on. sure, I would bring a meditation with me. maybe a quote.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but from then on I no longer

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sequenced my classes instead.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: every class from then. So that was 2,006 ish until now, which at the time of this recording, is 2024 can’t believe I’ve been teaching that long.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I no longer have a predetermined plan or sequence

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for my classes. Instead. all of my classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: start with that opening.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Hello! We go around and we say our name, and then a word or a phrase to summarize how we are.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And one thing that I noticed over the years

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when I would ask my students which areas are bugging you which body parts need love today, etc. Etc.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It was always the same areas over and over and over again. Occasionally there’d be an outlier, but it was like 99% of the time. What I would hear is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: my neck. shoulders. my back so that could be upper, back, middle, back or lower back. My hips and my hip flexors right over and over and over.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: When I asked the students what areas of their bodies needed love, I got the same answer. Neck, shoulders, upper back, middle back, lower back, hip butt it, band and hip flexors.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So now I would say, I no longer have a class plan.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but I do have a class recipe. and the reason I like to think of them as a recipe is because in a recipe you can add and subtract ingredients. You can make substitutions.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So my recipe now, for classes always includes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: something for their neck, their shoulders, their upper back, middle back and lower back, their hip, butt eye T band area and their hip flexors. So I often joke with my students that those areas are automatically included for the price of admission.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then, as we go around, if there are other areas of their body or nervous system states

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that are going on for them, or emotional states.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they can. They can let me know as we go around, and then I tweak and alter my recipe based on that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now I will say that this recipe isn’t me writing out poses.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s just that I know I’m going to do the different directions of the spine right? So I’m going to do something that involves a back bend, something that involves a forward bend, even if it’s just child’s pose, or hugging your knees into your chest, so something to gently round the spine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It’s always gonna include a twist, something lateral. Those things are always there.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: something for your neck and your shoulders and your hips and your butt area. That’s my recipe.

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So I don’t put in specific poses for those.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I teach in a especially now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: now that I’ve been teaching a long time, and I’ve been teaching in for so long. I teach in a really functional way. And so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I give a lot of options. So I don’t say, okay, everybody we’re gonna do. Let’s just find an example, something for your hip and butt. We’re all going to do swan pose or sleeping swamp.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’ll say we could do sleeping, Swan, or if that’s not great for your knee, for example, or you just like a different hip opener. You could do the one on your back, which some people call figure 4. Some people call Recline Swan. I learned it as keyhole.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, opposed by any other name, is just as effective where you’re lying on your back and you cross one leg over, and then, you know, bring your leg towards you.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I give them options. So part of my class structure means, yes, I’m always going to have something for their hip and butt area.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but it may not be the same pose from week to week, and it may not be the same pose, even from student to student.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So having this recipe doesn’t mean that I have specific poses written out right? That would be a plan. That would be a sequence.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But what it means is that I’m gonna make sure to address those areas, and then anything else that they come up with as we do our Hello. So if we’re doing our Hello, and someone says hamstrings or quads, or I’m feeling anxious, or I’m grieving, or whatever the case may be.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I can add and subtract ingredients

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Nyk Danu Yoga: based on what I hear from the people in front of me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I want to be really clear here. There’s no way I could have done that when I was a brand new teacher

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I didn’t have enough sequencing knowledge and experience and practice

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Nyk Danu Yoga: under my belt to do that when I was a brand new teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay? So I just wanna make sure that II say that that if you are a brand new teacher you’re going to need to write out some stuff for a while, right? But here’s the thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Your sequences don’t need to be fancy or flashy, or have a whole bunch of theory or themes to them. In fact, if you’re a new teacher, I would just take that pressure right off yourself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe you just look at okay, what kind of a class could I create? That would give them a well rounded experience physically.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So here’s a little subtle hint, neck, shoulders, back.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: hips, but it, band.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Trust me if you get all the directions of the spine in in your sequence. You address their neck tension, their tightness in their hips and their butt area.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You will have happy campers, so if you need a framework. There’s a framework. And again, I’ll talk more in another episode

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Nyk Danu Yoga: about sequencing later.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But I think sometimes teachers get so attached to their themes that they’re actually missing what’s happening right in front of them in the room.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know there’s been lots of times in the past where I’ve had an idea about what I want to teach, and then I show up and I check in with the students. And maybe there’s like a huge amount of anxiety in the room.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s going to change

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how I teach my class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or I show up, and I check in with everybody and like maybe everybody says hips right, like everybody. So it’s like, Okay, we’ll spend more time on that today.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or maybe I show up. And

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Nyk Danu Yoga: there’s a lot of

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sort of fidgetiness in the room. There’s a lot of kind of impatience and fidgetiness. and if that’s the case, that will also change how I decide to teach

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for years and years and years. I never even had poems that I used in my classes, even when I’d been teaching yin for as long as I have. You would think as as a yin teacher it would be a no-brainer to have a poem or a quote for each class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I didn’t for years I have for probably about the last.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for only.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know, considering I’ve been teaching almost 20, I think, 20 years at this point.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s you know. That’s a long time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: without a quote or poem. and the reason I didn’t is because when I was in other teachers classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they offered poems, they were all a little bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Pollyanna. a little bit

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Nyk Danu Yoga: light, and love a little bit good. Vibes only a little bit too sweet, too saccharine, too florally.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I just for me

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Nyk Danu Yoga: didn’t feel like they were grounded in reality and real life. and the fact that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes we struggle

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so for my own site, for my own classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it took me years to find poetry that I felt like, okay, this speaks to our shadows.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This speaks to

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Nyk Danu Yoga: some of the difficulties we may have in life. Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So not that the poems are all doom and gloom by any means, not at all. but they are not afraid to address the fact that, you know sometimes things are hard.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes in life there is discomfort.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I didn’t even use poems for years.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I wanted to share that story with you for both the new teachers and for those of you that are sort of mid-level experience. Maybe you’ve been teaching for a few years you’re starting to feel more comfortable

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Nyk Danu Yoga: should we theme our classes, or should we not theme our classes? Right? That is the question. Well for me, and this is again me. Speaking personally.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I’m very clear that I became a Yoga teacher because I believe that Yoga can change the world. And yes, I realize that that sounds sort of trite

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and sort of like something you would see in an Instagram quote. But here’s how I believe that happens

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when my students are super anxious, super stressed out. They’re on their last nerve.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re in chronic pain. Whatever the case may be.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: they can’t be fully present to their lives and to their loved ones, and to their communities and etc., etc. Anyone who’s been in pain knows

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that it’s hard to even be patient to not snap at people or to want to isolate.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so, when people are sort of existing in that state all the time which a lot of people are. Then there’s no way that they can be the best version of themselves for their loved ones, for their communities, for the world at large.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so I use the tools of Yoga to help people to become

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Nyk Danu Yoga: more grounded. more calm. more patient.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: more loving, more kind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Help them to get out of pain. and to learn how to ground themselves

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so that they can then be more present to those in their life.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Maybe when they leave Yoga class they’re less likely to flip the bird to that guy who just cut them off in traffic. or maybe when they go home after a Yoga class, and

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Nyk Danu Yoga: absolute chaos is raining in the house.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re less likely to snap because they’re coming from that resourced, grounded, calm state.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And then they’re nicer to their partner and to their children, and then their partner is now nicer to anyone in their lives.

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and their children

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Nyk Danu Yoga: are nicer to the people in their lives. So this creates this ripple effect.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So when I say that I started teaching Yoga, because I believe that Yoga can change the world. That’s how I mean it. not in some sort of grand, heroic way, but in these small.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: almost invisible ways that happen after every single Yoga class.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so, because I knew that that was my, why, my bigger? Why, as a teacher, this is why I took the training to become a Yoga teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I saw what a difference Yoga made in my own nervous system. With my anxiety levels I saw how Yoga made me so much more patient and loving and kind.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I thought, if I can help other people

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Nyk Danu Yoga: learn these tools to become more patient and loving and kind, but can help other people learn to resource.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then that has that ripple effect. So that was my why, that’s why I became a Yoga teacher. And so what I realized

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that day, after teaching without the sequence and without the theme without the matching thing, poetry, and all of that that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that was actually serving my bigger. Why. when my students came up to me and told me how much better they felt. and how this was the best class I’d ever taught them.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: It became really clear to me that if I wanted to teach on purpose for myself, for my own. Why, my own big Y, that letting go of these predetermined sequences was the best way to do that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: To be able to meet people where they were at that day, and serve their needs in the moment.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That was better

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Nyk Danu Yoga: than having a beautifully crafted theme.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because I could have the most beautifully crafted theme, the most symbolically poetically beautiful sequence. and a matching meditation to boot.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But if somebody leaves in as much pain as they came in with. Do you think any of that landed with them?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Probably not

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so. Is there a place for theming? Sure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and whether or not you theme your classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Please let that be determined by you, not by looking out at the yogaverse and Facebook groups and seeing all these fancy themes and thinking, oh, my God, I need to. I need to step up my game. I need to do this

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because here’s a little secret.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Your students don’t care about your fucking themes. They really don’t. They came for the yoga. They came to ground to heal for whatever reason they came. That’s what they’re there for.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: They’re not there for your poetry now, not saying that there isn’t a place for poetry. I get a lot of good feedback on my poems. I’m just saying. cut yourself some slack. dear Yoga teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now I know that some people are really attached to their themes, and if that’s you, and you love creating themes, and you love crafting themes. And this is like a big part of your teaching.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would say 2 things to you. one

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Nyk Danu Yoga: good for you, party on with your badass self. Theme away if you would like. I am not here to tell anyone that they’re doing anything right or wrong.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but I would encourage you to try. What if you tried just one class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where you did not have a theme and see how it goes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now, of course you’ll be nervous. It’ll feel weird. It’ll feel awkward. But see how it goes, as far as how do the students feel

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just to try it as an experiment? Because, you know before that day where the choice was taken away from me because I had forgotten my sequence at home.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I never in a million years, if you would have said to me before that, you know, someday you’re actually not going to create these sequences anymore. You’re not gonna theme your classes. You’re just gonna show up and be present and ask people what they need. And that’s what you’re gonna do. I would have laughed my ass off at you

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because, yeah, that was not in my frame of reference, because, again, like I said, I was type, a kind of organized, highly functional, anxious type.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I would have laughed at you if you had told me that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but that one experience that one day of teaching without it, and having the feedback that I got changed everything. And then I realized I’d been spending so much of my time

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Nyk Danu Yoga: creating these sequences and these themes. and they weren’t even landing with the students in the way that I thought they were. I thought I was creating these poetic, magical moments in my Yoga class.

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and sure maybe sometimes those themes did land with those people in the right way.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But if they were still limping out with hip pain. did they really care about my theme? About lotus flowers? Probably not

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Nyk Danu Yoga: now. I will say that I do theme workshops. So when I’m teaching a workshop, I’m teaching a workshop with a specific theme in mind. I will theme the shit out of that workshop 100%.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s about the only time that I theme a class is if I’m doing a workshop, I often do seasonal workshops for yen

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Nyk Danu Yoga: kind of a bit of a, you know. Here’s a yin sequence for summer, for winter, for fall, etc., or I might theme around some of my personal niches or specialties. So I work a lot with folks with back pain. This is something I’ve been working with people therapeutically, for

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I don’t know

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Nyk Danu Yoga: how many years now

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Nyk Danu Yoga: 1314, 15 that’s I’ve lost count.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe 17 years. Something like that. I started niching into back pain, so I may create a a workshop with that as my theme, you know. Like, how do we? How do we work with kind of some of the common things that cause back pain.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I might create a workshop around anxiety. and I might theme that way again, because that’s something that I now specialize in that I really feel passionate about helping people with.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But my general weekly, especially my drop-in classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where it’s like, I only teach one studio dropping classes at the time of this recording. There’s sort of the exception to my rule. But If I’m teaching dropping classes, I’m not theming that class. I will have a reading

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that I pick out at the start of the week. That feels kind of right to me.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. Sometimes I change it part way through, though

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Nyk Danu Yoga: sometimes I might have a reading that’s a little bit more dark and soulful. And then I hear in the room people are really struggling with kind of world events.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that they’re feeling really heavy and really hopeless. So I might switch my reading to something that is just a little bit more

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Nyk Danu Yoga: inspirational right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Not saccharine and polyannix. That’s not my deal. It’s something that gives them

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Nyk Danu Yoga: just a little life raft.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So even my poems that I have picked out at the start of the week from my in classes can change based on what I hear from the group. And since they’re all in my magic iphone. It’s pretty easy for me to just

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Nyk Danu Yoga: scroll and pick a different poem.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s what I wanted to talk about with theming

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the question I saw in the group was like should, and I’m guessing it was a new teacher, it’s hard to say.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but just based on the question, you know. Should I be theming my classes like? Do I need to theme thy classes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: around? What and what do I theme them around? Chakras meridians? help! So if you’re listening to this dear new Yoga teacher. you don’t have to theme your classes. Some people love to theme their classes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Some people don’t find what works for you if coming up with a theme helps you feel like you’re creating a more soulful experience for your students, and it doesn’t feel like pressure to you, but it actually feels good.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then use themes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If theming, coming up with a theme and a matching sequence, and all of that to your classes feels like so much pressure. Then don’t theme just create a really simple

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Nyk Danu Yoga: basic class recipe that you can add and subtract poses from that address. The directions of the spine. So again forward, bending backward, bending, twisting lateral extension.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and throw in a couple tight spots, and guess what you are going to have happy campers, theme or no theme.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: don’t feel pressured to do what other Yoga teachers are doing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Don’t compare your classes to other teachers. Yoga classes.

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This is why so many Yoga teachers struggle with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: imposter syndrome because they’re not listening to their own self. They’re looking outside externally on Instagram and Facebook groups and seeing what everybody else is doing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And so if that’s happening for you, dear Yoga teacher, and this is why you’re feeling like you need to theme your classes, then unplug for a bit.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And the other thing I’ll say about sequencing and theming

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Nyk Danu Yoga: is that you need to have practiced these things in order to successfully create them for your students.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you don’t have a dedicated home practice, I’m not talking about going to a studio. I’m not talking about following along on a video. Dear Yoga, teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: time for a loving smackdown. If you don’t have a yoga practice that is self-led from yourself

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where you sit and pick out poses for yourself, and you sequence them together, and you do your own practice. This is one of the reasons you’re struggling with creating your class plans and your sequences.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because your sequences will come from your embodied felt experience. When you take the time out of your life to do these home practices for yourself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s when you’ll come up with little Ahas or little cool variations of poses that then you can share with your students.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So I know that this has sort of fallen out of the Yoga verse

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Nyk Danu Yoga: since the time that I became a teacher. But when I first applied for my very first teacher training program. We actually had to have a home practice as an entrance requirement

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to join the teacher training that was mandatory.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: We had to have 5 years experience we had to have a home practice. We had to have a letter from a teacher recommending us and an essay before we were even considered for the teacher training program.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And now I know that this doesn’t happen any more, which is unfortunate. In my opinion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I feel like we’re cranking out Yoga teachers like puppies out of a puppy mill and not let not giving them any skills to succeed when they get out.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re listening to this right now, and you’re a newer teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: or maybe even an established teacher, and you struggle with sequencing. You struggle with

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Nyk Danu Yoga: coming up with your class plans

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Nyk Danu Yoga: are you practicing?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If the answer’s no, you’re going to find the gold there. The goal at the end of the rainbow is in your own home practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So am I saying that you can’t take a sequence from somewhere else as inspiration to do in your own body, in your practice. Sure, of course.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that’s a great way to start is find a few sequences. Play with them in your body and go. Hmm, okay. I didn’t really like that pose leading into that pose. Maybe I would do this instead. Okay, now I’ll play with that in my body. How did that feel? That was good. Okay.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Now you’re on to something.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: but you can’t look to external sources

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as a teacher to create what you need to create for your students and for yourself. That is an inside job.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and it starts with practice.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you’re not practicing at all at home on your own without a video, you’re not like

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doing any practices without going to a studio.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is where your work starts. I know. sucks, but troupe the hard way

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the long way the way that takes the time.

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But this is where the gold is

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to summarize.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Oh, one more thing before I summarize that I wanted to mention, and again I will put the episode with Dr. Karina Smith linked below. If you’re listening to this it’ll be in the episode notes for those of you that are watching on Youtube. It’ll be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: right left. I’m not sure where they put the little cards nowadays, but I’ll make sure to put a card there. because and now this is a yin specific thing. because what often comes up in Yin groups is somebody takes their teacher training

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and they were briefly, very briefly, maybe not even very skillfully.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: maybe by a teacher that actually hasn’t even studied Chinese medicine

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Nyk Danu Yoga: introduced to Chinese medicine theories.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And now they think, oh, now I have to sequence all my classes around the meridians.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: No, dear teacher, no, you do not.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In fact, if you have not studied traditional Chinese medicine in depth.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: please stop

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Nyk Danu Yoga: using meridian theory as a way to sequence your classes. Because

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and I say this with love.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you aren’t doing it skillfully, because you don’t have enough information and knowledge

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so

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Nyk Danu Yoga: so many times. I’ll see in groups people sharing. Oh, I did this video for the kidney bladder meridian. And I always just want to say, and why might we want to do a sequence for the kidney and bladder meridian? If you can’t answer that question.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: do not do a sequence for the kidney and bladder meridian

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for most Yin teachers. any of the Tcm stuff that you learned

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Nyk Danu Yoga: in your teacher training, especially if your teacher training was like 50 h or less. If you learned any Tcm. In that you didn’t get Jack squat.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So you barely touch the surface of the iceberg. So you’re not educated or experienced enough really to be sharing that information skillfully. Now, if you love that information and you want to dive deeper into studying in that that is great.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you know. Find some teachers that actually have studied traditional Chinese medicine. I know of a few myself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Dr. Krina Smith. I’m sure there’s others that I’m not thinking of right now. But if you want that information.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: then, after your initial Yin training and you want to dive deeper, then you can go into other Yin trainings that maybe offer a bit more on that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: But again, we have to be really skillful with what we share, and we have to stay in our own lane.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: we don’t want to be doing things like teaching a yen Yoga class for grief.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Because and saying, Oh, okay, I’m just going to do a bunch of things to open up the lung meridian because the lung meridian is attached to grief.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That is a very

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Nyk Danu Yoga: ignorant in the true sense of the word, ignorant, not as in people. Take ignorance to mean stupid. That’s not what ignorant means. Ignorant means. You don’t have the knowledge, skill or information, right? So that is an unskillful or ignorant way to look at sequencing a class with traditional Chinese medicine.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So if you haven’t studied traditional Chinese medicine in depth. Don’t sequence your classes that way

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because you don’t have the information, the skill, the knowledge to do so, and so you would. Probably your attempts would be unskilful, and might even

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Nyk Danu Yoga: cause some of your students to think that something’s wrong with them. And again, I’m gonna

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Nyk Danu Yoga: point to that episode with Dr. Karina Smith, because that we talk about this a fair bit in that episode.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I know that as teachers, we, we get so excited about new information. I know, you know, when we all did our first teacher training. If we learned anything about Chakras, we were running around psychoanalyzing ourselves based on the chakras and our partners, and our mom and everybody else. Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: And this is what we do. This is where the quote, a little bit of information is a dangerous thing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: because this is what we content to do, we content to get super excited about something, and then just like run with it and look it for it everywhere. But what we’d realize is, we have a tiny little tip of the iceberg of that information.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and that there’s so much under the surface of the water, that we don’t even know that we haven’t explored, that we haven’t studied in depth. And so if we go around making all these statements

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Nyk Danu Yoga: about chakras or meridians, or whatever the case may be in our classes when we haven’t studied it in depth.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That’s not skillful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as a Yoga teacher. We always need to find the balance between imposter syndrome.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: which is what happens when you’re looking at what everyone else is doing. Instead of listening to your own heart, and doing your own practice, and choosing what feels right for you in the world. Right?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: You can’t feel like an impostor as much if you’re not staring at everyone else, you drop into your own heart.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: This is where confidence comes from this and experience.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So that’s one end of the spectrum. And then we have the other end of the spectrum with Yoga teachers, where they’re just grabbing a little snippet of information that they learned 2 weeks ago. And now they’re putting it in all of their classes and sprinkling TCM. Theory around like its magical confetti.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: not realizing how unskilful they’re being and how problematic that can be

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Nyk Danu Yoga: when you have a very small understanding of a very deep, deep medicine. Even acupunctures that I know that have been doing acupuncture for years are continually studying that medicine. There is no way that unless you have studied Tcm. In depth, that you have enough information

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to be skillfully guiding classes in that

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Nyk Danu Yoga: realm with that theme, with that philosophy with that knowledge. So instead, let that go.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: So, dear teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: the dear teacher who may or may not even hear this. Who asked in the group, Do I need to theme my classes? Chakras! Meridians! This that all the things O overwhelmed?

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Nyk Danu Yoga: No, you don’t. You don’t have to theme your classes at all.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: In fact, you could just pick a simple formula like I did for my recipe. Of what do most people struggle with in their body and then

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Nyk Danu Yoga: create your sequences around that. I guarantee you’re gonna have happy campers. You get rid of people’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: tor soar in tight spots, if you help them, learn how to deal with those people will be happy.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Most Yoga students are not showing up for your poetry. Most Yoga students are not showing up for your theme. Most Yoga students don’t give a shit about your theme. They’re there because they’re struggling with something

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Nyk Danu Yoga: physical, mental, emotional. That’s what they’re looking for.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: If you focus on that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’ll be successful for sure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: That being said, those of you who love your magical themes.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: you’d love to create them and sprinkle unicorn dust on everybody while you share your theme in your class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: party. On with yourself. If that’s

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Nyk Danu Yoga: working for you. If your students are responding well to that, then that’s what you should do.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: I would challenge you, though, those teachers that are super attached to having a theme

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to teach. Here’s my challenge to you. Please let me know how it goes

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Nyk Danu Yoga: to teach one class where you have no theme.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Note structure.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: as far as like this is the theme of the class

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Nyk Danu Yoga: where you just show up and be present and check in with people and ask them how they’re doing.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and then create your your class around that.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: and let me know how that goes. For me. It was a total game changer.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Okay, my friends.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: that’s all. For now. I hope that you found this helpful.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: dear Yoga, teacher, if you are struggling, thinking you have to theme, I hope this takes some of the pressure off

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Nyk Danu Yoga: for those of you who’ve been theming and theming and love it. Maybe you’ve got some new ideas, too, maybe maybe not.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Again. This is just my opinion.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: this is the opinion of a I never know what to call myself a veteran, a seasoned, a experienced Yoga teacher.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: From what I’ve gone through in my own journey, and what I witness with the teachers that I work with, and that I help.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: Please take my advice for just that. Just my advice. Just my opinion, and decide for yourself.

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Nyk Danu Yoga: All right, my friends, until we so meet again. Bye, for now.