How to Teach Yin Yoga When The World Feels Heavy

How to Teach When The World Feels Heavy

How do we teach and hold space for our students when the world feels heavy, when there’s something big going on, whether it’s collectively like a war, a natural disaster, mass shooting, political stuff, or something personal to us. How do we teach? When we lose a student, all of these things. So this episode idea was sparked when I was doing a recent training with my students when this came up as a question, and the group share and chat about this afterwards inspired this episode.

So if you wanna learn my thoughts on how do we teach when the world is heavy, when do we share, what do we share, which is too much to share, when shouldn’t we share all of that stuff. Then stay tuned. That’s coming right up.

Okay, my friends. Welcome or welcome back if you’re new around here. Welcome. If you’re familiar, welcome IES to a Yin Yoga podcast. Before we get into today’s topic, I wanted to mention a couple of things that have happened that I’m super grateful for.

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Interestingly, I think it’s because a lot of the yin trainings are quite short. So it’s hard to get everything in. And also, each educator has their own perspective and things that they think are important, um, to share out in the Yanni yoga verse.

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So if you have small people around, please grab some headphones now. Okay, so today’s topic came to me. Based on, and I’m gonna go in a few directions with this. How do we teach when the world feels heavy? ’cause there’s a lot of ways and times that the world feels heavy. But this came to me. It’s been something I’ve been wanting to share about, but I wasn’t really sure how to summarize all of these different situations into one episode.

But now I do know, in my teacher training recently, there was a question. About like how do we hold space or what do we share in class when the world feels heavy? And it was such a lovely, rich conversation and everyone added in, their thoughts. And of course the world could feel heavy for different reasons, and maybe all of those situations you might have a slightly different approach.

I thought we could go over some of those, in today’s episode. And just my own perspective, what I’ve done in the past, some of the things that were brought up by my tts, my teacher trainees, things that they’ve done in the past. Um, and hopefully this will help some of you. And then I have an absolutely soulful, delicious reading for you, which is going to be shared.

Near, near the end with permission, I reached out to the author and said. May I please read this on air? And he said yes. And so there will also be a link to his, substack as well in the show notes. So if you wanna read more of his beautiful writing, his soulful writing, you’ll have an opportunity to do that there.

Alright, so let’s get into it, shall we? How do we teach when the world feels heavy? Well, the first thing I wanna address is that sometimes the world feels too heavy to teach. So sometimes we don’t, sometimes we take a break. So if the world feeling heavy affects you very personally, maybe you are going through a loss or a serious health challenge or whatever current state of the world and current state of affairs that feels heavy, affects you in a very kind of personal way.

Then maybe you don’t teach, maybe you take a break, maybe you get some subs, um, so that you can just heal and rest. Maybe, have some time with your therapist or dear friends and loved ones, or a support group, or whatever the case may be. So I’m a strong believer that we should only share when it’s a scar, not a wound.

When it comes to our own personal stuff, we should only share things when it’s a scar, not a wound, because it is not your student’s job to hold space for you. Your emotions and what’s going on with you psychologically. It’s your, opportunity to hold space for them and what’s going on with them. And so if whatever this heavy thing, is personal enough that you’re not gonna be able to stay composed, if it’s gonna be triggering to you, if you’re likely to, start crying, then don’t share it.

Take a break. If you need to get some help, get a sub, get someone to help out, or if you’re okay to be there and be present, you’re just not okay to talk about said heavy thing. Whether, again, whether that’s super personal or whether it’s, just something in the world that’s really affecting you in a much deeper way.

Um, then maybe you just don’t share about it. It’s okay. To show up to a yoga class and not talk about current events or world events. In fact, many of your students are bombarded with world events, current events, current tragedies, all the things, all the time in their personal life at work, their people are talking about it.

It’s on the social media, it’s on the tv, it’s on the radio. You get where I’m going with this. They are often bombarded. With whatever said tragedy event thing is, and somewhere along the line we got this idea, some of us, that if we don’t speak about something in our yoga class, then we’re not checking off that I’m a good person box, right?

That we’re not a social justice warrior with air quotes. If we’re not talking about every single big thing that’s coming up in the world, I would argue that. I would argue that one way to be an activist, actually, and I’ve been, just so y’all know, I’ve been an activist since I was 14. I do not call myself a social justice warrior because I do not like the baggage that comes along with that word.

I was called an activist back then. I’ll call myself an activist now. So I’ve been an activist for many, many years, and my activism has taken on many different forms over the years and what form it takes on. Really depends on how resourced I’m feeling, because one thing I know for sure having been there many times is that if you are trying to be so engaged and involved in changing the world, that you are not taking care of yourself, that’s gonna lead to some pretty hefty burnout.

Been there, done that, have several t-shirts, on that, and so. Yes, we can to whatever capacity we have, engage in the world and in helping the world to heal and perhaps raising awareness for causes. But that does not need to be in your weekly yoga class. In fact, I would say, especially if whatever it is that you’re talking about is political.

You should leave that the hell out of your yoga class, and if you wanna talk about it on your social media or in your newsletter or whatever the case may be, then, that’s up to you. I have, I know I have sent out some newsletters in, in times of Pivotal events just to kind of, sort of make my view known to my, my folks on my email list, or I may do it on social media, but what I’m not gonna do is show up to class to the one place.

Time in people’s week where they get a little bit of refuge. I’m not talking about spiritual bypassing. We can totally address the energy and the emotions behind said heavy thing. I’m gonna talk about how we do that throughout this episode, so I’m not saying that we just pretend it doesn’t exist. There is a whole lot that you can do in between.

I’m gonna make my Dharma talk about whatever this current situation in the world is. That’s feeling heavy, right? One end of the spectrum, the other end of the not so good spectrum would be everything’s fine. Worry about it. That’s the other extreme. But where’s the middle? Why do we always forget about the middle way?

Middle way is often the wisest way, so we can address the emotions and the fears and the heaviness without getting into the subject itself. So you might be in that place. You might be feeling heavy, not so heavy, that maybe you need to get a sub ’cause you’re sobbing, or you’re dysregulated.

Maybe it’s not that extreme. But you also don’t really wanna bring this to class, then talk about what’s beneath current said event. The fear, the sadness, the heartbreak, the heaviness. That’s what we can speak to because to not address it at all when your students show up how they’re feeling. Again, that could be a little bit too Pollyanna, a little bit too sort of spiritual bypass.

E you know, we wanna, don’t wanna pretend everything’s just fine when it’s clearly not. But we also don’t wanna have students show up and have their one time in their week where they don’t have to be bombarded with current events. And then you bring your current events into your yoga class. So I’m a strong believer in that.

I have a rule in my own classes that we don’t discuss politics. So I do a check-in at the beginning of the class. Everybody gets a chance to say their name, how they’re doing, et cetera. But I make a strong no politics rule, and that’s because I want everyone. And yes, dear teacher, I mean everyone.

Even those that may have different views and beliefs than you do to feel welcome in my yoga space. I believe that when we get in touch with our body, our breath, our spirit through yoga, that’s a place where we are all one, and I’m not bringing anything into that space that’s gonna divide us further.

The world is already trying too damn hard to do that as it is. Our politicians, the media, it’s constant divisive, divisive, divisive,, separate and conquer, right? The more I can look at my neighbor who has a slightly different opinion than me and stare daggers at them and judge them, then the less I’m paying attention to what the actual sources of the problem are, which is not often each other.

So I will never allow political discussions in my classes, and I never used to have to say that, but lately in the last few years, I have had to say that because I think there’s a certain political leaning of people that just assume everybody that must be there practicing yoga must also have the same views, and that is not the case.

So I want my yoga space to truly be about oneness, unity, and welcoming everybody, even the people I disagree with. Even the people that annoy me, even the people that have different views than I do everyone, because the gift of yoga is universal, and one of the best ways to unite people is to have them spend quality healing time together.

And so that’s where I stand with that. And so I’ve made it very clear to my students. I actually just usually now I actually send something out right before class starts and just say, Hey, just so you know, we don’t do politics. When we do our check-in, now I can hold space for your emotions about said political situation.

I can, absolutely share how you are feeling, but you don’t need to tie it to the, I’m feeling frustrated because blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? I’m feeling sad because da da, current event, I’m feeling scared because of this political thing. So that’s where I sit with politics personally. I’m a hell no to the politics in my class.

And there’s a whole unfortunately culture going around out there saying things like yoga is social justice. Uh, yeah, no it’s not actually. And it’s funny because these same people are often the people that are going around talking about cultural appropriation and yoga, and yet they have no problem taking the word yoga and appropriating it and making it about social justice.

What? No. So if you are a social justice person, can your yoga practice help you with that? Of course, this might be a more nuanced conversation that we could have at another time, but the word yoga, remember, dear friends, is an Indian concept that has been stolen and co-opted. And if you do not wanna keep doing that.

Then don’t check that I’m a good person box saying yoga is social justice. Well, now you’re also still culturally appropriating a Sanskrit word connected to a culture that yoga has been stolen from. So that’s sort of a hypocritical thing, in my opinion. Now does that mean you can’t use your practice to help you in your social justice work?

Of course you can. I know for me, yoga has been a massive tool. To keep me grounded, calm in my parasympathetic nervous system, to keep me objective, to keep me a critical thinker so that when I go to my activism, I have that resource state. Of course, it’s great for that, but I’m not going around saying yoga is activism because that’s not accurate.

That’s a little rant about that. , And so I would say don’t make your classes. All about your social justice work unless, unless you are teaching that as your specific niche. Maybe you work with activists, non-for-profits, people like that, where like that’s the culture of the people that are there, and you put that clearly in your class, descrip.

Nothing is worse than going to a yoga class thinking, oh, thank God I just get to heal a little bit. I get to ground a little bit. I get to, practice some self care so that I can go back out into the world and be the warrior or the activist or the mom or the. Good husband or the whatever it is that I need to be in the world.

And I’m using this beautiful yoga practice, to do that. And then you walk in and all of a sudden it’s all about politics and blah, blah, blah. So I’m a strong believer that healing spaces are for healing. And if you wanna teach that population, you wanna address those types of issues through workshops or classes.

Make it crystal clear in your class description. This is the theme of this practice, so that people that just really need some self-care and some nervous system regulation won’t go to that class. So that’s my rant about that. But you can always hold space if you can. If you are resourced enough. I shouldn’t say you can always hold space for other people’s emotions.

’cause sometimes you can’t. As a yoga teacher, you are a human being too. And so sometimes maybe you need to take a break. You get subs, you go to therapy. Uh, I don’t, I think all yoga teachers could benefit from therapy. I mean, God, we, we hold a lot of, we hold a lot of stuff, , from ourselves, from the people we’re around, from the world.

Therapy’s a good thing. So if you are feeling resourced enough to show up and teach, then you can hold Brave space. There’s a whole episode I did with Grace Company, on that. If you wanna learn more about , that was a wonderful conversation. And just a heads up that if you wanna see any of the past episodes, there is another link in the show notes that says, see all episodes at a glance.

That takes you to a Google Doc where you can see every single episode chronologically from season one onward. And you can find them there and click the links to listen. So this episode with Grace Tamani on how to hold Brave Space would be a really good one for this. Emotions and yin might be another good one.

Um, ’cause that comes up a lot when our students are having emotional responses and what do we do as a teacher? So I’m not gonna get into those two topics too much today in this episode because they’ve already been addressed. But I do wanna say, how do we teach when the world feels heavy? Well, the first thing we need to consider as a yoga teacher is.

Am I resourced enough to hold space for the heaviness right now in this situation? And the answer might be yes, and it might be no. And by hold space, I’m not talking about being a therapist to your students. That’s not your place unless you happen to also be a therapist. And even then they’d have to hire you.

So they know stay within your scope of practice. But if you feel like you can go show up and be present during these heavy times, then do so. If you feel like you cannot because the world’s feeling too heavy for you, or whatever the current thing is that’s just happened is really affecting you personally, then don’t ever hesitate to take a break.

You know? I know it’s easier said than done, but people have to understand that you are also a human being. So there’s that. Now let’s Sally forth under the assumption that you are feeling okay enough. To show up and hold some brave space. So from here on I’ll be talking about if you feel resourced enough.

So if this is not poking an active wound, if this is now a scar, not a wound, or if you know you feel the heaviness of it. ’cause of course you’re a caring, compassionate human, but it hasn’t hit you individually. And so you’re able to kind of hold a bigger picture space around that. What do we do? Well, it’s so individual, depending on the situation.

, A couple of the things that came up, in the conversation in my teacher training, the two that came up, and I’ll just talk about those and then I’ll talk about some other things. One of them was, , the question was, and I’m not gonna mention names because I have not asked for permission, but if they hear this, they’ll know who they are.

What do you do when, , for example, this person lives in the US and there’s just been yet another school shooting. How do you show up and teach after that when something like that has happened in your community? Well, first of all, we have to go to the rule of can you show up and hold brave space?

Are you feeling resourced enough? So let’s, let’s start there. And if the answer is yes, again, I don’t think that it should be discussed directly in class unless it you’ve told people so. So, we’ll that’ll make more sense in a moment, if you’re doing a special workshop or a fundraiser or something like that for a cause, then that is in the description.

So again, you, I wouldn’t bring up the fact that, , we’re all horrified, grieving and shock and dysregulated because there’s been yet another school shooting, right? Like that. Don’t bring that up in your class. But what you can do is you can support their nervous systems. So you can make the class really focus on nervous system, nervous system, nervous system.

How can I really ground and anchor these and support these students? And sometimes this is something that we don’t learn very well in our teacher training. So there’s all kinds of ways that you can make your yen practice more nervous system based and less about the stretchy bendy stuff. I did an episode recently, the number one pose I do in every yin class, you could check that one out.

That’s a nervous system nourishment. You could allow extra time for a guided shaan, or a shaan in general. Or you could add a yoga nidra practice if you’ve got training and experience in that. If you’re a sound healer, maybe you pull out your bowls and , you hit some of those more grounding notes, et cetera.

All of those things, if you have other tools in your tool belt to bring with you, please do. And I feel like, , often when I teach at a time when the world feels heavy, it will be reflected in the reading that I choose. So I’m not afraid to talk about some of the hard stuff in life, the shadows.

All of that stuff, and I’ll do so often with the reading I choose to share so that people can feel like they have been met where they are with the reading and that they’ve been seen, and that these feelings, emotions, nervous systems, states are also welcome in this room. So that’s usually how I’ll do it.

I’ll spend a lot of extra time nourishing their nervous system. I might do more reclined poses, more laying down poses, longer holds. I’ll really be focused more on how can I nourish and nurture these people? That’s gonna be my priority. So that’s how I would handle a situation like that. The other example that was brought up.

Was, , a student, a regular student at a studio who had passed away, like an active part of the community, and the teacher really wanting to do something to honor that student and their family, who also I think, came to the studio. But again. Acknowledging that some of the people that might show up for that class might not even know who that student is, or that not everyone wants to grieve in public.

And so even if they did know that student showing up and having this all come up during class might be too much, and, and yet she really felt strongly hold to honor this student in some way. And so she did have, a memorial class and, , but she let everybody know that that’s what was gonna happen.

This is what’s gonna happen for this class. We’re gonna honor so and so. This is how we’re gonna do it. And if you aren’t, you know, if you’re not comfortable with that, please, feel free to, , you can go no hard feelings, , we won’t be charged for the class or whatever,

but this is the plan. So she let people know at the beginning that this is what we’re gonna do. So if anybody was not feeling resourced enough to deal with that, they could go. So that was, I thought, really smart, really wise way to handle it, rather than just having everybody in a, you know, sort of relaxing, nervous system based pose and then all of a sudden throwing it out there , oh, hey, this is what we’re gonna do today.

We’re gonna talk about death and community and illness and, , all of the things that people may not be in a place to be able to cope with. So I thought that those were both really interesting ways to talk about it. Then I had a third student say, yeah, but little pushback, , always. Yeah. But,, how do I address these things when it is actually political?

Like when what my community is going through is because of politics? And again, I go back to you can address the fear. The nervous system state the emotions. You can hold space for that you can, , create an environment where people can rest and feel nourished and supported and seen without ever once linking it back to said political event.

Said political party, said politician. This is possible to do. It just might require you to think outside the box a little. And what I would encourage you to do as a teacher is go back to the root. So, yes, some shitty situation, horrible situation is happening due to some politician. Believe me, we got some of those up here too in Canada.

Um, so what I’m gonna talk to though is not said shitty politician or their choices. What I’m gonna talk to is the fear. The feeling of separation, the anxiety, the sadness, the grief, right? This is what I can address. And then that way the people that do agree with you politically will know and the people that don’t.

Now you’re just sharing about grief, sadness, fear, anxiety, which are universal human problems that we all have. So if you keep thinking to yourself right now, I can just, sometimes I swear I can hear teacher’s voice in my minds as I’m talking. Not really. I don’t have any psychic abilities that I know of.

But if you’re right now thinking, yeah, no, but I need to address it, you don’t actually, you don’t need to address said political event. And if you do, then make sure that’s in your class description. But it is very possible to hold brave space for a wide range of people. Without ever naming the thing.

In Chinese medicine, one of the things I love about Chinese medicine is they talk about the root and the branch. So if you go see your acupuncturist or your Chinese medicine doctor, they are gonna deal with the branch, meaning the symptoms, right? They’re gonna deal with the symptoms.

If you go in with a headache, they’re gonna treat your headache, but. Unlike allopathic medicine where you might just walk out with a prescription, they’re gonna ask you a bunch of questions about the headache. Where is the headache? When did it come from? They’re gonna take your pulse, they’re gonna look at your tongue, and they’re gonna do a bunch of other points on your body to get to the root of the problem, rather than just relieving the symptoms and then letting you go back out, and now you’re back in two days because you haven’t dealt with anything.

They’re gonna get to the root of the problem, so they’re gonna treat the symptoms. They’re gonna get to the root of it. And I would argue that most of the political drama that we have going on in the world, there are root causes to that. So if you really feel like you wanna support people and you’re having trouble figuring out, how do I do this in a way where I’m being non-partisan, where I’m not, preaching where I’m not, being political, look to the root of the problem.

What is the root of the problem and address that what is not the current symptom, not the current leader, not the current thing, but what is the root of this in our world, in ourselves? Because if it’s shown up in society, it’s also in us, right? So that’s what I would encourage you to do, is to be able to hold space for a wide range of human beings.

You have to get to the root of the issue. Not that, not its current manifestation this week in the headlines. So that being said, if you did though, wanna do, I don’t know, let’s just say, uh, let’s use the example of the school shooting that my students said. Maybe she really does feel pulled though, in a way to support the families of anyone who’s lost their lives or even the families of the, the kids that were there, et cetera, et cetera.

You could offer a special class or workshop where you take the funds from that and maybe , you give it to the families or you do , a fundraiser or a clothing drive or, I’m thinking about, , situations like floods, fires, things like that. , You can offer a special class that is designed and marketed to support that cause without having to pull it into your weekly.

So one example of this is, um, I haven’t been able to do it very successfully since I moved to Victoria, but in Calgary, where I’m from, there was a veterans food bank. The fact that there needs to be a specifically veterans food bank is a sign of all kinds of things wrong with the world. We’ll skip over that for a moment.

The fact that our veterans need a food bank is problem number one. But what I decided to do, so in the states, you don’t really,. I think we do it more in Europe and Canada, but November 11th, which is coming. Soon at the time of this recording is Remembrance Day. And it’s a big deal here. It’s not just like a day on the calendar.

People often get the day off or at least half the day off. There’s all kinds of services that you can go to. At 11:00 AM everybody takes a moment of silence. It’s a, it’s a big thing. And so I really wanted to honor that in a way. . Couldn’t really figure out how.

And so what I started doing was every year, somewhere around Remembrance Day, if, , if I could do it on Remembrance Day, I would, but I would do it in the evening so that I allowed space for people to have the day off and go to a service and, do the 11:00 AM quiet meditation stuff. But I would offer an evening class and I would make that class, , available.

Everybody brings food for the Veterans Food Bank, , and I teach for free. We fill bags and boxes and bags and boxes galore, , with food, , and then I would donate that to the Veterans Food Bank. So that’s a way that you can still speak to a cause, but you make it very clear, this is a class about this.

The goal of this class is to raise funds for et cetera, et cetera. I’ve done classes for Earth Day where I raise money for Canada’s Nature Conservatory, and all of the funds go to that. So there is ways to have some of this kind of social justice or activism or just being a good, caring human being.

If you don’t wanna put labels on it, classes to make a difference in your communities. , But just make them a special offering. Make them a special workshop. , Make it clear on the poster on the. The copy that this is what this class is about, so that if you are talking about that in the class, nobody’s gonna be going, oh crap, I came here for some self-care and now I’m being totally triggered emotionally and my nervous system shot, and I never wanna go to yoga again.

Right? So there’s ways to address these things without it being in your weekly class, in your weekly classes. There are ways to address these things. Where you get to the root. So whenever you’re tempted to talk about the branch, the current political thing, the current problem, the current leader, the current party, the current policy, believe me, I’m not immune to this.

I’m Canadian and I’m very politically active and very politically opinionated. But I also have the wisdom to know that’s not my student’s problem. That’s for me. Right. The fact that I spend my evenings watching Canadian Parliament on YouTube, that doesn’t need to be for my students, that’s for me.

, But what I can do is I can get to the root. What is the root of this feeling of separation? What is the root of this divide? What is the root of this fear? What is the root of this anxiety? What is the root cause of this sadness, of this heartbreak that I can speak to? In my classes. And it’s a great way to have your students feel seen and heard and supported.

So yeah, I think that’s probably enough on that. , This is something I could probably talk about for days on end. And also, I just wanna plant this again because I’ve talked about it many times. But yoga teachers tend to be a little bit codependent and we tend to go beyond the scope of our practice.

But just to also be really clear. Dear yoga teacher, you’re not a therapist unless you are a therapist, so you shouldn’t be. Nor should you expect yourself to hold space for some sort of group therapy session where everybody’s talking about their emotions and how sad they are and how frustrated they are, or what’s going on in the world, et cetera, et cetera.

Like that’s actually not your role or your job. And to be honest, you’re probably not gonna do it super skillfully. That there’s a reason why, you know, psychologists, psychiatrists, whatever, counselors spend years and years and years getting degrees in these things to be able to hold brave space and to have the wisdom to do that in a diverse situation, , for these things to come up.

So that would be something else is that I know we always wanna help, help, help, help, help. And that’s how we are. We’re helpers. Yoga teachers are helpers. Um, and you can help. You can help by addressing the root, not the branch. So what is the root of this emotion, this fear, this anxiety, this sadness, this frustration, this separation, this heartbreak, this grief, this feeling of doom.

Whatever it is, you can address that without talking about the specific whys or the branch. So I will tell you one more story. And this is just how I handled it because I was at a loss as to how to handle it. ’cause it had never happened to me. I had a student who was a very regular student. Her name was Claire.

Claire was a quiet, anxious person. I’m not revealing anything too personal. She shared it all the time. Very anxious person suffered from anxiety. Quiet person, but who, when you got to know her, had a hilarious sense of humor. So funny. And she was very dedicated to her yoga practice. She came three times a week at least.

And I think that her yoga practice and her walks were the tools that she used to deal with her anxiety. And Claire was also, , so not only was she super regular, in attendance, she was always there unless she was really sick or outta town. , But she also recommended friends.

And so, you know, Claire introduced me to her friend Nancy, and now Nancy comes to three classes a week. And then she also introduced me to her friend Renie. And Renie comes every set every Sunday. And so Claire was this student of mine that not only did. She come regularly, but she brought friends and, this became this little thing.

And one of her friends let me know one week in class that Claire wasn’t going to be there because she had a stroke. She was in the hospital. And so I did address that in class. , At the end, , I just said, you know, that we’re. We’re gonna de his. I always do a dedication of merit to the class. You know, today we’re gonna dedicate the merit of this class to Claire and her family and to Claire’s speedy recovery.

So I did that for a few classes, and then Claire passed away and I knew I needed to address it in some way because the regulars, but for both, for my in-person class and my Zoom classes would be showing up. And there was always Claire. Claire was always there. Claire was like a staple. Claire and her purple mat.

People are gonna notice if Claire was not there. And so I thought, well, I need to address this in some way. How do I do that? Well, that was tricky. , And I didn’t wanna do it at the beginning of class. As I said, people might come becoming to class in an emotionally vulnerable state as it is, and now I’m pouring extra grief on them.

And so I decided to do it in an email. So one of the benefits of having an email newsletter and having all your students on it is you can contact them when they’re not in class. And so I sent out a tribute, email to Claire. I had a photo of Claire and I talked about a little bit about Claire and , how she started coming to my classes and how often she came and how regular she was and how she brought her friends and how.

If you’ve practiced my classes in the last five years, odds are you’ve practiced either virtually beside or physically beside Claire. She was a constant presence in our community. And, , just talked a little bit about her as a person, her kindness, her humor, her quietness, all of that. And just said, you know, that, , just so everybody knows that for the next, I don’t know how long, we’ll see how long that at the end of class we’ll be dedicating.

The merit of our practice to Claire and to Claire’s family. So I put it out in an email so that nobody would be surprised when they showed up to in-person class or they showed up to the Zoom class. I was acknowledging the fact , that Claire had passed, part of me felt pulled to, put a purple mat at the front of the room with a bunch of equipment on it for the in-person class so that Claire could have a spot still.

The reason I didn’t do that is because I saw it. Although some people would find that very sweet and nourishing. It also might make some people really sad and you know, I didn’t think we needed to go that extra layer. And how did they decide when to stop dedicating the merit of the practice to declare is when her friends who were coming to class, because we, I do a check-in with everybody and the word or phrase to summarize how you are and when her friends.

Seemed to feel a little more grounded at the beginning of class when they weren’t quite so sad and quite so heartbroken. Not that the grief is ever gonna go away, but when it was a bit more of a scar, not a wound, or at least scabbing over, that’s when I just let it go and we began to dedicate our practice again to all beings.

So that’s how I handled that. I would love to hear from some of you how you’ve handled things like. Big tragedies in your community, deaths of a student. , If you’re watching this on YouTube, let me know in the comments. If you’re on my blog, there’s comments there. There’s also comments on Spotify.

There’s comments everywhere, but Apple. But you could also, , get on my blog, , which is, these episodes are always on a blog post. You could comment there, or you could send me a DM on Instagram. I’d love to hear from some of you how you’ve handled. These sort of bigger tragedies or when you lose a community member or something like that.

How do we deal with that? , These are just how I’ve done it. I shared how some of my students, had mentioned that they were doing it.. I’ve done a lot of fundraiser classes. Lots of fundraiser classes for, , floods, natural disasters, I mentioned the food bank, et cetera, et cetera.

And I also wanna say, just as a final note before I share this reading with you, , don’t ever forget about mantra, y’all mantra, part of yoga yoga’s not just about bending your body into weird shapes. Do not forget about Mantra. Sometimes when the world feels oh, so heavy, all I can do is loving kindness meditation.

I did a whole episode on that. Met to practice and mantra because I’m helpless to make any change in that moment in the world. That’s what I set on. So the mantra that I use right now, I, and I do change my mantras, , every year. So I close class with a mantra. I don’t expect anyone else to sing it. I sing the mantra to them.

I chant the mantra to them as I bring them Mother Shava in. And then we do an om optional om together. Um, you know, currently for this year, it’s been low cost. Samasta Suki, no Vtu, and then Han Ti Shanti. May all beings be well content and free. Peace. Peace, peace. So also don’t forget about the power of mantra and if you are a sound healer, you probably know of the power of sound.

Maybe you have bowls or gongs or something that you can use as well. Um, I don’t know that much about that at this point. Although it will, I’m gonna take some sound training , in the spring I’m gonna do some bowls and gong training, so I’ll know a bit more about things like that. But if you have other tools in your toolbox, Reiki again, though, with reiki, I know this ’cause I’ve taken reiki.

You have to have permission to do reiki on people. So just make sure that people know you’re gonna do reiki and that you have their permission., But any of these other tools, or things that you have, can come into creating a container where people can. Rest and feel nourished and supported and seen and cared about all of these things without ever saying, so, hey, there’s a war going on in blah, blah, blah.

Right? Because when isn’t there a fucking war going on? My God, I’ve been wishing for world peace in earnest since I was a 4-year-old child. My mother would take me to see Santa and he would ask what I wanted for Christmas, and I would say world peace and poor Santa. Would get very confused. The Santa at the mall and his eyes would glaze over and he would not know what to do with me.

Yes, I was a serious, intense little kid. I did that for several years and then finally my mom took me aside and said, sweetheart, I think it’s great that you want world peace, but I don’t think that that’s Santa’s department. I don’t think that Santa can do that. So I quit asking for world peace and just ask for toys like every other kid.

So. We can do these things without ever getting divisive about them. Okay, my friends, I wanna share this reading with you, , because it’s so powerful, so beautiful, so essential. And you’re probably gonna hear my voice crackle a little bit ’cause I find it moving. So I’m gonna probably get a little leaky as I read it and I will again include,, the link to his substack.

In the show notes so that you can go read his poems, support his work, et cetera, et cetera. When the World Feels Heavy, let the land hold you by angel deer. . There is a weight pressing down on the world, a grief that lingers in the bones of humanity, you feel it, don’t you?

The tightening in your chest when you wake the strange restlessness that no amount of movement can shake, the sense that something, everything is unraveling and that you are caught in the pole of its undoing. This is the time of troubles, the time our ancestors spoke of. Time in which the old ways are forgotten, and the sickness of disconnection spreads like rot through the roots of the world when the stories of the land or drown beneath the hum of machines and the relentless noise of human minds that have forgotten, had to listen.

But listen, even now the earth is speaking. Even now, the rivers and forests hold wisdom that can mend the torn fabric of your being. Even now, there is a way through the darkness and it is not found in the mind. When you cannot leave your head, when your mind is a storm that howls with worry and regret.

Surrender to your surroundings, not the way modern humans surrender to distractions, to numbness. To the easy escape of screens and substances, but in the way a river surrenders to gravity flowing into the embrace of the land. Go outside, feel the wind on your skin. Let it remind you that this breath is older than thought, and that the world is far vast than your worries.

Walk until your footsteps match the rhythm of the land beneath you. Step with reverence. Step as though the earth is alive beneath you because it is lean against the rough bark of a tree. And remember that this being has stood here for longer than any human sorrow. Press your palm to a stone and know that it is witnessed, ages rise and fall, and yet it remains steady and unchange.

Drink from a running stream and let it teach you the way water knows how to move around obstacles, how it does not resist, but simply finds another way. Breathe. Not shallowed hurried breaths, but deep belly filling gulps of air as if you are drinking in the sky itself.

Let the wind enter you sweeping away what no longer serves, clearing out the debris of despair, fear, and heaviness. When the world of humans is too much, let the more than human world cradle you. The old ones knew this truth. Our grandmothers who sang songs to the seeds, our grandfathers who knelt in the dearth, our ancestors, who listened to the whispers of the wind and the silence of the stones, they knew what we have forgotten, that we are not alone, that we were never meant to bear the weight of existence on our own.

Locked inside our own minds severed from the great web of life. The forest does not ask you to be anything but what you are. The river does not demand that you solve all the world’s problems before it will offer you its song. The Earth does not require your perfection, only your presence. Let yourself be held.

Let yourself be reminded. Let yourself become small in the face of a mountain and vast in the embrace of the sky. And when you return to the world of humans, carry the silence of the stones with you. Move like the river root, like the trees, let the wind move through you so that nothing heavy, lingers too long.

This is how we endure the time of troubles.

This is how we find our way back to ourselves. This is how we remember what was never truly lost, and that’s by Angel Deer. Sacred Paths. When the world feels heavy, let the land hold you. Copyright 2025 Angel Deer shared with permission by the author.

Okay, my friends, I cannot think of a better way to close. This episode on What do we do as yoga teachers when we need to show up, but the world feels heavy until we meet again.

Don’t forget to get outside. Go be in nature to ground. Take care of yourself so that you can be a force for good in the world. And until we meet again, bye for

For those of you who stick around until the very end, thank you. If you love this podcast, I’d be grateful if you gave it a review. It really helps other yin yoga lovers find it. If you’ve already given a review, would you consider sharing a screenshot in your Instagram stories? And don’t forget to tag me at Nick Danu Yoga or at Y Yoga podcast so I can share the love.

Before I sign off, some gratitude first for you, the listener, for spending time with me today. Big gratitude and deep reverence for my teacher, Paul Grille. Thank you to Fred Westra for the Hang Drunk Samples. You can hear more of his music by clicking the link in the show notes. A big thank you to my beloved for mixing the intro and outro tracks, and until we meet again.

May you be well, may you be content. May you be at peace. May you be free.