My first class
My first ever yoga class, start of something new - 2025
So, this morning my wife Caz is busy with her first aid training in preparation for opening her studio in Skipton. She messaged earlier this week stating that she would not be able to run my Thursday morning corporate class that we hold at Raven Forge every Thursday for all our staff to enjoy. No problem, it happens, the problem is I must tell the guys at work, and the LOVE yoga Thursdays. Panic. When it came to it, they were great. Long story short, the guys know I’m currently training and told me that, in no uncertain terms, I should run the class.
Honestly, I was immediately against the idea; it felt, at the time, way too soon and very high pressure. Caz runs a superb class; most of all, these are my people, my friends and my staff. I didn’t want to make a tit of myself, after all I felt I have done nothing on sequencing or… well a anything, I’ve only attended one workshop with SJ at Moonstone, and I am ill-prepared.
Then I realised something important, if they had asked me to do this before I started my training, I would have immediately accepted, I love to say yes to life and I’m capable of leading a practice, I’ve been doing yoga for 7 years and I’m comfortable and confident with people, I know the limitations and the words to say to make sure people don’t push themselves to injury, as I know how to not push myself to injury. I realised that thing that was holding me back from my first yoga teaching experience was starting my teacher training, I had become aware that rather than just loving yoga and wanting to share that with people, I now, quite rightfully, also represented my wife’s yoga studio, my teacher SJ and her studio and there was expectations, and affiliations involved.
This is kinda new for me, I’ve had, and with as little ego as is possible, been at the top of my field since 2017. For context, I own the largest medieval shop in the UK, we’re the largest mead shop in the UK, and we’re the only licensed computer game sword maker in the world. I look after and protect my own reputation in my industry and to my peers. I am wholly my responsibility, and shifting to being other people’s responsibility in certain aspects is going to be a learning curve.
So, long story very short, I did it, I took the class, and I’m very happy to report that it was perfect, it felt like home and my voice came naturally. Honestly, it felt like conducting a personal practice, only in a room full of people I love. It was simple, kind and energising. I got to get in my flow, talk to everyone through everything and make some adjustments for the guys who struggled a little with their stiffness or bad hamstrings. I pushed no one, and we focused on relaxation, a calm and wonderful morning movement. I’m so pleased with the reception too, what could have been odd for people who know me as a businessman, as that guy who’s always in meetings or making something happen or organising things – for them, it seems at least, was comfortable and relaxing.
The flow was great, the savasana was perfect, the music was on point and better than everything else, like the first time you go down a water slide, all the anxiety is in the first time. I get to move forward in my Yoga journey knowing, for a fact, that I can teach a class, that I can hold space with people – and, if I can hold space with people I love, people whose opinions of me that I care about and respect, then I can do it for anyone. This was a hurdle, one that presented itself so naturally and is now in my past, something that could have been an anxious speed bump that, by pure chance, I didn’t get a chance to fear.
The only negative that ill meditate on is that I took the class today without consulting SJ. Honestly, it just never crossed my mind that I should, again, this comes down to responsibility and something I’m working on. On a technical note, the class was free, and the people were my own, the building was my own, the insurance was my own. This was on me, but it's my job to learn to be accountable to people other than myself. No matter how far I go in this yoga journey, either personal or professionally, SJ will always be the person who taught me Yoga, someone who helped me learn the technical side of something I had already fostered a great love for and someone I look up to professionally. In the same way, I will never forget Mr Gardener, who taught me to read and who read Harry Potter to our class in primary school. I'll never forget my roots in Yoga, which I am being taught by SJ.
So, there we have it, my first class down, more confident and less mental hurdles in the way. A lesson about respect and responsibility, and most importantly, a lovely, chilled morning yoga session for some people who really needed it.
Namaste, I guess?