A Chicken Shit With A Great Voice.

"I really like your voice."

This is the compliment I get the most when I teach class lately. 

Though I have gotten on occasion when teaching over the past 14 years. It's not new. And every single time, I appreciate it so much. 

Today I got it from at least five different students after the 10am class I taught.

I was extra intentional with my voice today though... Because the previous class had prepped me for the chaos that was their experience.

"How was your class?" I asked students as they made their way past the front desk after the 8am session ended. I was still in my dreamy perfect Sunday morning state of having had time to sit on my back patio and sip a latte before class.

And now I was here to earn some money.

"It felt heavy," one woman said. "I come a few days a  week, and that was the hottest and heaviest the air has felt."

Other students - just a few - echoed that sentiment as they left.

"It was really hot today," the teacher from the class let me know as she was leaving. She had cleaned up the room and left the vent to the room opened. I thanked her.

I went into the room and looked at things. 

The temperature had come down to 103 degrees Fahrenheit, and the humidity was at 31%.

We try to keep the temperature during class at around 106 and the humidity just shy of 50%.

We were about 15 minutes out from class starting, so I turned the humidified on and closed the cent.

There were 13 students in class. Most had laid their mats closest to the outside door. The stragglers ended up on the "hot" side of the room. 

I began class, and made sure to use my voice... 

Between the dialogue I was taught at training years ago ( a script) and my own knowledge of the postures (from close to 20 years of practicing) I was able to energize with my voice and soothe with my voice throughout poses to make it seem as though they didn't feel long and drawn out. 

I peppered in explanations of the benefit of the pose while they held it, and then threw in a quick "CHANGE!" when it looked like everyone had been holding it steadily for a few seconds. 

I made sure to hype up some poses... Like sit-ups... To get them mentally ready to go into the next posture. 

I talked about my own experiences with the postures while they laid in savasana. That I struggled with poses. That I started the whole practice because I had lower back pain.

All while doing this... I watched the bodies. Were they laying out? Were they attempting the poses. Was anyone fanning themselves?

I made sure I opened both the internal door and external door while in postures. The fans were cranked on "high" throughout the class. The humidified got turned off about 10 minutes into class, and they humidity hovered around 44% the whole class.

So it wasn't just my voice. It was me "teach" the bodies that were in the room and how they were reacting to the energy of each other.

I wasn't reciting a crutch of a dialogue. Or cranking the heat to make it hot. Or not paying attention to the bodies. Or paying attention to the timing.

If I was not afraid of commitment, I would open my own studio. And put all the rest out of business. (Not intentionally, it would just happen.)

But I am a chicken shit of not having complete freedom.