Practice Your Practice

Are you one of those people that learn something, then go and learn an advanced level of that thing, then theoretically you can practice what you’ve learned, but you think that if you'd only learn just one more thing, you could really practice what you’ve learned?

So you go and take another class, but at the end of it you’re still looking for the next thing to learn, instead of just getting out there and practice it.

You feel like you need to be perfect before you start practicing your trade. But you miss the double meaning in the word PRACTICE… how can you be perfect if you don’t practice?

Years back, when I was only in my first year of training to become a Yoga teacher, I used to also go to Yoga classes around where I lived. One time, the teacher had an emergency, and asked me to fill in for her. I was petrified. “I’m not a teacher yet! I can’t do it!”. She said that obviously she can’t make me, but it’s either that or she’ll have to cancel the class, and she’d be really happy if I did it.

I chose to accept the challenge. At the beginning of the class I let everybody know that I’m still in training and not a yoga teacher yet, and I chose a workout that was very safe. I started the class with sitting for meditation, followed by breathing exercises, and then Yoga poses and relaxation.

At the end of the class I got a very loud non-yogi applause, and someone came and told me:

But you ARE a yoga teacher, just by being you.

If you’ve learned something, go out and practice it. Only if you start you can improve and out-create yourself. It’s a growing process, and there is so much to gift and to enjoy along the imperfect way. learning while practicing often gives you the quantum leap you can never achieve by learning in a sterile classroom.

You have all you need, You have you. You won’t be perfect, you’ll be you. And that is always uniquely amazing.