Who are they?
When I first started doing yoga, I did not know anyone close who had a career in teaching it. My friends were all practitioners back then and there would not be any kind of banter in class as everyone would be serious about practicing. Teachers were regarded as spiritual leaders and were too highly respected that we do not want to socialize casually with them.
However, throughout the years of practice, along the way I discovered that a few of the people I started practicing with were now teachers. Later on when you find out the many different walks of life and the variety of traits of these individuals, you realized that hey, anyone could be a yoga teacher. They can come in various shapes and sizes having a similar intention of helping us to find balance and spiritually connect us with our lives.
In whatever way, yoga teachers have also been stereotyped as an absolute vegetarian, non-drinker, non-smoker and so forth. IN view of these, we soon find out that none of the above constitutes as qualities of a good person and life is about making choices and being responsible about the choices you make upon yourselves. Ultimately, I personally believe by being kind and having compassion are the real heartfelt attitudes that everybody can relate to.
Judging, stereotyping and assuming yoga teachers of the things we hear about and expecting them to be all-angelic are simply asinine. In all respect, yoga teachers are real people too. They have their own obstacles and challenges and they also require the necessities of life like everyone else. I believe one of the main intentions of teaching yoga is to have the awareness of Ahimsa – a non-violence attitude, which eventually leads to finding balance in life resulting in peace and harmony.
At the end of the day, as individuals, teachers are just ordinary people who could offer kindness and truthfulness in giving us the tools we require to face our demons. Having said that, he or she could be your friend, your mentor, your confidante or even your guardian. More than anything, yoga teachers are thinkers, philosophers; people who live their lives based on logic, wisdom and rationality.
What are their roles in society?
They have been universally regarded as being a spiritual and health role models. In general, I believe yoga teachers play a key role in building a society in the aspect of respect, kindness and social tolerance. Ultimately it affects people individually through the bestowal of higher thinking and self-improvement.
Commonly, I believe in walking the talk and practicing what you preach as they demonstrate passion in doing what you love and loving what you do. There is nothing worse than illuminating the essence and attributes of yoga just to be found cheating, lying and being irresponsible, contradicting yourself in many aspects. Society gives a relatively high respect towards yoga teachers, which ultimately gives yoga teachers a certain responsibility to uphold that honor. Fortunately as most yoga teachers are true to their beliefs and passionate about the practice, being on top of society is not hard to do.
How do they affect our lives?
The affect our lives by constantly reminding and teaching us about the profound meaning of life, about understanding the nature of our inner self so intense that we are awed by our own potential and competence. By helping us discover things about ourselves, by helping us connect with life and ultimately compelling us to realize our purpose and the reason for our existence. They show us the many paths life have to offer and their teachings of self-awareness and self-discoveries, assist us in making the right choice with those paths.
Personally, yoga teachers have somehow managed to teach us the art of detachment and letting go, where in the long run allows us to find freedom from our obstacles and predicaments. And they do this simply by putting us in a posture that requires us to execute using the tools we need in the form of instructions for us to stay in it for long periods of time. How we use the tools will show how we deal with life in the real world.
In a yoga practice, the postures that are being thrown at us to be executed represent the challenges that we face in our lives. In reality, we somehow lose the capability of how to handle our stress! However, stepping on the mat and using all the disciplines and techniques to execute the postures have become a logical practice, where people apply to their everyday lives!
When a teacher points out how relevant your yoga practice is to your own personal life, you discover that you can improve the quality of your life just by being consistent in your practice. Eventually when we start to apply its philosophy and discipline in our everyday lives, we experience a shift that enables us to feel great and reborn. Gradually we find that yoga serves and nourishes us at every level of our being and spontaneously contributes to greater wellness in all domains of life. Ultimately we realized that yoga helps us discover gifts within ourselves that have remained unopened since our childhood, gifts of peace, harmony, laughter and love. And when all that happens, our yoga practice will be a necessity and a practical way of life to guide us joyfully till the rest of our days.
In a nutshell, as a guide to living life with a positive attitude, yoga teachers have become ambassadors for optimism and positivity. After more than 5000 years, yoga has come a long way towards how humans think and analyze life, and most significantly with its role in the process of Evolution.
Namaste,
Azmi Samdjaga
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