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Thank you SO much for the article on "How to Refuse Alignment Cues." This student focused article is a perfect complement to the recent discussions around teacher touch/adjustments. Furthermore, the concept of giving students agency is such a vital one! I am a psychologist in addition to being a yoga teacher--I emphasize to both my therapy clients and my yoga students that they are the experts in their own lives.
If you were interested in doing a follow-up article, I would love to see something about how to talk to other teachers about these issues. For example, how would a yoga teacher like me--coming from a very individualized perspective--talk to a teacher on insists on the idea of "correct" alignment?
Thank you again Bernie for all of the excellent information you put out into the public domain.
Yes, talking teacher to teacher about alignment can be challenging as well. This is another common topic that comes up in my trainings. When a teacher says that a particular alignment is good, I have to ask, "Good for whom?" Not everybody. And, then we are off into the full discussion of human variation, which can result in what Paul Grilley calls, "The 5 Stages of Grieving". These arise when teachers who were trained in the aesthetic alignment paradigm start to transition to a functional alignment paradigm: denial, bargaining, anger, depression, and finally, hopefully, acceptance.
I admit that I can be a little intimidated talking to other teachers. I am relatively new to teaching, having graduated from my 200-hour YTT 3 years ago. I do like to further educate myself and am frequently reading, doing online seminars, taking workshops, etc., yet I don't always feel fully equipped to back up my positions on the spot.
One of the the things that I found validating in your article is that you talked about things that I've been doing intuitively. For example, as a psychologist, I for years I'm been telling new therapy clients something along the lines of "I may be an expert in mental health, but you are the expert in YOU." When I started teaching yoga, it was natural for me to tell my yoga students that too; I am a huge believer in agency! The guru model doesn't make sense to me.