Getting Honest

It is time for me to spill my heart about the struggles I have been having with my yoga practice and my yoga teaching methods.
When I first learned yoga in 1999 I was suffering from patella tendonitis and was told by my orthopedic surgeon that I should cut all 'jumping' movements in my exercise program until by knees healed. I purchased Rodney Yee's "Power Yoga" video for beginners and attended Lou Hoyt's Iyender studio in Memphis. I was learning some of the technicalities of the asanas. I enjoyed the detail and how it made my body feel when I practiced yoga. I started doing more and more sun salutations to gain stamina and to basically replace my other cardio workouts. When I moved to California I attended popular yoga studios in Malibu and noticed that the rhythm of the practice was much slower than the way I taught. I still continued to teach and practice yoga at a faster pace in order to get my cardio workout in. In the meantime, I read a lot of books about yoga, but I didn't slow down in my practice to really study what the books were discussing. It wasn't until about two years ago when I attended Mary Sudduth's yoga class in Memphis that I found a teacher who was so articulate about the technicalities of the asanas while teaching a flow class that found out that I really hadn't a clue about the depth and art of yoga. She inspired me to attend yoga classes in Memphis at Midtown. As I attend more and more classes I began to realize that yoga is truly an art that requires a great deal of intelligence, patience, practice, practice and more practice with a trained teacher.
I began to slow down my teaching and really study the asanas. This is where my struggles began. I heard from my students that I was "going too slow". They were use to my "fast, cardio flavored" style that I had been teaching for years. This really hurt my heart since I was beginning to discover the depth and the breadth of the art of yoga and I felt that it was not being received well. So I just continued to go to the studio's in Memphis to get my study and enjoyment of yoga in for myself. I found that my body was really changing and responding this great art. But, in my teaching I felt such a pressure to go fast to give everyone a "cardio" workout that I lost my honesty and truth to my heart and my spirit.
I have since learned that the sun salutations are a fabulous way to gain stamina, but there is sooooo much more to yoga. I hope all who read this will watch this incredible video and discover as I have what the body can really do when trained in the art of yoga.
Namaste.