This weekend I had the choice of being at two different events. On the one hand, the Wanderlust Festival was coming to Vermont and I was invited to be one of the local teachers. The festival is by far the largest yoga event to come to Vermont, and it would be an opportunity for me to teach in front of a lot of people, which was an exciting proposition. At the same time, it was a bit intimidating and stressful to think about – this was a big deal.
Greenland Style Qajaqs
On the other hand, I had the opportunity to go to the Hudson River Greenland Festival (HRGF) with my wife and teach people how to roll a Greenland-style qajaq (the spelling of kayak in Greenlandic) and teach a couple of morning yoga classes to a handful of folks. This is something my wife, son and I have done for a few years, and it’s great fun.
I chose to teach at Hudson River.
One of the reasons that I decided to go to HRGF is to get a bit of a break from yoga teaching for a weekend. Even though I was to teach a couple classes, it’s quite different teaching free classes for a qajaq event than classes at a big yoga festival or in a studio. I teach quite a bit of yoga these days, and so I was happy to have a vacation from teaching and get back to another thing that I really enjoy, which is the greenland qajaq teaching and paddling. Also, we’ve gone to this event a few years in a row and developed a really nice friendships with a bunch of people who go there. It ends up being like a short summer camp with cabins, food, friends, family, an auction, qajaq racing, and a bit of beer and whiskey thrown in for good measure.
Laughing with qajaq friends
Anyway, what was ironic is the thing that really meant the most for me was teaching the two morning yoga classes – supposedly what I was getting away from. What I enjoyed about it was I really felt like I was sharing knowledge with people and it could help them. The people who were there weren’t interested in doing the craziest postures or having the fanciest yoga outfits – they just wanted something that could make life better in their qajaq.
The classes were there for opening physically, but I recognized that to be really good at paddling and rolling a qajaq, the most important thing was to be calm in the mind, and to view yourself in a positive way. When you are doing something new, and under water on top of that, it’s natural to judge yourself negatively and also to be a little scared. So, besides the physical practice I was talking about how to be calm under pressure, or under water, recognizing the true light within yourself, and enjoying who you are.
To me, ultimately, this is really yoga. And what’s more, people really appreciated it. I got many compliments on the classes from people who said they felt better physically, which is wonderful, but they also appreciated techniques of being calm and quiet in the mind. In fact, one of the people who helped organize the event has struggled with rolling his qajaq and being relaxed and able to think under water. He told me he was able to roll (and beautifully at that) because he looked at me and remembered to relax and be calm. What better gift, as a teacher, could you hope for?
I think sometimes it’s very easy to get caught up in thinking yoga is challenging postures, fancy outfits, magazine covers and celebrity teachers. Actually, I think that’s all good stuff. There’s nothing wrong with any of it. But that’s a very thin layer of the foundation and intention of the practice — yoga is for regular folks to do so that they can have a calmer mind, a pain-free body, and a brighter heart.
Did I have an impact this weekend? Absolutely. Would I have a Wanderlust? Maybe. But I was needed where I was. Having just one person recognize they have they ability within themselves to calm their own mind and face their fear is worth a thousand handstands on a Vermont mountainside.