One of the toughest things about being a yoga instructor is that yoga is such an intensely personal process, it's difficult to know whether your students are tuning out or going through major shifts inside. Experienced teachers can read some of the signs - tightening or softening in the jaw, quality of the breath - but unless the student is willing to share what's happening, it's a bit like teaching to a room full of black boxes. A teacher can come to wonder whether their classes are really making a difference.

For years after I started practicing yoga I doubt I gave any indication that anything my instructors taught was landing. My body was tight and my sarcasm was sharp. I was driven to accomplish something physical in class without understanding that it was my mind and heart that needed to be worked on as much as my hamstrings and core. Yet there were moments where I would break open, get it, be inspired, change. In the midst of looking like I wasn't getting it at all in those classes, I was.

At this point in my teaching career I've learned to assume that, as Morpheus says to Neo in The Matrix, "Some of these people are not ready to be unplugged," but I know from my own experience that some are ready for what they can become through yoga, even if it doesn't seem so from the outside. Before every class I teach now, I take a breath and remember how grateful I am for those classes, those instructors, those moments where I came onto my mat a human mess and had the opportunity to experience the deep transformation that yoga brings. My dharma is effortless when I start from that place, because I know that someone about to devote an hour of their time to this practice could be on the cusp of a change that will forever alter their course, heal their wounds, open their eyes, or give them a sense of true peace and stillness. It is my passion and greatest reward to create moments of opportunity for people to be transformed through this practice.

Below is a video that expands on some of these thoughts, from Seane Corn, who is one of my favourite teachers and someone who has walked this path and guided me along it in the process. Enjoy and Namaste.