Words: Georgina Warrick
COMPETITIVE MENTALITY
We are often taught (especially in school) that we need to be in competition with each other in order to thrive and ultimately win. For example, school sports, where there is one position of first place which is viewed as the ultimate winner and everyone else is a runner up.
This competitive mentality from childhood can sometimes carry on to adulthood and it can easily seep into our own yoga practice and businesses.
COMPARISON IN THE THIEF OF JOY
However, as I always remind my students, yoga is a non-competitive practice. Once a student is familiar with a pose, where possible I often encourage students to work with their eyes closed or gaze lowered. This can help students stop looking around the room and feeling not good enough. As Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘Comparison is the thief of joy.’
Just because the person next to you can hold the tree pose without wobbling, does it really make your tree pose any less worthy?
COMING TOGETHER
Once my class gets to know each other and feel comfortable, we often do a group tree pose. Palm to palm feeling the support of the group everyone tends to be able to hold the pose for longer. We smile, and connect to each other and there is a real sense of community spirit. When we start to wobble, we laugh and remember the joy in being together in our yoga practice.
a community that offers women (though men are welcome too) a place to be themselves, get creative and focus on joy. When I took her floral workshops, she taught in a liberating way which echoed the way I taught yoga. She explained that there weren’t any fixed rules in the flower placement or any need to overthink things. Like yoga it was about being present, playful and shedding inhibitions and she favoured the wild flower approach which resonated with me. As the same women tended to come to each workshop it soon became about more than the flowers. It became a community, where we chat and laugh and empower each other through our floral creations.
COLLABORATION RATHER THAN COMPETITION
Can we change this sense of competition into collaboration? I truly believe we can take this approach off the mat and even into a business setting that we can rise up together so that everyone can shine and offer something unique. A great way of doing this is to combine creative forces with other businesses that really align with your values.
ALIGNING WITH LIKE MINDED PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES
As soon as I stepped into bubbly Becca’s whimsical floristry shop ‘Forage and Fleur’ and met her, I knew I wanted to collaborate with her. We both share a deep desire to form
NEW IDEAS
We decided to team up and create events called ‘Breathe, Bloom and Be You,’ where we would explore the breath and mainly gentle seated yoga poses. This helped calm our nervous systems and release tension and we did a short meditation on a beautiful rose, combining our two passions of flowers and yoga. Then we would come together to create wild floral arrangements. People were encouraged afterwards to stay, enjoy the refreshments and chat and laugh.
It was the perfect antidote to a hectic digital world. A place where for a few hours, there was a sacred space to embrace slow living, working with nature and forming new friendships.
Eva Kristlova
SUPPORT EACH OTHER IN THE YOGA WORLD
Another way I have found we can support each other and form a community as yoga teachers is by collaborating with other yoga teachers. That could be creating retreat days that complement each other’s unique skill set. For example, are you a yin teacher that could combine forces with a vinyasa flow teacher to create a yang/yin workshop? Maybe you know a teacher who also plays the crystal sound bowls and you could offer your students an extended savasana with a beautiful sound bath?
I have also found you can form connections with yoga teachers who have a similar yoga teaching style to you and offer to cover for each other. I found this worked really well when I started covering for Eva Kristlova at the stunning Yoga Life Studio in Eastbourne. I had completed my yoga teacher training at Yoga Life Studio so it already held a special place full of memories in my heart. I had attended Eva’s inspiring classes for a long time. I loved her teaching style and I too felt passionate about teaching gentle yoga that was accessible to all. Eva teaches incredible sold out retreats abroad but she wanted to make sure that her classes remained consistent when she was away and that her students and the studio would be well looked after.
MY PERSONAL CONNECTIONS
For me as a busy mother to a young child, this collaboration is perfect. I don’t have the childcare to teach full time every week but I can easily manage this amount of teaching when she is abroad. I know all her regular students now and have learnt more about their preferences to personalise their yoga experience. Having a regular cover teacher means the classes continue to run and I really know each student. For example, knowing who needs a chair, if someone has an ongoing injury and even what colour blanket is their favourite! Community is also rooted deeply in these classes and after class we come together for conversation, coffee and cake at local cafes.
CONCLUSION
So the next time you are worried that someone is a
competitor, could you instead focus on abundance and
decide that everyone can shine? Whether you choose to
collaborate, take inspiration from or come together in
community isn’t it about time we all rise together?
Georgina Warrick is a yoga alliance qualified 200 hour teacher and a writer. She is also trained in pregnancy yoga, postnatal yoga, mummy and baby yoga and meditation and specialises in yoga nidra and hen do’s. Georgina strongly believes that yoga is for everyBODY and she teaches gentle and relaxing yoga that is accessible for everyone. She teaches at @bankhousestudio and cover teaches for Eva Kristlova @yogalifestudio. She can be contacted on Instagram @ beawarriornotaworrieryoga
The next Breathe, Bloom and Be You event takes place on the 31st August and you can book via Instagram @ forageandfleur.
Featuring Becca Gibb who is a florist specialising in providing wild flower arrangements, hand-tied bouquets and creative workshops and alternative flowers for weddings. [Instagram @forageandfleurfloristry / Internet: www.forageandfleur. co.uk] and Eva Kristlova, a senior yoga teacher who runs the Yoga Life Studio Eastbourne and yoga holidays [worldwide. @ evakristlova]
