The Dilemma

This morning I had cause to consider the things I know about yoga and when it is appropriate to share my knowledge versus when I should be silent and let others take their journey.

I have been so blessed to learn some incredible lessons in yoga even in my short journey thus far. I look back on the steps that brought me to my training at Bodhi Yoga and I realize what a miracle that was. I could have trained anywhere. One simple step was all it would have taken to turn me into a completely different teacher and yogi. But I was led to take the steps I did and I ended up at Bodhi - a place where I have been extremely blessed to learn of the many spectrums of yoga and to learn, in my opinion, the proper and safe way to be a guide to yoga and to teach and learn the foundation of what yoga really is. 

So I have a confession: shoulder stands scare me. Yep. They didn't use to scare me. I can do them. I actually love doing them! I love the completely different perspective it gives me on life. I feel like a new person when I come out of a shoulder stand. That said, I don't know if I will ever teach someone else a shoulder stand. At least not at this point in my life. There are other inversions that can give so many of the same benefits and there is so much potential for harm if you do a shoulder stand wrong that I would just rather stay away from them all together and teach something else. 

This morning in class we were doing a version of the shoulder stand with our feet against the wall and every time she talked about stretching the neck I cringed. I cringed when another student said she was going to go home and do this stretch for her neck a lot. I cringed when the teacher told us to push it farther back on the neck. I wanted to shout for everyone to come out of it and explain right then and then that it want supposed to be a neck stretch but a SHOULDER stand and that someone was going to get very hurt if they didn't learn the exactly proper form in doing it. 

I was scared. I was scared for what might happen because someone innocently did the pose the wrong way and pushed it too far. 

Thus my dilemma. When is it appropriate for me to share the things I know and even to correct another teacher? Is it ever appropriate? Do I just do things the way I know how - the safe way - and let others do a "neck stretch" when I know it could hurt them, or do I step out of my place as a student and advise the teacher that she is teaching the pose wrong?

I stayed silent. I'm questioning that now. Surely I could have found a way to say something, even if it was after the class, alone with the teacher. I didn't this time. What do I do next time something similar happens?
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