I love to create playlists for my yoga classes. Maybe its a way of incorporating my passion for dance and movement synchronized with rhythm and beat. So when I create a playlist timed with the pace of movements, it threw me off a bit when five minutes into the class, I realize my playlist is on shuffle. As “Murakami” plays for the second time, I I try to find a song that somewhat resembles the pace of the current sequence while they take a few breaths in down dog. Even still, I couldn’t seem to undo the shuffle setting before moving into chaturanga.

A student in class shyly asked, “Was that ‘No Diggity’ I heard last week?” and taking this as a form of a request and being given the unexpected gift of customizing a playlist for the class, I was able to dedicate “No Diggity” like a wedding DJ. “This one goes out to the guy on the blue mat!”

But that’s just is. What was a bit of a potential panic moment turned into an opportunity to find a beat that someone could move to, a laugh in others, a touch of lightness in the middle of a sweaty sequence, and most of all, a personal checkpoint where I could bring myself back to the things that matter. So what if they heard The Movement three times?  Maybe someone will request to hear that song next time.

As we settle into savasana, hearing the final relaxation song now for the second time, I realize that I try to teach my students something that can mitigate suffering, bring them a bit of peace, strength and inner power. I’d love for them to step off the mat and into the world to find that they are closer to becoming the people they already are.

What I heard a lot about during my yoga teacher training but didn’t expect was how much my students teach me. Every class, I learn to have compassion, patience and love for myself in my successes as well as my stumbles. 

I can be found “should-ing all over myself,” as they say. “I should have known to uncheck shuffle.” If you find yourself doing this in life, “I shouldn’t have thawed the chicken for tonight,” truth is, you did and it’s alright. Moving forward. You did your absolute best given the present moment and that’s truly all we can ever do.

Being a yoga teacher and in life, I am learning to laugh through the struggles, invite some lightness and let go what’s not serving me.