Often, we turn to teachers for something -- guidance, wisdom, a deeper Triangle Pose, insight, sometimes even a good swift kick in the yoga pants. Sometimes teachers teach us one thing and then relate it to the bigger picture, opening our minds. And other times, we go to a Teacher and learn something we could have never expected.

I had this experience with a yoga teacher once. I was looking to her for guidance in regards to a specific lineage. I greatly admired both her commitment to the lineage and her teaching skills. She taught me a lot, yet much of what I learned wasn't expected. I learned what made a true mentor, how blind devotion can shut down discernment, and how experience doesn't equate to wisdom. Those lessons stuck with me possibly more than the ones about yoga and the teaching of it. 

It's been a while, but I just had this experience again -- this time away from the mat. I found this teacher a year or so ago. Her realness drew me in. Her specialty didn't quite resonate with me, but I liked her style. In the past 6 or so months, she's refined that style and earned great success. My perception of her is that she's at home in herself and it's lovely to witness. I suppose that's why I jumped to work with her. My desire was to learn more about her business journey. 

I learned something else entirely. As I listened to her tell the group how we needed to be and what we needed to do, I felt tense. I've worked with quite a few blunt, confronting people, so I appreciate when people give it to you straight. That's how I knew that my tension wasn't because she hit a hot button of mine that I didn't want to acknowledge but because what she was saying didn't feel true for me. Ironically enough, I hadn't had this feeling since the experience with the teacher I mentioned earlier. 

It was yet another lesson in discernment, listening to my gut rather than the very loud voice of a "successful" person, realizing that I already know that which I was seeking from this person. I thought I was going to get fired up from this course and I was correct. It's just that I got fired up in a whole different way than expected. I love when life surprises me like that. It reminds me of all of the gifts life provides, which I sometimes can't appreciate because I judge certain things as being not helpful because they didn't fit my original vision. 

The environment was different, but the lesson is the same -- be open to what's truly present rather than what I think is present (or want to be present). We think that the lesson lies in what a teacher teaches us, when sometimes it's what the teacher doesn't that enlightens us. I realize now that it's not this teacher's guidance that's schooling me -- it's my realization that her teachings aren't true to me (this certainly doesn't mean she isn't awesome -- she just isn't the teacher for me). It's been an invaluable lesson in trusting myself.

Blindly following the teacher and shutting down our own inner wisdom and discernment is how disillusionment, abuse, disappointment, and plain ole unhappiness happen. When the teacher tells you what's true -- beware. Lead you to the truth, yes. Dictate the truth -- oh hell no! Remember that you're a student unto yourself first and foremost before you're a student of another. And know that sometimes the best lessons are the ones you least expected and didn't originally want.

Namaste!