Comfort limits and beyond

I taught a class yesterday. It’s at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, one of my favorite places.

A few years ago, I was looking at their website, thinking about what I would like to take. I’d never been, but it has a ring to it, yes? The Writer’s Center. It carried a certain heft to it, a commitment. Surely, if I went there, I was a writer.

Which is probably what stopped me from signing up for so long. If I signed up, and I showed my face among the real writers, I would surely be recognized as a novice, a dilettante.

The morning after perusing the website, I showed up at the Yoga class I taught on Sundays. After class, one of my students approached me. She knew about my writing aspirations, and said, “I was wondering if you’d be interested in teaching a class on Writing and Yoga?” Gulp. Heck yeah, but teach? What did I know?

As I pulled together a proposal and content, it became clear that there was a lot the two disciplines could contribute to each other. The mindfulness, the presence, the non-judgementalness, towards self and others. I was excited, but scared.  Nervously, I awaited the first class.

Turns out all I had to do was show up. Once we started drawing connections, the class took on a life of its own, as people shared their own experiences, their own battles with monkey mind and the inner critic. As always when I “teach” a class, I walk away feeling like I learned so much more than I ever could have imparted. It’s such a gift to sit in a room with creative people and just let the collective wisdom popcorn off of you.

What I learned: Show up. Everybody’s scared. There are forces at work more powerful in the world than me, and sometimes you just jump in the river and swim.

No matter how many times I get up in front of people, I have butterflies every time. Listening to music on the drive calms me down, and I listened to this song like 7 times yesterday. I forgot how good it is. Favorite line: “You don’t have to drag me down: I descend.” Shawn Colvin’s “Trouble”- chack it out.

If you were in the class yesterday, thanks. Thanks for showing up and sharing your writing journey with me- you guys were amazing.