Something about major life transitions always gets my creative juices flowing! Last year when I got married, a student commented to me that marriage suited me. She said, “Your classes have been really creative.” And she was right – though I always strive for creative, unique classes, the major life change of committing to someone had opened up a wellspring inside of me. A creative spark was more evident in my classes for my regular students. I was deliriously happy too, which is always nice to be around 
Now I’ve given birth. Major.Life.Transition. As in, nothing is the same as it was. The rhythm of my days (and nights!) are different. The way I eat, sleep, and even take a shower are different (I do them all frantically, as quickly as I can). But the cool thing that always happens, is happening. I feel ON FIRE with ideas about teaching. And I’m not teaching yet (I’m going back this Sunday though!) so it’s like there’s a reserve of FANTASTIC ideas wanting to BURST out of me!!
I think one of the reasons for the creative spark this time is that my body is different, so yoga feels different. You might expect someone to complain about this – after all, pregnancy is cumbersome. You weigh more than you ever have, you cannot practice some basic moves, and there’s a fair number of aches and pains that come with the territory no matter how much you take care of yourself. But I loved all of this about pregnancy, actually! I didn’t like it for myself personally, but professionally I found it fascinating! I was feeling ways that my students, both regular and pregnant, might feel sometimes in class.
This may sound morbid, but one of my teachers, Beryl Bender Birch, says, “One day, you will lose all the poses.” As in, one day, you won’t be here on the Earth anymore. But also as in, one day, you’ll be too old/injured/infirm/busy/pregnant to do this pose. I loved my pregnancy when I *couldn’t* do something because it reminded me that everyone is different on the mat. What I feel is different from my students. I can watch a student carefully, I can listen to her description of what she’s feeling, and I can use my years of experience with other students to make an educated guess about what’s going on for her. But I can’t feel exactly what she feels. The more experiences I have in my own body, the better I can relate to discomforts my students have.
We can also remember that just as each person is different from their neighbor on the next mat over, we change ourselves day by day, month by month, and year by year. So, what you *could* do previously is not what you’re doing today, and that’s amazing!! You might be doing more today, you might be doing less. We are our own best teachers for this reason.
I’ve learned a lot from having a different body in 2011. Pregnancy has allowed me that window of insight into how we can experience the same posture *so* differently. It’s opened up yet another wellspring of new and different movement patterns *because* of the restrictions of pregnancy, and the newfound freedom postpartum.
Have I mentioned how awesome it is to be getting all the poses back? Beryl Bender Birch was right – someday I will lose all the poses. But thankfully, it’s not today!
Letting it flow,
Barrett
Looked at images for creative yoga, and loved this twist (you can barely twist at all by the end of pregnancy!) This is an awesome photo, but too bad it’s an advertisement:
