google-site-verification: google2560069c1d18eae5.html Yoga Sutra: Yogi Ganesha - Tips to be a Successful Yoga Teacher and Leader

Monday 5 January 2015

Yogi Ganesha - Tips to be a Successful Yoga Teacher and Leader

Lord Ganesha is an interesting, perhaps the most interesting idols ever created in the history of mankind. Generally, It would be hard to imagine a God, an idol of God with a big belly and elephant face. A funny God! Nobody, apart from the Yogis / Spiritual practitioners would have dared to create, visualize a God that looks funny. You can't make a joke on the Gods in general and here you have a God whose appearance too looks funny. 

This is why, the wise men always say that you see based on the lens you have. You see what you want to see. We need a complete different lens to understand the world of Spirituality. 

Coming back, what's special about Ganesha? Why is he designed the way he is? 

Lord Ganesha, Yoga Teacher, Successful Leadership, Management Lessons, Indian Mythology, know Spirituality, Yoga to Know, Be a Leader,
Yogi Ganesha - The Teacher to Future Leaders!


Ganesha  is the combination of two words in Sanskrit. GANA & ISHA, where inGana means the group and Isha is the leader. Ganesha, therefore is the leader of the group. The image (or Idol) shows symbolically the qualities of a successful leader. 

1. BIG HEAD - THINK BIG
The big head of Ganesha is symbolically telling us to think big, dream big in order to become a legendary leader. A leader can foresee something which other can't. Your vision about your future is one of the deciding factors of your success. 
As a Yoga Teacher, have a vision of something that might look crazy now for every one, but a dream that can drive your everyday, your passion and make your life purposeful. 

2. BIG EARS - LISTEN MORE
Be attentive towards every member of your group. A leader, contrary to the popular belief that he should talk, should listen more to understand the pros and cons, situations and suggestions from the team members. 
As a Yoga Teacher be attentive to every student. Listen to them and listen to fellow Yoga teacher and your teacher too. 

3. SMALL EYES - CONCENTRATION, SHARPNESS
Be sharp in finding out the problems. Your concentration should stay longer than that of others. Be focused even at times the members of your team might be distracted. 

You might be popular, getting rich by teaching Yoga or becoming flexible every day. But nothing will distract you from the passion that you possess i.e. your teaching, spreading yoga so beautifully that every student in the Shala should leave feeling filled. 

4. BIG BELLY - DIGEST GOOD & BAD, CULTIVATE CONTENTMENT
As a leader, you should have the ability to digest the good and bad experiences of the team, of its members and yours too. You are not supposed to get high on success and low on failures. Practice of Contentment is one of the most significant factors a leader should always keep in mind. 

As a Yoga teacher, for example, you might be appreciated by someone taking your class. But when he/she appreciates, its his/her opinion about your class. They might not have taken a lot of Yoga classes before or they had bad yoga teachers. The same is applicable to criticisms too. If some one criticizes your class after the class, its their opinion about your class. It can't be a judgment. They are bound to have their opinion and you can take or leave the opinions which is dependent on you. Therefore, you should be able to digest different opinions and shouldn't let those opinions of others influence your pattern of thinking. 

5. TRUNK - FLEXIBILITY
The trunk of Ganesha represents flexibility. A leader should adapt flexibility in his approach. Your plan designed to face a particular situation might not be handy at times. You might have to look at the situation with a new approach or change your understanding. A leader should be prepare to get changed to the situations without distracting from the principles. 

A yoga teacher too should be flexible physical as well as psychologically too. Physical flexibility helps you in demonstrating the postures while the psychological and intellectual flexibility will enable you to understand the life integrally and yields success. 

6. MOUSE - FIND THE STRENGTHS EVEN IN THE WEAKEST.
Mouse is one of the most ignored animals if not the least. Perhaps, there is no civilization that has given a better place to the mice. Hence, taking mouse as a symbol of least, small, weak animal, Ganesha has made him the vehicle. A leader is the one who can see the strength in the weakest too in the group. Every team member will have his own strengths and weakness. A leader should be able to use the strong sides of every member to the most to bring on the best. 

If you're looking forward to create your own yoga studio for example, this quality is something that is a must for you. Instead of looking for a best team for your yoga studio, think on bringing the best out of the team that you already have. Look at the best sides of every one you have and find the ways to get them refined. 

7. SNAKE AND MOUSE - TEAM FIRST, ENMITY NEXT 
The most decisive factor of a leader is bringing the concept of "Team first." Every body in the group will have their own ideas and want to implement often. As they do not get the priorities, the ego of individuality arises and decreases the growth rate. We might differ in our ideologies, but united for the sake of the team and when it comes to bring the best of the team, individuality will not have its place. This is the idea behind keeping snake and mouse together working for one leader, Ganesha. 

As a Yoga teacher you will prioritize the things and the your students come first in your list of priorities and all the conflicts, personal or professional problems (you will have a few at any given point of time) do not come into the picture when you enter the class. The students, yoga class stand first and everything else next. When you want to inspire your students and spread happiness around you can not carry a baggage to the class and expect a fantastic class.

Click here to see "What should my students carry after my Yoga Class?

Every time we worship Ganesha, we are supposed to meditate on the qualities that he teaches by being Ganesha and inculcate the qualities every day. This is the real worship of any God leading to the realization of Universal Consciousness. 

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