Should I give honest feedback to my yoga teacher? Or just stfu?

[YogadWoman]

I am coming back from a very dark place where I developed depression, lost my job, had suicidal thoughts. It has taken me months to get to where I am now. But now it is okay. I've had therapy and joined a gym. Going to the gym has been great for my recovery and I enjoy it. I go to a couple of yoga classes regularly. One in particular, I don't know what it is about it, whether it's the combination of movements or the time of week it is, but when we are in shavasana at the end, I have all sorts of memories pop up, not particularly traumatising and nothing to do with my breakdown, but strong memories of maybe not so happy key events, which I find I am able to see as part of kind of life-flow (I don't know how else to describe it) and be mindful and at peace. This happens every time I am in this particular class and it has been immensely healing for me.

What is the etiquette for such situations? Would it be okay to say to the instructor that I find the class beneficial for settling my mind or would that just be me speaking out of turn? Are any of you yoga teachers and how would you respond to a weirdo like me?

I facilitate (not yoga) and people often say something like, "this class has been really healing for me" or "thanks for making the class so safe and welcoming". It doesn't get weird including a lovely older woman who told me that it was her first positive experience of education ever.

We cherish those comments.

I used to participate in a class as a student that was also a teacher training class. I loved it because we got lots of hands on attention and detailed explanations. One of the things the instructor talked about was how yoga can often be very emotional and it’s not unusual to have students end up crying. The studio should be a safe place for dealing whatever our body decides to release during practice.

I am not a yoga teacher, so don't know. But I have experienced the same as you when meditating. I love the way you've described it, you certainly have a knack for expressing the sense of peaceful being and life flow in words!

I would wonder if it's really necessary to verbalise this to your teacher? Personally it would be something I'd enjoy for itself, and maybe build on myself. It's not a therapy session and I probably wouldn't try to turn it into one? However if you wanted to say something you sound very articulate and I'm sure the instructor would be happy to hear you felt the session was healing or restorative.

Would meditating afterwards work for you, as it sounds like you would be in the perfect head space for that? Maybe ask others if they'd like to join? I think finding your own way forward rather then putting it on the instructor might be better. x

I’m not sure why you feel the need to communicate this to your teacher, though? ‘Feedback’ implies constructive criticism. Just say ‘Thanks, I’m finding this class helpful’?

Yoga teachers are used to people having strong responses, positive or negative. I cried at the same bit of every pregnancy yoga class. And one yoga instructor’s class always made me feel violently nauseated. Not her fault, and it wasn’t happening to others. I just stopped attending.

Thanks everyone. I guess I just feel that whatever she is doing is reaching me and, while knowing that my response is down to me, it feels odd not to say something.

In my day to day job I'm a musician so I've often had people crying on me and getting emotional when I play so that's kind of blurred the boundaries about what people should talk about.

If you feel you need to say something then why not then! It sounds like you want to acknowledge how much she's helped. Even your previous post (1.30) sums it up pretty well, you could really just say that, or something similar to that. As I've said before though, I feel you should explore the peace and access to memory this provides you with alone rather than putting further development on your yoga instructor.

Going to yoga is like peeling back layers of an onion.
The last pose is often difficult as the movment stops and the process brings forward the anxiety and thoughts that have been deeply buried. Pigeon is another pose which often sees people in floods of tears. It does get easier, as the emotional pain comes to the surface yoga does what yoga does best which is allow you to meet that feeling and heal it. It gets easier and as you get stronger. It's a beautiful process but often very painful and your yoga teacher will be very used to seeing tears and emotion , good luck x

If you were to say to the yoga teacher that this has been healing for you .. they would see it as part of this layers of healing process and therefore be very happy to know it was doing what it does so well. X