what does it mean to hold space?
PRESENCE
The idea of “holding space” is often used in regards to teaching Yoga, yet I find that it’s never clearly defined. It has become a nebulous phrase thrown around in trainings and by teachers to describe what teachers need to do. I don’t think this idea has to be shrouded in mystery and can be defined in very concrete terms. And there is an element of magic when teacher is highly attuned to students with their own loving presence and the students respond with their own sense of trust. In this dance of attunement, a generosity is extended between both parties.
Attunement
Attunement is the capacity to be in control and self-regulated while being aware, spacious and open. What does attunement feel like in your body? What does it feel like when you are out of attunement or out of synch with a student or with teaching?
In Awakening Shakti by Sally Kempton, Bhuvaneshwari is described as a form of the goddess that is the energy that is co-created as sacred space. She is the creatrix that allows insight and transformation to occur. Her shakti can hold you and support you in a way that is vast and spacious, yet secure and nurturing.
It’s the energy that may arise in group meditation or a group yoga practice when you can sense a pulsation or vibration between teacher and students and student to student. In order to ‘hold space’ compassionately, we must continually attend to being authentic, present, grounded, calm, engaging, curious, flexible, empathetic and trustworthy. In the midst of teaching we attend to both the students in the room and our own internal needs.
Inside/Outside
Some other ways that we can stay present with ourselves is through being aware of our internal state and also picking up on subtle somatic cues from students.
Oscillation of Attention: anything that moves back and forth in a regular pattern; to scan, to shift and rotate attention to attune to students; to decide which choices to make to best serve the group or student
One Eye In / One Eye Out: tracking your own internal state while tracking the group
Here’s example from my own yoga teaching life. The month of classes after the new year always has an increase in student attendance. People are attempting to create some new habits for themselves and attending yoga classes regularly tends to be high on people’s list of New Year’s resolutions. In the flurry of registering new students, introducing yourself to new students and making sure everyone has sufficient space in packed to the gills classes, I can feel my energy or presence lifting up and out of my body. I know that if I don’t give myself an opportunity to consciously settle into my own body, it will be quite challenging to teach in a clear and and present way. There are simple things we can do in order to center ourselves as we center students. Some suggestions that have worked for me:
Have students begin in Child’s Pose.
Place you hands somewhere on your body (usually my solar plexus) and have students do the same.
Take the time to ritually enclose the space: lock the door or draw a curtain.
Connect to your breath.
Actively ground, by unclenching buttocks and be in relationship to the support of the earth underneath you.
PUT INTO PRACTICE
How do you understand the concept of ‘holding space?”
What do you need in order to attune to yourself before you teach? How do you stay present with students, especially if you are teaching via Zoom?