The three C’s and how they can apply to anything in life.  Clarity, Confidence, Compassion. 

I started my 200 hour yoga teacher training program about 3 weeks ago.  It was something I always wanted to do and there was an accelerated program being offered at the studio near me, so I decided to take the jump and enroll.  And BOY do I LOOOVE it. Love love love love it. I have loved yoga for so many years and finally taking my learning to the next level is just so interested and intoxicating.  This is probably going to be the first of many blogs that I write about my experience, just a heads up. 😉

Last week, we learned about “teaching fundamentals” and we went over “The 3 C’s”.  The 3 C’s are characteristics you want to portray throughout your class. They are Clarity, Confidence, and Compassion.  

Clarity is to be clear and articulate.  Project it clearly and loudly so they hear you and understand. 

Confidence is to own the room.  Having this confidence in yourself, allows your students to trust you and follow your lead. 

Compassion, having compassion towards every student that walks into your room.  Having that compassion and understanding for others and their current situations make you approachable and trustworthy. 

While my teacher was explaining the three C’s she was acting them out as well too.  She would show us an exaggerated difference between being Clear and Vague. She showed us the difference in how it sounded to be confident verse meek and shy.  She gave examples of compassion and trying to understand how a person is showing up on their mat that day and giving them the extra love and attention or space.

When she was going through this lesson and while I was watching the examples being played out, it dawned on me, that these ARE NOT ONLY The Three C’s of Teaching Yoga, but these ARE the Three C’s to LIVE by in your everyday life. 

Let’s break it down one by one and I will show you why. 

  • Clarity

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How many times in life do you hold back and NOT tell others what it REALLY is that you want or how you REALLY feel?

My guess is often.  We all do this too frequently in life.  We lie to ourselves and others on what it is we want and how we feel.  We aren’t clear in what we need from someone in a relationship. We aren’t clear with our boss with what our long term goals are at the company.  We don’t have clarity within our own minds with what we want and where we see ourselves in the future. All of this leads to confusion and uncertainty. 

They tell us to practice clarity when teaching a yoga class because you need to be clear and direct in order to get your students to the next pose correctly and safely.  

You want the same clear direction with your own life.  You want to get to that next phase in a way that YOU want to, in a way that will benefit your body, heart, and mind.  The only way that can happen is by being clear and direct, in other words, practicing clarity. =]

 

  • Confidence 

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I’ve said this before, but I will say it again, there is a certain something that happens when a confident person walks into a room.  Heads turn and people stare. When confident in a conversation, it leads people to believe that you totally know what you’re talking about, even if you don’t, just because of the WAY you talk and HOW you hold yourself.  

As yoga teachers they want us to have confidence and own the room when we are conducting a class.  That is because if you are confident the students will trust you and follow your lead.

Think about if we applied this to our everyday lives.  Think about how differently the results would be if we entered that meeting with confidence and clarity on the project you were working on or pitching to a client. By the end of that meeting whoever you are presenting will likely be on board with you when you are confident with the results.   Or on a more personal level, you are on a date with someone you like and are nervous but you show up confident in yourself and who you are, the person will be drooling over you by the end of the date. 

 Think about how differently others would feel towards you if you always showed up confident, but even better, how would you feel about you? My guess is pretty dang good. 

 

  • Compassion

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Something we all could use a little more of in this world is love.  Even though compassion isn’t defined as love, in my opinion, compassion is showing up with a loving heart because it takes love to understand and be sympathetic towards someone and their situation. 

We are all so quick to judge someone and their circumstance.  Having compassion towards someone in whatever their situation is, forces us to stop and try to imagine what they are going through which helps us be sympathetic towards their situation rather than judgemental.  To help us practice compassion as kids, mom would always say, “Put yourself in their shoes and how would you feel?”

While teaching yoga, they want us to be compassionate because every day we all show up to practice on our mats in a different circumstance. As a yoga teacher, it’s important to respect and honor your students in whatever form they come.

Now let’s think about practicing compassion and being compassionate towards others every day of our lives.  How different would your relationships be if you were compassionate towards someone’s personal situation, or you tried to put yourself in their shoes to see how they are feeling, rather than judging the situation at first glance.  

Overall, if you started to live your life being more clear with what you want, showing up with confidence in everything that you do, and being compassionate towards people you meet, you aren’t going to lose… 

You are actually going to feel great all of the time, you are going to get exactly what you want in life, people will trust you and follow your lead, and most importantly people will feel comfortable around you and will know that you won’t judge them but will love on them always.  

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a trifecta of awesomeness to me. 

This week try to practice just one of these “life fundamentals” in your everyday life.  I guarantee you will feel that same trifecta of awesomeness by the end of the week.. Give it a whirl and let me know how it works!!

 

Until next time, 

Namaste =]