I am nearing the end of my 500 hr yoga certification, which is 300 hours this time. Having taken the 200 hr a couple of years ago. The one thing I am learning is that their is so much to learn.  Not just the poses but the language we use as instructors, we ask the student to focus on the breath and if we are not careful we will then tell them how it is supposed to feel and if the student doesn’t feel the same way as we have TOLD them they should, are we creating conflict in the student and drawing them away from what we asked them to focus on? We have to write a paper for the class and this one question is one I hope to ponder here for a while.

“Notice how the shoulder feels in that stretch?”
“Notice how good the shoulder feels in that stretch.”

“I invite you raise your arms over your head?”
“Raise your arms over your head, drawing your collar bones apart and softening the           shoulder blades onto your back?”  (if this is hard for the student are we creating conflict during the class?)