My first hot yoga flow class and I was the teacher!!!

Yesterday at about 5:20 pm my cell phone rang with an unfamiliar number. I picked it up and it was Collette from the Yoga Source. She told me she had recently been in a car accident and wasn't feeling well. She then asked me if I would sub her 6:00 class. I wildly thought what kind of classes she taught when she told me that my students would be "upstairs". Upstairs is the hot yoga room. Then I realized that she was one of the hot yoga teachers. She sounded so desperate that I decided to do it. Yep, I taught my first hot yoga flow class and it was quite the unusual experience.

I introduced myself and one of the students asked me who I was and where was Collette? Sandee who is also a hot yoga flow teacher came to me before class and told me that this person might very well get up and leave and not to be upset. He was a difficult student who wanted what he wanted. I told him my name and that I was subbing this class. He said "I don't know you. Where is Sandee?" I told him that Sandee was downstairs teaching a class right now and maybe he wanted to go there. He agreed and left. It really didn't bother me even a little bit. That happened to me at Juliana's and I've already realized that if someone leaves your class it's their problem not yours. I was kind of glad that I was able to get him to go.

I started the class in seated so pranayama was short. I was already sweating my butt of after pranayama. We did some seated postures and then I brought them into downward dog. Sun salutations and then everything you could think of from there. Knees chest chin, cobra, warrior, arm sweeping just flowing from one move to another. I just kept the class moving.

About 50 minutes into the class I started having trouble. I found it difficult to breathe. I decided to slow it down and bring them into some postures to hold. We did some forward bending and then after a vinyasa I brought them down to the belly. We did locust, flying locust, cobra, bow and anything else I could think of to stay on the belly.

I brought them down to the back at about 7:10 and did some knees to chest and basic stuff. Then relaxation complete with lavander essential oils. All of the students thanked me and said that my class was exactly what they needed. That was nice to hear. I had made it through my first hot yoga flow class and I was a complete success. I am pretty damn proud of myself. :)