Lessons from my Pregnant Belly

Regardless of the many challenges I've had growing up and finding my center, I've been relatively lucky to have a lean figure with no weight problems, not to mention a small frame-- ahem, and chest.  As a yoga teacher, I try to guide my larger framed students into poses that are appropriate for their bodies, but you really have to walk in someone's shoes (er, bra) to know how they feel on the mat. As a pregnant yoga teacher, I am learning a thing or two about working with the curves and bulges of a larger and more sensitive body.

Teaching large framed bodies have been a welcome challenge for me; but I know that I seek to understand how their body moves relying upon my spacial awareness and visual skills to determine appropriate adjustments and modifications for them.  But what makes certain poses more comfortable for their body are clearly different for me-- when I'm not pregnant.  Being pregnant has slowed me down and changed my practice to accommodate my curves in a big way. Especially this last month, and I have two more to go.  Because now I have a large belly and breasts where I didn't before.  And this changes everything.

For example, the stepping-forth transition in Sun Salutations from down dog to lunge is more like a bear crawl to get my leg forward.  And when I get the leg forth, it's off to the side of my shoulder, because even if I could get my knee around my belly, it would then be in my armpit squashing my chest. Up dog is more like a table with my head lifted.  Even child's pose in late pregnancy is more like preparation for lion pose with my hands on the floor near my knees, because I simply cannot get my head to the floor and blood pounds in my head whenever I lean over.

As a teacher, I have had to change the modelling of my poses based on what my body can do while simultaneously my guidance is geared toward the needs of the students.  A really good teacher can guide through language and rely less upon demonstration of the poses, so being pregnant has created a situation that nearly forced me to change how I teach, for the better. 

Being pregnant with this changing body of mine is narrowing my teaching schedule and the types of asanas I can do,