My shmooperty-dooperty BIG IDEA for the planet!

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I am getting ready to head off to my yoga class. I would love to say that I never miss a class or that I practice on my own more regularly but this is not true. I love the whole idea of yoga. Slowing down, listening to my body, stretching myself more then I thought possible etc. etc. but the real reason I love going to yoga is I love my yoga teacher. As I think about it, I love all the yoga teachers I know. There are the ones I have had the chance to take a class with and then there are also those super nice people I find out later also teach yoga, in addition to being great bloggy friends, shop keepers or preschool moms.

Bottom line, it seems that anyone who has taken the time to become yoga trained is just darn good people. Kind to others and the planet, fun to be around and generally soothing to soul. Even those who don't currently teach seem to maintain a peacefulness just not found in the general public. Which brings me to my shmooperty-dooperty BIG IDEA (confesses to watching Sid the Science Kid a bit too frequently) for the planet. What if EVERYONE went to yoga teaching school? What if such a thing were mandatory for all adults? I don't expect everyone would choose to teach but the training would serve us all.

When I mentioned this idea to my yoga teacher she thought I might be on to something. She recalled how her teacher would seek out places to breath "good air."  Because of his training, he had the ability to feel the differences in air quality and how his body would react to those differences. If all people had this ability it is more likely that pollution would be a non issue.

Yoga teachers are also very kind, even when they are convincing people to do really difficult things, "Yes stretch a little bit further...  you CAN get your leg up there." they do it in a way that makes me want to, at the very least try.  I've been amazed at the number of times I've been able to coax my body into doing something I wouldn't have thought possible. The world could use more of this type of convincing. Imagine the gulf conflicts if people could be coaxed into seeing new possibilities, rather then bludgeoned. tricked or beaten into submission. Not to mention the fact if everyone took yoga teacher training many of the worlds conflicts would just dissolve.

You might consider my idea naive, perhaps thinking, "The world's problems are MUCH more complicated then that!" but I really think it may be very simple. Yoga teachers learn a humility and spirit of cooperation that  just isn't commonly available in the world's most tense arenas. Yoga teachers learn that EVERYONE has something worth sharing, imagine if our political and business leaders actually believed that before they started a negotiation?

 If yoga teachers were teaching our children, I'm convinced public schools would be thriving  havens of inspiration. Children would be nurtured to learn and grow to their full potential and we wouldn't need to resort to ludicrous "No Child Left Behind" tactics. If yoga teachers ran the world it would be impossible for anyone to be left behind because every individual would be honored so greatly.

My yoga teacher ends every class by saying Namaste, which means "the light in me honors the light in you." She goes on to add that it is a plural greeting, meaning that when we say it we honor everyone who practiced with us, even if they had to leave early. This pretty much sums it all up for me... what other group of people offer such full and lovely consideration of all, even the ones who aren't there anymore! If yoga teachers ruled the world, Namaste would be a way of life.