Coach Foster

30 days to 50.

I work for a rather large accessories company. We have all kinds of events to teach our customers and our salespeople about our product. For the event today it was decided that we would make the theme that of a university, with individual professors and different subjects. Because of the product I was showing I was told I would be the gym teacher. So I went to Target and bought a dozen yoga mats and 2 dozen hand weights. The product I showed was all about how LIGHTWEIGHT it is. So clever.

I was told to dress like a PE teacher- which seemed to mean track pants and a whistle. I sadly don't own a pair of track pants so I had to make do with yoga pants (a little overly comfortable for a professional situation) and a track jacket. I did go out and buy a whistle. It didn't take me long to figure out how to use it. In the beginning it's always hard for me to turn into the actor In the Actor's Studio. But by the last class it's no problem.

I asked all 4 classes if anyone got up to work out this morning at the hotel. Only one woman raised her hand. I could not have imagined that most of them exercise much at all, let alone do yoga on a regular basis. I started the first class with some bicep curls and then went straight into focusing on the product. I had a little extra time at the end of that class. I decided to go out on a limb and start the second class with a yoga meditation, they were sitting on yoga mats after all. To my very great surprise, 8 out of 10 women in all of the next 3 classes actually sat down on their mats, closed their eyes and meditated. The remaining women in both classes sat in chairs and also closed their eyes and meditated. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. None of them came to my class to do yoga. They were being herded around like sheep from one class to another. Yet they all without question followed my lead and practiced their meditation.

This shows me several things- 1. Meditation is far more commonplace than I understood it to be. 2. People are open and willing and hungry for new experiences. 3. I love love love teaching.

I didn't keep them in mediation long, maybe a minute or two. But that minute or two changed my perception dramatically. Almost everyone in this world is open to change. Open to possibility. Open to the hope for a better life. Isn't that beautiful?