287 - Personal Storytelling Can Enhance the Learning Experience

Sometimes as teachers we can feel self-conscious or weird about talking about ourselves. But sharing our personal stories and embracing vulnerability are powerful ways we can support students and our communities.  

Today we're talking about ways to explore themes and storytelling in class, to foster connection, playfulness, and growth.

Weekly stories by email from Bonnie’s HERE

Connect with Bonnie: Instagram, Email (hello@bonnieweeks.com), Website
Listen to Bonnie's other podcast Sexy Sunday HERE

The music for this episode is Threads by The Light Meeting.
Produced by: Grey Tanner

Transcript

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (00:01.29)
Welcome to the podcast, loves. Today, I want to give you a way to bring theming into your class if you are a teacher with the topic or on the topic of gratitude. But before we get there, let's talk about how terrifying it can be to be seen because I have heard from students, not teachers, from students.

how they are nervous about going to yoga class because then they will be seen.

I mean, let alone people saying how once they farted in a yoga class and they're like, I can never go back. Bodies make noises. I know some people really love practicing with no music. I feel like mostly in the vinyasa world, it's a musical experience to have like.

all different sorts of music that are combined with the flow experience. I just really don't want to compete with the music, but I definitely love using music for my classes. But when it is silent, you're going to hear more body noise, which actually sometimes is really, really beautiful because you can hear the breath, but it's also another layer of being seen. So when thinking about how to curate the experience for students, recognizing that if there is music, it might hide their bodily noises that are very normal.

And I find myself humming and mmm, Like I have, I have noises when I'm moving and it feels good because when you're really present with your body, there's a lot of pleasure in it. And you might feel things. And I have definitely had people in classes that are ooh-ing and ah-ing and it is, so this is a whole vibe. It's fantastic.

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (01:52.286)
And it can also be the thing that feels really terrifying for people because it is a layer of being seen. And one of the gifts that we give as teachers is to be the weirdest one in the room. So with that, how do we bring a theme of gratitude into the room and let ourselves be the weirdest one and also invite people to think seriously about something, but keep it playful.

and to not feel like we are in like the seat of the most important person in the room, right? Because we know that we cannot practice being teachers, which is a practice, without students there. And students don't have a teacher to learn from unless the teacher shows up in the room. So we need each other in the room. And we each hold space in that room for each other.

So it is a practice for all of us. So it's bigger than us, but it needs us. And that is a phrase I've said to myself for years, like this is bigger than me, but it needs me. So how do we step into the room where we are relating with them? Not just standing up and teaching from the front, but we are there with them. And we're gonna guide them and we're gonna be prepared to hold the space.

And how do we tell stories that are expanders that allow ourselves to be seen? So again, if I think to the student experience where they're terrified of being seen, how do we help students feel more confident and comfortable to be in the room in all of their own weirdness? How? By being weirder ourselves. And by weird, I mean embracing who the hell you are in this moment.

the weird quirks you do, the body expressions you make with your hands or your face, the way that you use your voice, the tone of your voice, the pace of your voice. And gosh, because I have had so many pictures taken of me while I'm teaching, and I've been lucky enough to have photographers in the room while I'm teaching, and it is ridiculous, y'all.

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (04:15.726)
the amount of faces, the face contortion that happens. Like you can read the things on my face and one second from the next my face will look like I'm grimacing and the next I look like I am laughing uncontrollably and the next one I'm looking terrified and next one I'm allow yourself to be expressive. Now that can feel terrifying, right? So how do we start to baby step into this experience as teachers? Because I am pretty sure.

that if you are here listening to this podcast, that you are interested in helping your students feel freedom to move and freedom to choose. Because I really think that that's what this practice of paying attention is all about. It's saying, where do we hold really tightly to like, this is the way and soften that grasp and also have some structure in our lives that we know how to bring some flow. So we're playing with this foundation and freedom. We're playing with control.

so that we can have the freedom to move, which means we wanna have strength. And we have strength plus grace, and that's a lot of power. And so we are interested in freeing ourselves and freeing others so they have the opportunity to choose their own adventure. And I really believe that that begins with us as teachers. And it's one of the things that I love to help guide intimately in Flow School.

Flow School Online and Flow School Immersives, the membership and in-person. And so let's bring this to storytelling. Because I really love teaching movement. And there is a whole methodology that I am using when I teach movement. And I did not use the term yoga dance. That is a term that other people have said about what I teach and how I teach.

and about how people experience teachers flows after they attend flow school and the increase of feedback that teachers get once they have attended flow school from their students and how their students say, it felt like I was in a yoga dance where the teacher didn't say that, but the students are saying that. So I'm using that term because other people have even used that. That is the feeling for me, but it is not just my own.

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (06:39.586)
So if I am so deeply rooted in like understanding why I want to move people how I do within flow, I can also bring some theming into this. So you can talk about theming a class and storytelling. I've, I've shared other times here on Yoga Strong about storytelling and bringing the storytelling in class. But today I'm talking about being sane, being the weirdest in the room, being the weirdest in the room, and then also giving you one example right now. So you can take this and say like, okay, I'm listen to this.

short podcast from Bonnie and I am going to take a theme of gratitude and apply it to my life and tell a story. I am bringing this to you because I had a flow school zoom meetup today and I do this after my immersives where I'm with people for five days and then a month later we have an immersive call where we're your show up online together.

together for an hour and a half and then month two afterwards, we do the same thing. And then everybody gets a one-on-one call as well with me for an hour where we like deep dive and it's one-on-one coaching mentorship. So today we had one of those for one of my immersive groups and one of the teachers brought up how they have told a story and it was, I loved it. It was so good. It was so good because she shared how terrified she was. And here's the story. So.

I'm not gonna share a name, but you know who you are and you listen to the podcast. So when you hear this, this is yours and I'm thinking of you. And this story that you shared with me is going to help other teachers be able to step into their own weird and their own life and be able to show up in the room where they're with people. So thank you for sharing it with me. Okay, so here's the story. The story is this teacher was out on a hike.

And the country that this teacher lives in, blueberries are not ready to pick till much later because I live so far north. And it was early, not even August, which is the typical time to pick blueberries. And there was these plump, juicy blueberries on this hike. And it was this perfect hiking day. And she picked these blueberries and ate them. Now, that's the story.

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (09:03.086)
going for a hike. She went for a hike with her husband and her friend and she found some juicy blueberries that she wasn't expecting and she ate them and they were very good and it was early in the season. Now even listen to that, that doesn't sound like that big of a deal maybe right? You're like okay blueberries but even in our conversation she shared how it doesn't feel like a big thing to say it now but she also has had some time in this but in that moment when she has she's at the front of the room wearing the mantle of teacher

and guiding people in this experience where I have talked to lot of teachers where they're like, is this making it too much about me to tell a personal story? My answer is no. When, when this is important, when you are using that story as an expander, we're here to help people expand their experience, expand their mindset, expand the story they tell themselves. So she did it.

She brought it into class. She was really, really nervous about it. And then she told the story about blueberries and she, she decided to do it with gratitude. And she knew she wanted to tell a story. And that was one of the things she bought back from flow school. And so she started talking. That was the memory that popped into her head. She's like, I'm to talk about gratitude and say how grateful she was for these blueberries and this hike. And it was small, but it was significant.

That's all it is, right? If we're about the practice of paying attention, it's these moments. It's not necessarily the big ah-hahs, the big things that are fireworks in our lives. It is blueberries along a hiking trail that you're like, this is so exciting. I didn't expect this. And this is delicious. And what a beautiful life we're a part of. And that's it.

And then we bring it to each other. And so she brought it to class. told this sweet story. It does not take very long to tell that kind of story. She invited them to think about something that they were grateful for. So maybe when you say, think of something you're grateful for and the list maybe starts with your family and your kids and your health, right? Like these are, like there's some big ticket things that I feel like are big markers. like, we're grateful for these things. But by telling a story about blueberries,

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (11:29.558)
And how small of a moment that kind of is. I love that example because when she was talking about that, you know, the very first thing that I thought of, was like, you know what? In this season right now, I'm really grateful to have found some good chapstick that has SPF in it. And that sounds ridiculous, right? But I didn't realize that I have been using chapstick that does not have SPF in it. Instead has petroleum jelly, which

petroleum jelly can be something that helps hold in moisture, but it also is something that can trap heat in and especially on your lips when there's not SPF in it too, that is trapping the heat and it's not protecting your lips from the sun. So I was breaking out and cold sores on my lips and I was very annoyed by it and it was persistent for a couple of weeks. And then I realized that my chapstick didn't have SPF in it. So now I have switched.

and I have found something that works and that's what I'm grateful for. Now, that's kind of like, there's like so many layers, there's so many things that you might learn in a story about me and my chapstick, right? You know that I like to use chapstick. am like, I'm walking out the door with chapstick. I never leave the house without chapstick. I'm totally one of those people. And you know that I get cold sores, cool, okay? So along with a billion other people on the planet. And you know that I like the sun.

I like being outside. So you know some things about me. So expands your idea of me. You also find out like that's kind of nerdy a little bit, right? So what do you learn about a teacher who likes blueberries? She is spending time with people that she cares about and she likes to get outside. She likes to hike and she eats fruit. And so these examples, right? To make it be something specific and maybe atypical can help be an expander for students to then think about

What am I grateful for? So when you want to bring the theme of gratitude into class, you could read a quote, you could share a poem, and those are amazing ways to do it. And you could do it in a way where you're talking about something small and specific that's related to you and your life. And that is a practice of allowing other people to see you.

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (13:46.882)
You can do it in a way where you are choosing. Nobody's forcing you to tell any specific story and only tell stories that you have processed yourself. You are not going to ask for any emotional holding from your students. That's a big one for me. Right, because you could say a lot of things about gratitude. That could jump a lot of different directions. So pick something that you can emotionally hold, something that's an expander for their own experience and then invite them.

to fill themselves up with the gratitude and joy of maybe something small and less typical than they think of about gratitude for their day. And to let that be the feeling that they're moving through practice and grateful that we get to be in this room together, grateful that this is a communal practice while also a very individual one. And then teach a hella good class.

And at the end, wrap it back, tell them thank you for coming, extend gratitude and invite them to keep an eye out for those small moments of gratitude throughout the rest of their day, right? And then they're out. So that's your invitation today. Let yourself be seen, let yourself tell stories even if you're terrified. And the same teacher as you shared.

And she says, I wanted to do it again. And I was going in to teach and she was teaching today. Today? Anyway, today, yesterday. And she had been out on the beach. it was today, but time sounds different. She was wanting to teach today and she was out on the beach and it was so playful. And she had her toes in the water and she was finding shells with a friend. And it was a really delightful moment.

And then she went to teach directly after that. She dropped her friend and then went to teach yoga. And so the theme that she wanted to bring into class was this idea of playfulness. And then she told the story about where she had just come from and the feeling of that and inviting people to bring playfulness into their practice. So this is a way you can do it, where it gets to be personal.

Bonnie Weeks (she/her) (16:06.126)
where you're not just a separate entity and you know, the quote unquote guru in the room who knows all of the things, but that you are human with them.

that as teachers we're not above anyone and that that room can be full of students. I had a teacher who said that she today when we were on this call that she was at a festival and taught a class to 120 people at this festival and how it went and her experience with that. And let's just think about that for a minute. 120 people. How many brilliant minds were there? 120.

Could that hour that she taught that class have been filled up by an hour of each of those people talking about and teaching something that is important to them? Yes, a hundred percent. So we do this together and perhaps we are the teacher in that moment and in that hour. And then we will sit in circle and it will be somebody else in that class that's teaching us something else.

And that's how we do it here together. We all rise together. Thank you for being a part of this podcast experience with me and that we are really creating this space together that because of your comments on this podcast, when you share this podcast, when you leave a review and talk about how much an episode or a

or the podcast in general means to you. Like it gets shared and it's conversations like this where how do we be real humans together and how do we touch people one person at a time so then we all rise. Thank you for being a part of this. Please share it. Let me know how storytelling goes. I would love to hear about it. Of course, doors for flow school are open for you and I would love to see you there.