I didn't feel like teaching yesterday—I just wasn't in the mood.

In fact, I didn't feel like doing much of anything. The time change happened over the weekend. It started getting dark way too early. I just felt, for lack of a better description, blah. (It was the kind of blah that makes your whole body feel sluggish and heavy—like the simple act of standing up takes more effort than you can bear.) But, as my mother often reminds me, sometimes we all have to do things we don't want to do. So I pushed myself out the door and went anyway. Blah.

As my students trickled in one by one with their shining smiles, my mood went from blah to so-so. Despite my foul mood, the class went surprisingly well. In fact, I only mixed up right and left a couple of times (which might be a personal record.) But more importantly, I think I am beginning to get a better feel for how much—or how little—my students need in a class. My mood went from so-so to elated when I announced that we were going to learn to hang upside down from the yoga swings and my students faces lit up with excitement.

I am proud of myself because I am able to relax and be myself in front of my class—even when I don't feel like it. More importantly, I'm learning to slow it down, offer fewer poses with longer holds, and longer restoratives and Savasana. (Which worked out beautifully, since the sun went down just as it was time to tuck my students into a nice, long one.)