Online Yoga School

There’s a moment every yoga teacher knows wel, and that's the one when the universe decides to turn your theme into your lesson plan. This November, while preparing my annual gratitude flow, I found myself practicing gratitude in the most real, unfiltered way. What began as a celebration of growth and evolution quickly became a reminder that gratitude isn’t about everything going right, but rather it’s about keeping your heart open when things go sideways.

Background

For context, I think it's important to establish the background.  It's November 2025 and I am preparing for gratitude season.  Every year, we have a giant gratitude sale and it's my way of showing gratitude to our students and the yoga community at large.  I usually record several free yoga classes that I share, themed around gratitude.  It's my way of giving back and celebrating this sacred practice and all of those who enjoy yoga. 

Gratitude Theme

There are so many ways that a gratitude themed yoga class can look.  This year, I decided to look at gratitude through the lens of evolution.  It isn't about having gratitude for our circumstances.  If that's the case, gratitude leaves the minute our circumstances go the wrong way.  It's about having gratitude in spite of our circumstances.  The intention for this class was to reflect on how far we've come, what we've been through and how we've grown.  The idea is that we tap into gratitude for our own journey and the growth it's brought. 

Our Crew

Vanessa, part of our teaching staff, was there with her daughter, Ana.  My daughters were in  from out of town to help out, and they brought thier boyfriends with them.  I was teaching, and my husband was taking the class.  This was our crew:

Behind The Scenes

Vanessa got some really nice BTS clips to give you an idea of what our preparation looked like. 

We set up 2 cameras and an iphone.  My daughter Khloe is an influencer and has a new camera that we were excited to use.  But with our SD card, we couldn't record in 4G.  We set that camera up to record the students.  We used my old faithful camera to record me teaching.  And we had the iphone as a backup.  

The Space

My space is set up mostly for yoga therapy clients (private sessions).  It can also be used for intimate workshops or small trainings.  Twice a week I have small classes, and I teach prenatal and kids yoga here.

It's long and narrow, not ideal for large classes and definitely not ideal for filming videos.  In modern times, expectations are all about the aesthetics.  There are so many beautiful places that we see on social media, and filming our real life yoga video in a 500 sq ft space with ceiling itles and fluorescent lights feels counterintuitive.  Yet this is who I am, this is where I teach and this is real. And I love it.

The Gratitude Flow Yoga Class Experience

The class was about 50 minutes.  The energy in the room was incredible, and I was excited to capture that  on our video and share it with the community.  When we make these videos, every person in our international community is on my mind, in my heart and part of the intention.  The goal is that when people watch the video at home, they feel like they're here with us.  

About midway through the class, I heard a little double beep sound.  My daughter Khloe got off of her mat and walked to her camera.  I knew something was wrong, but I kept moving.  I reasoned that we had 3 cameras going, so we were fine if one went out. I didn't want to break the energy momentum and stop the flow for a camera issue.

A few minutes later, it happened again.  I noticed that Khloe took the iphone and changed its perspective to capture the students.  

We kept moving through our backbending flow, lots of heart openers, peaking in wild thing. The class ended as beautifully as it began and we walked to a local coffee shop. 

I left so excited to come home and start post-production editing.

The Challenges

We pulled the SD cards with all the clips and started loading them into the video editing software.  

I realized that somehow my camera angle slipped and this was our view:

This was not good news.  It meant that we couldn't flip back and forth between camera views for 80% of the class because we couldn't see me unless I was sitting or lying.  

No problem.  Let's get that backup video from the iphone.

Turns out, it didn't record the first half of the class.  User error. When Khloe's camera died, she started a new video on the iphone facing the studnents, but we didn't have any videos of the front half of the room for most of the class.

During the period when Khloe's camera died, we didn't have any videos at all, only audio.  This was for two periods of about 30 seconds each.

So here I was at 1:00 in the morning changing back into the same thing I was wearing earlier and setting up cameras and lights to fill in those :30 second gaps.  

I did both :30 clips and they looked like this:

The background, lighting, setting and overall energy was not going to fit in with the rest of the footage as it was taken in a different place, at a different time.  But it would give the community the opportunity to see what it looks like instead of having a blank screen for these brief periods.

I decided to show these filler clips with the text "Technical Difficulties."

The Disappointment

By 1:30 a.m., I realized I could crash out if I didn't change perspective.  

I'd put so much energy and time into planning this gratitude video.  Aside from the standard yoga class planning that we do as yoga teachers, I'd lugged my bogg bag full of cameras, extension cords, SD cards, mics and adapters.  We'd all coordinated schedules.  I took Saturday off and cleared my day.  People drove hours for this to happen and cleared their weekensds. And, we'd spent a lot of time on the logistics of mat placement, light placemetn and camera angles. 

There was no way I was going to redo this because almost everyone was gone, and nobody (including me) could clear another day to film. 

Suddenly, I realized I'd been practicing attachment, attachment to the idea in my head.  I was clinging to this outcome that I wanted for this video.  I didn't get the outcome I wanted and now I felt this heavy sense of disappointment.

The experience really gave me pause, and I had to stop and breathe so I could process and recalibrate.

Gratitude: My Turning Point

I was tickled at the irony of the situation.  Here I was editing a video where I'm talking about having gratitude, not for our circumsances but in spite of them.  And at the exact same time, I was in a full blown panic about my circumstances, practicing attachment and experiencing disappointment. 

The circumstances sucked a bit, but why focus on that?  I had so much gratitude in my heart that it seemed I could physically feel my chest growing warm.  We'd experienced beautiful connection while in this practice.  I was able to connect with Vanessa and her beautiful daughter in person.  I was able to see my children who I don't get to see all the time.  I was able to share this practice with people I love.  I was able to see this practice unfold in the lives of my adult daughters.  

Teaching this class on this day gave me the opportunity to visit with Jocelynn about the yoga teacher training she's been asked to lead at the studio where she teaches.  She came over for hours after we wrapped up filming.  We ate, we laughed and we got to craete cherished memories.

And, experiencing these technical difficulties gave me the chance to stay up until 2 am with Khloe, laughing at ourselves and the technology mess we'd made with this class.  The rest of the house slept while we figured this out together.  

I felt so fortunate to have a longtime gratitude practice that I was able to return to, to tap into and to draw direction from.  It's in these moments of chalenge when we are really asked to live in gratitude.

When One Teaches, Two Learn

What a beautiful reminder that when one teaches, two learn.  I learn so much more from my students than I could ever teach them.  And, I also learn from the experience of teaching.  I learn about myself, this beautiful practice and the world around me.

This November, I really learned a lesson about the practice of gratitude, regardless of circumstances.