On Being a Jack-of-All-Trades

I am in the midst of my yoga teacher training at Naada Yoga, in Montreal. It's a pretty incredible and thorough program, in which each subject is it's own module, and each module is taught by a specialist. It's a far cry from what is maybe more traditional, finding a single teacher or guru and learning everything from them; but I find it more appropriate for our culture of yoga.

Sometimes I find myself baffled by the sheer amount of information available on any given subject. All it takes is a few passionate people to make great headway in the research of anything. This is true of coffee, a trade I've spent the last seven years in. People dedicate themselves to the tiny little details of coffee, details that most people would find not only mundane, but insane. "What direction do you stir your bed of grounds in?" "Who cares?". When I was training baristas, everyone once in a while I would pause and think "This is just silly, isn't it?"  But it is precisely because someone cares that the overall quality of the coffee people drink improves and improves. We don't have to think about it, or read coffee magazines, because someone out there is doing that for us.
Same goes for any topic. Model trains. Light bulbs. Bicycles. Dung Beetles. Aromatherapy. Whatever.

All this to say that people can be extraordinarily specialized. And the people teaching these modules are such specialized people. For philosophy, we were taught by Dr. Mark Singleton, anatomy was taught by Dr. Baxter Bell, and asanas are taught by the owner of the yoga studio, Elizabeth Emberley.

I entered the program planning to eventually teach. Once I saw the incredible dedication, passion and focus of the faculty, I wavered- could I have this dedication, this drive? I am more jack-of-all-trades than master of one. On my bookshelf of in-progress books I have a yoga anatomy book (), a green building book(), a doula manual, a chess book (), a novel (), a book about Oscar Wilde, and Eating Animals.
How could I ever get that focused, absorb so much historical information and anatomy, and forward the ideas?

As I have continued along the course, I am realizing that maybe I am not suffering from lack of focus, and should celebrate how well-rounded my interests are. That maybe, I don't need to be an expert to teach beginners, and to share these wonderful things I am learning.  I only need to be sure that students know that, although a teacher I am also a student, that there will be limits to anyone's knowledge and that I will always try to be sure that the information I present represents the best of my knowledge. That they should always listen to their own bodies and instincts and not conform to any teachers ideas of how they should practice, and that they are always welcome to join me in the exploration of a wide variety of topics.