Difference between a teacher and an instructor

Its been almost a year now that I have been teaching the wim hof method. And the more I teach, the more I come across people who ask me advise on whether or not they should pursue the thought of becoming an instructor in the method.

My question to them is always the same - Why ? What are you looking to achieve ?

These are some of the answers I have received :

• I see how much it is done for you and your life, and you are a great ambassador for the method. So it makes me believe that I too would expand by teaching the method.

• I feel like this would be a gift that I could serve to my community

• I feel that this would be the next step for me to grow spiritually

• I can see myself getting really passionate about this and doing something I love as a source of income/ livelihood makes me really excited

Today we as a society have become obsessed about certifications and becoming instructors. Most certifications these days can be attained over a weekend. Ofcourse there are still courses that take a week or a month or multiple months sometimes, but the inclusion process is almost always just an application. The Wim Hof Method requires about a year cumulatively - it requires you to make two trips, one of which involves a week long experience. I used to think that, in this day and age that is quite a long time, but now I wonder - is it ? We are obsessed today with short cuts, not putting in the time to receive knowledge and gifts of experience. There is a reason why certain countries have a minimum age for rulers, for they believe that a leader needs a certain level of wisdom that can only be achieved through experiences.

So before I go deeper into the topic on what a teacher is versus an instructor - lets go over the reasons that I had mentioned above and what my thoughts are to each one.

I see how much it is done for you and your life, and you are a great ambassador for the method. So it makes me believe that I too would expand by teaching the method.

and 

I feel like this would be a gift that I could serve to my community

Teaching the method wasn’t what gave me my expansiveness, it is my background and all of the experiences that I have gathered along the way . The wim hof method brought me together with a community within Houston that I can say now have become my friends. I have genuinely connected with some beautiful souls through this method. I could have made this community by simply practicing the method versus teaching it. The method has also given me an appreciation for meditation. I had originally gotten into the method to be able to bear the cold better (yes I used to HATE the cold) , but I never in a million years would have thought that it would lead me to meditation, and that in itself has been a true gift. It is through practicing meditation that I have gotten most of my insights that I teach in my workshops. I do not believe that teaching has brought me to where I am, rather who I am has led me to become the teacher that I am. I love Wim. Very much. He is a modern day guru and due to my eastern background, I am always looking for real masters - he definitely is one. Yes the method has brought a lot into my life, but I do believe that Wim played a major role in me becoming a teacher. I didn’t become a teacher for I felt that I had anything to teach, I became a teacher for I felt that my master’s word needed to be spread to the world and so this was the medium I chose to spread his word. It also gives me a way to stay close to him, for I see him at least once a year by being a part of the community. I am very loyal to Wim and I truly believe in the method, and so this is one of the main reasons of why I teach.

I do not feel that I am serving anyone in my community by teaching. In fact I do not consider teaching as serving. Teaching is a duty, a job, a task, sometimes even a burden. If I truly wanted to serve, I would be outside ensuring people had food to eat and give the clothes on my back to homeless people on the road. I teach only because I believe I have a duty to, just like I made a commitment to my husband to be married for life and I love my parents, I believe I have a responsibility to share the knowledge that I have to those who are available to listen. It isn’t for my mental expansion, for my personal growth and for an increase in my spirituality that I teach. In fact teaching actually takes time away from those three things.

I feel that this would be the next step for me to grow spiritually

Practicing anything to achieve mastery will help you grow spiritually - you do not need to teach to grow spiritually. In fact, back in the day, teachers were students who attained such a high level of mastery that their teachers couldn’t teach them anymore, and as a result they were asked to become teachers. So it wasn’t teaching that helped them expand, rather the sheer practice of the method that made them grow and expand.

I can see myself getting really passionate about this and doing something I love as a source of income/ livelihood makes me really excited

I do many workshops and I am still no where close to even conceiving the idea of giving up my job to do this full time. I honestly love my day job, and so the idea of making this my full time gig has never crossed my mind. I also believe that by having the added worry of ensuring that people HAVE to attend my workshops in order for me to make ends meet , would make the entire process very stressful for me. I doubt having that loom over my head would help me teach with my heart. It would be a very mind-based approach in terms of offering what I believe would have people coming back for more, versus teaching from a place of recognizing what is best for my students even if it isn’t what they felt at the time. I have had instances in workshops, where people have been very uncomfortable with not having an agenda (none of my workshops have a set agenda because I always flow with the energy in the room at the time), but I have never changed this about my workshops because I believe as a teacher I should have the flexibility of changing up the exercises to ensure people connect in the way I would like them to, before we go deep into the breathwork.

So now lets talk about instructors versus teachers.

I believe the world today is filled with instructors, very few teachers. An instructor is a person who gets a certification and then goes out and shares the knowledge that they have received to others , most likely with the exchange of a fee. A teacher is a person, who almost always does the same but is also vested in your growth. A teacher also tends to instruct more from a place of experience versus knowledge. In sports, a teacher is sometimes referred to as a coach. I refer to my self as a teacher or a coach, for I do not teach any two people the same way. I observe and understand what it is that the person is looking to achieve and then I help them get there. This is a very easy concept to understand when you talk about the physical realm of the body. It is easy to imagine a person showing a personal fitness trainer a picture of a body and say, “Make me look like this” , but how many times have you heard some one share a picture of a brain and tell you - “make my brain look like this”. These days there are people who are talking about this subject as well but as you can imagine, when the topic is about something you cannot see, it is a lot harder to understand the significance behind the teaching. This is why back in the day , in the east, the focus was always not about talking and asking questions, it was always about experiencing, and when the master felt that you had reached a point, they then told you the next exercise of what you had to do to, once again, to experience something that was hard to put to words. And so talking was very little, and doing a lot more.

There is also a difference between a master and a teacher as well - not all masters are teachers and not all teachers are masters. I consider Wim a master, not a teacher. I consider myself a teacher, not a master. In order for you to learn, from a master who is not a teacher, it is important to spend time around the master in order to learn what they have to share, for not always can they explain through words, it is almost always done through feeling. When you are around a teacher, not a master, then you will change teachers along the course of your life - you will stay with one teacher till you reach a certain level, and then move to another teacher to further grow and expand. Most of the time, the teacher is the one that suggests for you to move on, and most likely will recommend you the name of another teacher. This is why I consider the ice, or the cold, both a master and a teacher. The ice is a master for when you spend time with it you understand how much it has to share , but it also teaches you important lessons when you are around it for just a second or a minute. It is also never politically correct, like any master that you meet. As a teacher, I have been in many situations where I have had to hold my tongue for worry that I would hurt some one’s feelings. Most who know me, know that I have a very sharp tongue - I say things as it is. Yes this means that I do not consider myself a polite person, but at the end of the day I speak the truth as I see it at the time. For me to be true to myself, is the most important thing I can do to honor myself. To make others happy through words isn’t what I believe we should be doing anyway. Now if only the rest of the world saw it the same way, I wouldn’t have to bite my tongue a lot of the time :)

Before I close out this blog, there are three stories I would like to share. I remember once attending a yoga class on a day when I was almost always very busy , but that particular day I had a cancellation and so I looked up the closest yoga studio and went to attend a yoga class there. The one hour that I spent in that studio with that teacher - blew my mind. I remember leaving the studio, completely in love with the practice of yoga. I remembered going home and trying to look her up and see if I could attend any of classes, in fact I was willing to even find out if she had private sessions so that I could get some time alone with her. Its been four years since that experience, and I still remember the one hour that I spent with her.

My second story is about one of my teachers at Onnit. I will never forget the story he shared with regards to how he recognized how important joint mobility was when he couldn’t even bend down to pick up his son anymore. He taught from a place of love , and it made a huge impact on me.

And my last story is my own personal story - I grew up playing tennis - and there were two very pivotal coaches that I had in my life. One brought me to the top - he told me I could be number one in the country when I was barely ten years old, and he changed my forehand, and completely changed my game while helping me focus on my strengths but building on our strengths as well. I remember having complete faith in him and at the end of the day when I did become number one, I was so happy I trusted him. The second one completely broke me. He changed my game by taking away my strengths and made me focus on my weaknesses. Of course at the time I was too young to see what was going on. This is also another reason why I am very passionate about teaching children - for I understood at a very early age how teaching can make or break a person.

So coming back to the topic of instructors versus teachers. When we embark on getting a certification or look towards teaching a method, I feel it is important to have this discussion with your self and ask yourself what it is that you are looking for. If it is any of the points that I mentioned above, teaching or instructing may not be the only way to satisfy that goal.

If you are looking to become a teacher, these are two things I live by, they might resonate with you as well.
- Always strive to have your student drink from a flowing river, not a stagnant pool.
- Most of us can count the number of teachers that we have had on one hand, that changed our lives or broadened our perspective on life - it almost always will never be what they said, but how they made you feel. When you teach from your heart, everything else will fall into place.

All the best - I wish you joy and love when you make this journey.