6 months later…
I just passed the midway point of my Yoga Teacher Training. Not that the journey of self improvement is ever really over… Just consult the mountain of books I have read on personal development covering anything from how to be a manager, a likable badass (totally recommend btw), fitness holistically or investing manuals. This weekend was major for me not only because it marked ½ way but also because I got my 20 minute opportunity to teach my fellow trainee’s.
What continues to surprise me is my 100% authentic joy, love, passion, and curiosity around every pose, every adjustment, and how every BODY molds a pose to its own unique variation. I find myself digging into the manuals and reading to better understand and feel a pose differently in my living room based on my body type, habits, and tendencies.
I prepared organically. I originally had my own sequencing plan but later learned one would be provided. After sulking for an appropriate amount of time I requested a slight adjustment and was elated when that request was approved. Simply — we started sitting to warm up the spine, moved to a modified sun salutation to warm up, transitioned to our lateral standing poses before hitting our pinnacle pose — Eka Pada Rajakapotasana or Pigeon and then closing our practice. I love pigeon as a desk worker, a GTI driver (we have a reputation to upkeep), and general human who should get more steps and sit less but more on “Yoga for Desk Workers” in a future post.
Back to the story…
Unlike when I practiced with my husband or my daughter we wrapped right on time solely due to the fact that my fellow YTTs are further along in their personal practice and should also know the basics allowing me to cue things as a teacher you might not get to for several classes. After we finished we had some time for feedback. Now, I wasn’t perfect and my mentor will call a girl out and she did.
Me: “I want all five of your toenails to be grounded as if they have suction cups.”
Mentor: “Why do I care what you want?”
Touche’ — I’m quite the rebel myself ;) Also, she’s correct. As teachers, the practice isn't about what we want students to feel—it's about creating the conditions for them to discover their own experience.
What I feel like I’ve really learned in YTT so far isn’t so much how to teach yoga. Yes, I’ve 1000% learned that. That is what I paid to learn, but the part the really has rocked my world is how much I’ve also learned how to ‘practice’ yoga, how to feel yoga, how to feel when I’m not in alignment physically or mentally. LIKE right this very second I am sitting on one leg and just asked myself why my knee felt weird.
Engage your care, balance out your hips, and plant your feet into the earth Sybil…
Since starting yoga I walk differently, I drive differently, I brush my teeth differently, I drink lemon water when I first wake up BEFORE MY COFFEE, and I massage my feet every morning!! I have not decreased my caffeine intake. You can take my coffee from my cold, dead hands <3 Maybe next year tho — I’m open to evolve.
So as I wrap up these thoughts to go walk my dogs I think about what’s next with some confidence that I have all the ingredients to be an inspirational and well educated yoga teacher, some curiousity about what the next 6 months has in store for me, and some excitement about having my own lesson plans and students.