Yoga Teacher Training Is Over

Yoga class training is now over.   18 weekends of training is completed.  180 hours of learning and practicing.   Many hours of reading, studying, and preparing.

It seems like yesterday, on a somewhat cold February morning,  that I first met with 15 other strangers nervous about what we were getting ourselves into.    Its has been a challenging road,  filled with many stops of learning along the way.    I learned that I love anatomy but, for some reason, that I struggle to remember Latin names for muscles.  I have learned  that we become better Yoga teachers every time we get in front of a class, that our voice and style carries a lot of weight when we are leading a class, and that I have just scratched the surface of what I can learn about myself,  the human body, movement,  exercise,  breathing, and  teaching Yoga.    I am more than glad to have the experience and I am sad that it has ended.   I really enjoyed the company of my classmates. 

I still have a final exam to complete,  along with some other incidentals, but I now have every other weekend back.    I will miss the camaraderie of my fellow students and the great pleasure it is to sit and and learn  (with lots of Yoga breaks) .  I forgot how wonderful it is to learn in a class setting.  This, however,  will not be the end of my Yoga education.

The last four weekends,  our class has gone through several rounds of practicums where we teach each other in 20 minute blocks and are evaluated and receive constructive criticism.    It was stressful  (most of us taught four times) and necessary.   What was taught ranged from a quiet meditative  to a fast flow to holding hard poses for several minutes in a strength focused practice.   Each student brought their own imprint into what they taught.  It was beautiful to see and wonderful to be part of.  

Now comes the hard part.  I have to take what I learned and try to see if I can teach.   I would like to be able to volunteer my time to bring Yoga to those who may not have access to it and I for certain want to share the benefits of a Yoga practice with those in their middle age years and beyond.  I am volunteer teaching one time a week now but I would like to add to that and make it something more permanent.    I could always try to teach in a studio,  but I am not certain I want to go that route.    I do not look at Yoga as a way to earn money,  but rather as a way to help people get healthy.  

So the future holds a good amount of what ifs.   That, however, is the nature of life.   As the teacher who worked with us on meditation asked "Whose life has unfolded to be exactly they planned it to be".     As I have said in earlier posts,  I will practice Yoga until I cannot breath.   The same will go with teaching.

Namaste.

Yoga and my darn knee.

When there is enough light in the evening,   I like to walk a 4.5 mile loop  (7.2 km) loop in a park near my house.   During the summer,  I sometimes walk the loop four or five times a week and it feels great for both the exercise and to enjoy the warmth, breeze and being out in the world.     A few days ago,  I got caught in a sudden cold and windy rainfall and the temperature dropped about ten degrees (from 70 F to 60 F) very quickly.   I was about two miles from my car,  dressed for nice weather,  and pretty wet so I decided to run back to my car instead of walking.   It felt good to run but as a result of this escapade,  I now have a recurrence of my Runner's Knee (pain on the outside of the knee).  Runner's Knee was one of the reasons I started practicing Yoga as I was looking for an alternative form of exercise that had less impact on my body.

I am now nursing knee pain for the past few days (including two days of Yoga instructor training) and somewhat regretting that I ran.    Life, however,  can only be lived forwards.  I  cannot take back those two miles and the joy and pain they brought me. 

This recent knee pain has made me think about how great Yoga is for an aging body.  Because a practice is best built around the needs of the individual, we can adjust our practice to how our body is working and changing.    For myself,   the beginning of my Yoga practice was all about headstands, working to get into challenging arm balances, and going to hot classes and sweating and moving.   As I age,  my practice has become slower,  I am more focused on holding poses for longer,  I devote less time to "Instagram" poses, and I am more mindful about the form of the poses I hold and my breath while holding them.    I have adapted Yoga to my needs.

I was able to work around my knee pain by practicing a Yoga series focused on long restorative holds.   While I did not sweat  nor had any aerobic impact,  the practice worked to release tension in my lower back, hips,  abductors, shoulders and upper back.    It was also quiet and restful and I felt great and peaceful afterwards.    If Yoga was not in my life and my exercise was limited only to running or walking,  then I would have no activity for three or four days and I would have been tempted to run or walk because of inactivity.

As we get older,  our exercise needs to reflect that fact that our body needs more time to heal,  cannot absorb impacts like running as easily as it once did, and needs to become more flexible.    Yoga, because of its myriad of styles and thousands of poses, can be modified to the individual needs of each of us.   While I personally think that Yoga needs to be combined with an aerobic activity like walking or hiking,  it is the keystone for my exercise life.    I will be practicing Yoga until my next rebirth. 

Namaste