I am now on the 2nd of 9 yoga teacher training week-ends and I LOVE it!!! I have spent much time thinking about how a chubby gal can have any credibility being a yoga teacher. Lucky for me I found a whole world of curvy yoga teachers online- one of the better things about the interweb- stay away from webMD- I'm just sayin'...
The week-ends consist of -Fridays from 3-9 practice teaching, observations, and adjustments- I was a little freaked out the first week-end because we were seriously all up in each others business- but I got over it!
Saturday mornings from 9-12 are spent doing 3 hours of yoga- yes 3 hours. Saturday afternoons are filled with lessons on anatomy- so important- it would be easy to injure someone if you don't know at least some anatomy. Sunday mornings are again filled with 3 hours of yoga practice and the afternoons consist of studying yoga philosophy. I love this part because there are so many moral and eternal truths in this beautiful practice:) In addition to the 9 week-ends we are required to have 20 hours of workshop time with master yoga teachers, 20 hours of mentoring under a trained yoga instructor, 6 hours of actual teaching time, at least one class per week at the studio, and a consistent home practice- which means 30-60 minutes 3 to 4 times per week.
One of the things I like the most is that everyone is there for the same reason- they love yoga and want to use that love to learn skills to share with others. One thing that surprised me was how difficult it is to give the cue's that yoga teachers give. Everyone was having trouble with that- we were all laughing because we know how to do yoga but not how to tell others how to do yoga! Plus, this was only the second week-end and we were already teaching each other- scary!!
Also required is a 5 hour meditation course. There are 5 classes and we do two 20 to 25 minute guided meditations per one hour class. The first week was horrid!! I could not sit still and it felt torturous- my mind was messing with me big time!! Week two was much better- I was able to sit without too much discomfort and wasn't nearly as wiggly- on the plus side that was the first night I have slept for 5 hours in a row not medicated since July- I don't think it was coincidence:) I have yet to do any meditation at home but that is also part of our homework- I'm working on it.
It feels so good to do something that means so much to me and is also very challenging physically but especially mentally. I know I will leave this program with new-found life skills and a better understanding of who I am.
All of the photo's come from Anna Guest-Jelley's website www.curvyyoga.com
- it is where I get my inspiration to keep on going when I get discouraged!
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