Day 5

SEQUENCE SEQUENCE SEQUENCE!

And so it begins! Today is the day that we began breaking down the sequence with Sam. He’s an incredible yogi. A Harvard grad who also has the highest certification of the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health (the largest center for yoga in the nation); he’s the guy who will be breaking down the various poses of the very long, very detailed sequence that I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of times before, never thinking about the complexities of speaking to these poses.

Pre-teacher training, I never broke it down to the granular level that we were about to and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly overwhelmed.

What bone is stacked over what bone as we alleviate the pressure on which tendons by activating which muscles, protecting which joints? – We need to know the answer to this question for

 every.

single.

movement.

This deep dive into the mechanics of our bodies made me really start to appreciate my body and what a machine it is. Within my daily life, I don’t ever think about this stuff – movement just sort of happens. But in here, while learning to teach yoga, I do nothing but focus on this stuff which gives me a whole new appreciation for the autopilot that I've been on for my entire life.

Not only that, but a body changes. What feels good today might not feel good tomorrow – and vise-versa. That recognition is part of the whole yoga journey - you must be aware of your body. The biggest lesson Sam stressed was that every time you hit your mat, it’s a different experience and you need to remember to always work with the body that you have today.

We also focused on Adjustments and Communicating. You know, 'how-to-touch-somebody-without- being-a-creep' and 'how-to-speak-to-a-class-in-the-most-optimal-way.' But best of all, we learned about the concept of “Instant Forgiveness.”

If you jumble your words while guiding your students, your first reaction may be to apologize and take back whatever that mistake may be. This happens all the time in regular life. But in yoga life, when you’re leading the practice, you just can’t do that. It can distort the entire energy within your class and as their guide to savasana, you want to avoid chipping away at your own credibility. So instead of taking something you said back, forgive yourself instantly and move forward because they need you to move on more than they need to hear your apologies about something that already happened. 

This is life. 

Mistakes happen.

Accept them and charge forward.

What a great concept to remember outside of the walls of a yoga studio.

Namaste.

Day 4

I walked into class, Day 4, and we started with a full hour of yoga lead by Nikki. It was exerting and an overall great body workout. We shook, we sweat, and it prepped our bodies for what the rest of the weekend was going to entail – which was a lot of yoga.

Later that evening, Carl, a vocal coach, came in and taught us how to use our breath when speaking to our future classes. We dove into technique, inflection, projection, stamina, and tone. He educated us on the Bernoulli Effect; allowing us to visualize how air passes through the vocal chords and how it vibrates them along the way. So many interesting things happen within the human body that I never think twice about on a daily basis. The body is so immaculate – and this is just a tiny chip of an ice cube that’s embedded within the tip of the iceberg.

There are many people in my class who have beautiful thick accents that link them to the places across the world that they’re from, and because the class is taught in English, it poses a challenge for some. Not only are some of my classmates learning how to teach Vinyasa Yoga, they’re also on a journey to learn to speak English fluently as well (#rockstars). With that said, Carl made sure that we all understood one thing:

The desire to communicate trumps anything.

I love that!

Because if you think about it, if you reeeeeally think about it, he’s incredibly right! The voice is the portal for language, yes, but it is not the only portal. Your body, your eyes, the moments that you choose to smile – these are all part of your own, personal language and how you communicate to the world.

Some of the best conversations I’ve ever had took place with words few and far between.

Think about it – you could probably say the same.

When I see my mom, we often have some really great conversations that end in boisterous, loud laughter when no words are spoken at all. We’re not at a comedy show – no one actively tries to get a rise out of us; the cause and effect of our hysteric moments have absolutely nothing to do with words. Something just happens.

Something that she gets.

Something that I get.

And then there’s a quick conversational exchange with our eyes and we both instantly recognize that we know exactly what the other person feels about the exact thing that just happened, whatever that may be. Then the laughter comes bellowing out – even though no words were spoken. And we continue to laugh and laugh, and it intensifies and becomes much stronger than when we started, but we’re still not even speaking.

Laughing with my mom is one of the best conversations I’ve ever had.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that one can teach Vinyasa whilst awkwardly eyeing up their students, and giggling them along into their Warrior 1 – that would be weird and creepy. But what it does mean is that if you want your students to do something, you’ll find a way to get your message across. One of the most important lessons that I gathered from today’s class is that as a teacher, you need to remember that words aren’t your only portal to your students.

Oh, and smile. They can hear it.

:)

Day 3

If you're über keen, you may notice there is no Day 2. That's because about 6 months ago, I signed up for a little race called Tough Mudder. I went into this yoga course knowing I had to miss the second day of classes once they started.

If you're not familiar with Tough Mudder, I would highly suggest checking it out and immediately adding it to your bucket list (before you can talk yourself out of it). It's an 10-12 mile run littered with 25 separate mental & physical obstacles that challenge every aspect of your being.....oh yeah, and a lot of mud. 

>>Before & After<<

When your bruised and bleeding body crosses that finish line after pushing your body, physically & mentally, to it's absolute extreme, you feel like a champion. 

But do you know what you don't feel like doing?

7 hours of yoga the very next morning.

...let's talk about that.

Day 3

I get to class, and we start with a solid hour of yoga at 10AM. My already fraying & splintering muscles begin shaking after the first 5 minutes. Must. Keep. Going.

And I do.

After an hour of what ended up being a full body vibration, we dissect The Flow.

The Flow

Plank

Chaturanga Dandasana

Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog)

Chaturanga Dandasana (Downward-Facing Dog)

I have an "Ah-ha!" moment during the plank dissection. Shoulders & Hips aligned. I've heard this probably hundreds of times before, but today, it resonated. 

Ah-ha!

Later on, we had a session with the incredible yogi, German (pronounced: "Her-main")

Meet German A. Bravo-Casas. 

He shined some insightful light on us for hours today.

This man has been teaching yoga for 41 years.

Simple. 

Brilliant.

He worked at the United Nations for 22 years and when he retired, he decided to start a yoga club there. To this day, he is the President of the United Nations Yoga Club at the United Nations. I hope all of the world leaders do yoga with him, it could do this planet a lot of good!

There were 2 nuggets of wisdom that emerged from his twirling, Colombian accent that I liked most:

1) "The Human mind jumps around, like a monkey, and is never satisfied. Yoga fights that. When you have full control of your breath, you have full control of what you're trying to perform. And when you have full control of what you're trying to do, nobody can control you." 

2) "Reading a menu in a restaurant doesn't make you full just like yoga books won't give you all you need. You must practice. The main purpose is not to become a pretzel, it's not about flexibility  It's about awareness."

I'm so thankful he took the time to share his experiences, knowledge, and insights with our class!  

Oh! One more thing!

I must not forget to share one of my favorite things that he shared with us...he passed around the book below, mentioning that it was one of his favorite yoga books:

If you know me, you probably know how much I loved this! This confirmed the hypothesis that I've formed surrounding the idea that I believe most yogi's are cat people. 

Namaste.

Day 1

It's here! it's here! It's finally here!

After months of anxiously anticipating this very night, Yoga Teacher Training has officially begun! 

Tonight was my first Teacher Training class. We didn't dive into the practice or philosophy, instead, we used the time to dive into each other to get to know the people we'll be spending the next 10 weekends with.

                   Meet my class.

They are a very passionate, enthusiastic, jovial bunch.

My favorite part about this class is that despite everyone's lives having a twisting, turning course, they all wound up in the same Yoga studio on a Friday night in New York City as I did.

What I enjoyed even more was hearing about all of the different places they started their journeys from. 

I started my journey from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...

                       But them!

Their journeys started from places scattered all over the world!

                         Japan

                      Indonesia

                          Paris

                      Venezuela

                           Malt

                      Argentina 

                          Israel

                    South Africa

              Dominican Republic

                          Korea

And thats the beauty of New York. It has this effervescent charisma that attracts people from literally everywhere on earth. You can see the world just by being here, because the world comes to you.

My appreciation for yoga expands all throughout me because I'm hit with the realization that, like a smile, yoga crosses cultures and touches people in the same way, regardless of race, language, heritage, religion, etc. 

What a cool thing to learn more about.

                     Namaste.