Nearing the end of March, 2018 it’s been roughly one year that I completed my 200-hr RYT training with HotYoga8 in Honolulu. Truthfully, becoming a yoga teacher has been as fulfilling as I expected it to be, the cloud 9 walking-on-air feeling still runs through my being after each and every class. I finally have a chance to share something that I find to be special and healing with other people with little impact on the environment. Meaning, women and men alike tout diet pills or shakes and skin care products that saved their life, while I tout breathing practices that require little more than a comfortable and quiet place to sit. To say however, that life in yoga teacher paradise is exactly that, would not be all that truthful.
The imagining what life will be like once x, y, or z happens tendency is one we all experience. My post-training imaginary world was one that consisted of me leading awe-inspiring vinyasa flows to the dopest playlists, effortlessly linking Drake and Warrior II all while giving the most profound of Dharma talks. Alas, ‘twas and ‘tis not the case. Not yet at least. In my newer days of teaching the effort was put into setting aside an hour or realistically two hours before class to get on my mat, turn on Pandora’s Glass Animals Radio and get to moving, then after scrolling through the liked songs, weaving a playlist together that flows like water in a stream. That went on for about a good two or three months. Then poor as an excuse it may be, life happened. Not in a grandeur way, but as it usually does. This needed to be taken care of and that required my attention, before I knew it I was berating myself for not putting the effort into my classes that I used to. Dear reader, if you take anything at all away from this post may it be that berating yourself over anything is simply not yogic. Fed up with guilt, I allowed myself to come to terms with the idea that it really is okay if each and every class I lead doesn’t take you from Standing Splits to Eagle to Chair seamlessly all while a mirage of lovely sounds plays from the speaker. I fiddled with Spotify until I locked down a few solid playlists and only every now and then will I take an extra thirty minutes or so to string together my own mix of songs for a class. As for coming to class with the actual movements on lock-down, I’ve been glad to discover it doesn’t always need to take me coming up with the flow for it to work. There are hundreds if not thousands of online classes to be used for inspiration or if time is really a factor, to straight up duplicate. To give credit where credit is due is synonymous with saying ‘please’ and ‘thank-you’ to me; I will always happily credit the source from which I gathered information from whether it’s the flow or a quote. What else has changed since I became glowing gradate to nearly full time teacher? Full time in the yoga realm being teaching 5-8 times a week, at my highest I had 5 classes a week. The sad truth is that your time as a student is few and far between. Between substitute teaching, yoga teaching and playing with the cat, my trips to the studio to take class and my home practice became subdued. But what are we if not students at life, so I shifted my learning arena from on my mat, to nose deep into a great yoga philosophy book or browsing articles on Yoga International. I now find a thirty minute read of a piece on the yamas to be nearly as complimentary as an hour long flow to my arsenal of yoga knowledge that I can share in my classes. The most recompensing practice of all that I’ve implemented in lieu of an hour on the mat? Mediation and breath practices. While I give myself permission to skip a quick session on the mat every now and then, I have become more firm with being sure to set aside at least ten minutes, four or five times a week (such a big chunk of time right?) for a mediation session. The benefits from quiet time seem to offer me slightly more reward then making sure I take time to do a movement only practice. Since establishing a steady meditation practice it is as though I’ve taken the back seat to the ride of life. Decisions seem to be made more clearly and without so much tedious pondering on my part, beauty in all forms, human and nature, paints its picture every day, and my appreciation for that beauty is much greater. Offering the most solace is no longer worrying when change shines its daunting face, instead, I befriend change and know that like summer changing to fall and fall to winter, it is inevitable and each season of change has its positives to offer. So as only a mere year passes in what I happily anticipate a life-long journey as yoga teacher, I can only smile and continue to find the balance between learning and assimilating. I would be remiss if I didn’t share the highlight of those 365 days – leading my first workshop on the Yamas and Niyamas. To some it may be just another cross off the accomplished teacher list, to me it was a big freaking deal. It was the first of what I hope to be many workshops but as the saying goes, you’ll never forget your first. It probably was not a beautifully strewn orchestra of knowledge that made crystal-Hawaiian-waters-clear-sense, but overall I’d say it went pretty well. One workshop attendee has come to every yoga class I’ve taught thereafter and if that as a teacher isn’t your main goal, I don’t know what is. Celebrating the smallest of wins and learning from any sort of loss is important in career and life in general. I humbly and excitedly await what another year of teaching and growing will introduce me to.
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September 2018
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