Whew! Weekend #1 of 12 is done and what an eye opening experience it was. The one word I will give this weekend is: TIRED.
Excited but tired! My appreciation and respect for yoga teachers is growing more by the minute. Admittedly, I needed to make myself feel good about all I had done and I added up the hours I spent in the class. Haha! It was 17.5 hours in total over 3 days. Yep, I am patting myself on my back with that number. No shame!
I am participating in the 6th cohort of the 200 hour training through the fabulous Everyone Yoga School in Tulsa, OK. My training is 6 months in length, attending classes 2 weekends a month. My cohort has 22 students, including myself, 2 lead instructors and one assistant. There are also several guest lecturers, including the school Director, that we will learn from as well. I feel incredibly blessed to be going on this journey, with this school and I can’t wait to share this journey with you along the way!
There are many takeaways and lessons learned in my first 17.5 hours of learning but here are some of my favorite:
Yoga Teacher Training is a big investment of time and energy (yet TOTALLY worth it!)
I was the only person who used a laptop for notes but it didn’t stop me. I can’t fathom the thought of writing everything for 6 months and needing to type it later. No way, so I will continue to be the only one with a computer =)
Snacks - your brain needs calories too. Bring snacks to class!
Sanskrit is a legit other language. I will be bilingual after this! But I need to make flashcards asap.
Anatomy is confusing as all get out. My brain does not work in that way and it is going to take me a lot to retain this information. I need to be patient with myself on this. More flashcards are needed.
Teaching lesson #1: it was so much harder than I thought the first time around. Kudos to all yoga teachers who make it look easy.
Teaching lesson #2: planning the class sequence is important, even if you go off script, a plan would certainly help especially in the beginning.
Teaching lesson #3: sometimes what I have in my mind and the words I use don’t align. I queued in a way that the student of mine did what I asked but it wasn’t actually what I wanted her to do. I asked her to “lower her knees” and she went into table top but in my mind I wanted her to “bend her knees” and actually not touch her knees down to her mat.
I am incredibly blessed to be on this journey!!
Overall, I was tired but so excited after weekend #1. I am even more excited than before about going on this journey. Thank you for coming along with me for this ride!
Until next time,
