I did not plan to become a yoga teacher.
I did plan to better understand the meaning behind the poses I'd been twisting into the past decade. So, my 2020 birthday gift to self was yoga teacher training led by a favorite instructor at Life Time fitness. The 200-hour certification began in February and was scheduled to end the first weekend of July. Nine of us students - ages 18 to 65 - first met in a close knit empty conference room and yoga studios two nights a week and one weekend a month. Together, we meditated, absorbed lectures, laughed, took rigorous yoga classes, and then taught the classes that we just took to each other. We were taught how to teach since day one.
Then the pandemic hit.
What was designed to be a five month program turned into nine. Our classes shifted online. Then the staff was furloughed. When the gym reopened after a couple of months, we picked up where we left off - outside. The bugs bugged us at times, but it was quite beautiful to hear the birds sing while being grounded by the hot August earth to the chilly September air. In the time it takes to have a baby, the nine of us connected, shared, cried, opened up...bonded. While learning the principles and guidelines of yoga, we discovered so much more about ourselves and literally shaped who we were becoming inside and out. We grew as individuals and as a yoga family.
Yoga teacher training taught me to:
- breathe fully
- meditate
- harm nothing
- let things go that no longer serve me
- embrace more plant based foods
- create space for the union of mind, body, and breath
- endure challenges on the mat so that I can conquer them off the mat
Today, I became a yoga teacher.
