Nearly 3 years ago, I returned to the USA with 1 clear future goal - to become certified to teach yoga.
Nearly 3 months ago, I sat in the first class of my 200 hour RYT course with Zen Yoga Garage with my homework in hand. The first night's homework was to write in my journal about "what is yoga to me?" Below is what I wrote.
poetry in motion culminating in corpse pose.
balance. a balancing act. a guide to gauge my growth.
sanctuary.
a foundational need that i thankfully exposed myself to.
a guide. an inlet into the infinite wonders that make up humanity,
as well as dogs, both upward and downward facing.
practice; sweaty, worthwhile, meditative, focused, fun, challenging, beautiful, nourishing, practice.
The certification course is complete. Our last test was to co-lead a class. All 12 of us that grinded out 200 hours of yogic lessons, practice, and study were given a particular role in this class, and all 12 of us rose to the occasion. For my 5 minute part, I know I did well. Not perfect, well. I was ecstatic to do well, especially because I was in a state of nervousness and emotion I hadn't experienced since I don't know when. And so I did some yoga, and let the practice put healing hands onto me to calm my nerves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqzH16e6oBI - "healing hands" by citizen cope is a close approximation of how I feel about yoga.
In 2007, while the majority of my fellow teacher trainer class was dealing with acne and high school dramas, I was barely surviving as a dirtbag stockbroker in New York, in the midst of the darkest personal times I'd ever like to know. Then I stepped into a yoga class. From moment one it was an epiphany. Tough, rewarding love. As I lay tired and worn in shavasana at the end of my 1st class, I saw things. That night, alive with energy and purpose, graced by the x-factor I had never planned for, I hand wrote a resignation letter to my employer.
Over time, I introduced myself to numerous styles of yoga and made a regular practice of it a cornerstone of my life. I've aligned with the vigorous flow of vinyasa because it easily satisfies the physical need for exercise, it challenges me to develop further, and it slows me to allow for a peaceful clarity that can often elude me in my more regular hyperactive, neurotic moments.
Yoga also proved to help me during a highly emotional time on Sunday 4/19/2015, when it set in how much I had come to enjoy all the ladies I was learning from and with 4X per week, and recognized that I may only have one more day together with all of them. For anyone that cares, that day will be this coming Sunday 4/26 for a bake sale-meditation-yin yoga class we are hosting to raise money for a yoga charity. Here's the link to support them/our efforts if'n you'd like to: https://www.crowdrise.com/zygyogagardens
At some point, I will teach yoga to others. I will be good at it, maybe very good. Yoga instructor was not any job choice on any career test I recall taking and being unenthused by as a youth. I am grateful I found it as an adult. I've lived in many states and countries without knowing where home was; when I roll out my yoga mat, I am home.
Nearly 3 months ago, I sat in the first class of my 200 hour RYT course with Zen Yoga Garage with my homework in hand. The first night's homework was to write in my journal about "what is yoga to me?" Below is what I wrote.
poetry in motion culminating in corpse pose.
balance. a balancing act. a guide to gauge my growth.
sanctuary.
a foundational need that i thankfully exposed myself to.
a guide. an inlet into the infinite wonders that make up humanity,
as well as dogs, both upward and downward facing.
practice; sweaty, worthwhile, meditative, focused, fun, challenging, beautiful, nourishing, practice.
The certification course is complete. Our last test was to co-lead a class. All 12 of us that grinded out 200 hours of yogic lessons, practice, and study were given a particular role in this class, and all 12 of us rose to the occasion. For my 5 minute part, I know I did well. Not perfect, well. I was ecstatic to do well, especially because I was in a state of nervousness and emotion I hadn't experienced since I don't know when. And so I did some yoga, and let the practice put healing hands onto me to calm my nerves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqzH16e6oBI - "healing hands" by citizen cope is a close approximation of how I feel about yoga.
In 2007, while the majority of my fellow teacher trainer class was dealing with acne and high school dramas, I was barely surviving as a dirtbag stockbroker in New York, in the midst of the darkest personal times I'd ever like to know. Then I stepped into a yoga class. From moment one it was an epiphany. Tough, rewarding love. As I lay tired and worn in shavasana at the end of my 1st class, I saw things. That night, alive with energy and purpose, graced by the x-factor I had never planned for, I hand wrote a resignation letter to my employer.
Over time, I introduced myself to numerous styles of yoga and made a regular practice of it a cornerstone of my life. I've aligned with the vigorous flow of vinyasa because it easily satisfies the physical need for exercise, it challenges me to develop further, and it slows me to allow for a peaceful clarity that can often elude me in my more regular hyperactive, neurotic moments.
Yoga also proved to help me during a highly emotional time on Sunday 4/19/2015, when it set in how much I had come to enjoy all the ladies I was learning from and with 4X per week, and recognized that I may only have one more day together with all of them. For anyone that cares, that day will be this coming Sunday 4/26 for a bake sale-meditation-yin yoga class we are hosting to raise money for a yoga charity. Here's the link to support them/our efforts if'n you'd like to: https://www.crowdrise.com/zygyogagardens
At some point, I will teach yoga to others. I will be good at it, maybe very good. Yoga instructor was not any job choice on any career test I recall taking and being unenthused by as a youth. I am grateful I found it as an adult. I've lived in many states and countries without knowing where home was; when I roll out my yoga mat, I am home.
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