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Well – in December, I completed the Baptiste Level 1 Teacher Training in Mexico. It was an awesome experience, made even more awesome by attending as a couple. There is so much more I could say about this training, but I’m not going to. If anyone out there ever goes through this program, it is best if you enter with a completely open mind and have no expectations.
Last month, starting on Jan 12th, I started in the Teacher Mentorship Program at Shakti Vinyasa Yoga (where we practice). This is a pretty unique program in the Yoga world (from what I can tell anyway). As part of this program, I assist two nights a week in our 8 class intro series. Assisting takes multiple forms in this environment. We organize the room, teach some Yoga philosophy, demonstrate poses, and physically assist the class. Our studio is very hands on, with the teachers and assistants actually helping students with safe alignment and the deepening of poses.
My first month was a lot of fun. I was able to see a class from a different perspective. Literally. Viewing a class from the front of the room feels very different than being in the middle of the room, as part of the class. It took 2 or 3 classes, but now I feel at home in the studio as one of the teachers. In the last week of my first intro series, I was able to teach 2 sections of the class (1 each on different days). Over the next few months, the amount of teaching that I get to do will increase. It is a lot of work to become a Yoga teacher this way, but it is the right way for me. Lots of training time, lots of hard work.
As usual, I’ve been very busy. 2 of the last 3 weekends, I participated in the Teacher Assisting Program (TAP) at Shakti Vinyasa Yoga. This was about 24 hours of training, Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. I supplemented both weekends with 8am Saturday practice, and the Sunday 9:30 practice. Overall: awesome experience.
So, what exactly did I do? We learned how to assist other people in Yoga poses. Assisting always starts with safe alignment (the corrective assist). Once you have someone in a safe position, all kinds of possibilities open up. You can give support, spark awakening, help some one go deeper and expand their edge. I had a great time, and learned a lot.
Since we all needed people to practice on, I ended up doing lots and lots of Yoga poses over the workshop, and holding some of them for a very long time (longer than I’m used to). This turned out to be a very valuable experience. I learned a lot of things to help deepen my own practice and to help others along their own path and learned how to analyze my own body in a pose and see where I can self adjust.
To top it all off – assisting is fun. There are some standard templates to assists, but there is lots of room to be creative and really find the best way to help someone in this moment. I had a chance on Sunday to assist someone for an entire class – and since some of the poses are taken several times, I already had a change to experiment a bit.
Next steps: I have already applied to enter the mentoring program at our studio. I have an evaluation this weekend where I will assist one of our teachers during a class. And we’ll see where it goes from there.
All of this experience should be a great help when we head to the Baptiste Level 1 teacher training.
Our Baptiste teacher training bootcamp is approaching pretty quickly (less than 2 months now). We have been putting in the physical preparation (4 to 5 practices a week). I start every week wanting to go 6 times, but that is a huge time commitment, and just is not always a possibility.
16 changes of Yoga clothes
Shortly after signing up for the bootcamp, I went through a rough spot in my Yoga practice. This was, as one might imagine, mostly related to rough spots in my other obligations. Work has been (and continues to be) extremely stressful and mentally draining. I let this carry over way too much, into my non-work life and into my Yoga. This resulted in lots of mental distractions, physical missteps, and a generally bad quality of life. Kind of depressing, I know.
So, I’m happier now than I was two weeks ago. I’m more focused than I was two weeks ago. Quantifying how this happened is a little difficult. Of course, Cortny has been a big help, because she is probably the most supportative wife out there. Thanks Getting back to the Yoga, she even supports my crazy Yoga schedule. She joins me most of the time, but she does like to skip Saturday at 8am… I don’t really blame her. This support extends all he way to Mexico, as Cortny is also going to the teacher training (even though she doesn’t want to teach Yoga right now).
Over the last two weeks or so, I’ve been trying to change things. I can’t get rid of the stressful work environment (unless you need an assistant professor of computer science). What can I do? Let it go. Don’t react. Those are the tools that I have at my disposal. This is one reason I find Yogic philosophy so appealing, helpful tools for everyday life. I’m not leaving things up to someone else, I am in control. I don’t have to wait, I can make changes now. This is just a sampling of what we’re learning and what we will be learning. What really helps me, is that the asana practice (the physical part, what most people say then they mean Yoga) really ties it all together.
When we first started Yoga (intro series a year and a half ago), one of our teachers said that your Yoga mat is like a mirror. The mat is like a mirror in that how you are on your mat reflects how you are in the real world. Do you quickly react to adverse conditions, can you work through a difficult spot, can you keep your mind clear and focused? These are tough issues. What happens each time I come to the mat changes. Sometimes I can hold a tough pose for a long period of time and not notice, sometimes 3 or 4 seconds in and we can’t move on fast enough. The point is, I’m trying to make changes to get towards the non-reactive side, both in my Yoga and in my life.
It has been a long journey, and at times I feel like I’m still at the beginning. But here we are.
I can say that I’m ready to go to teacher training now. Not only because I have enough clothes for 16 practices (I get very sweaty…), but because I am mentally ready. I know that I am ready to let the experience happen and now to have expectations about what will happen, not because I can do every yoga pose with perfect alignment.
In 3 weeks, I start the teacher assisting program at our studio here. 24 hours of training over 2 weekends. I’m very excited about this for 2 reasons: it will give me 2 weekends to just let go and be present in the Yoga studio, and it should be a great preview to our week long teacher training experience.
Wow – longer entry than I intended, and it went a totally different direction. But I think I’m happy with the way it turned out! I’m sure that some people have wondered why I’m always going to Yoga, maybe this sheds some light on that.
My current mat, a Prana Eko Mat is showing some wear. It is a good mat, but it is almost a year old and is showing some wear. I’m pretty rough on a mat, using it 4 to 6 times a week with some serious sweating. I do use Yogi toes (anti-skid towel), because I have never been able to use just a mat.
So I was looking for something a little stronger. I decided to go with a set of Manduka products.
I ordered
I went with the Black Mat, because it is supposed to be the most long lasting, heavy duty, non-slipping or bunching up-est mat out there. The bag for… transport? I’m going to be carrying my mat onto a plane twice in the near future, so I needed a bag. The towels, because you can never have enough towels for hot Yoga. This will be the second mat towel in my collection, and my first real hand towel (that isn’t a bathroom hand towel). Now, I won’t have to do laundry every night! With my current yogi-toes and new mat towel, I can do the laundry every other night. I already have enough Yoga clothes for 4 days without washing, with quite ranging outfits, but 4 days none-the-less.
I will update with how everything works out.
Today we went to the beach – Golden Gardens on Puget Sound. This is extra cool because Golden Gardens is in Ballard, and pretty close to our house. It is nice to have a beach close by, even if we don’t make it there too often. And, on a day like to day – it was way crowded.
I also hard Cortny take some pictures of me doing some of my favorite Yoga poses on the beach. I’ve really gotten into arm balancing, because it brings together all the elements – mental and physical strength and concentration, breath, and core support.
So, here is me doing the forearm balance and crow pose.
Forearm Balance
Crow Pose
I am always full of crazy ideas. My latest might not be so crazy.
My first year with Yoga was good. I learned a lot, followed the journey without expectation, and had plenty of breakthroughs. Lots of physical breakthroughs. I’m stronger than I have ever been, have improved my balance many times over, and can move in ways I never thought possible. (Exhibit A). There is mental growth too, although this has come slower for me. I view this area as how we choose to meet challenges. Change how you meet challenges on the mat, and this changes how you meet challenges in the world.
I had always thought that teaching Yoga might be something that I want to do some day. And I thought that when I am able to return to academics, teaching Yoga would be a nice parallel activity. Two different outlets for teaching.
So, a few weeks ago, I went through the weekend teacher training at our studio here in Seattle. This was a great experience, but it was too short. This class mostly left me wanting more. More time to practice, more time to learn. This was also a good way to re-up my commitment to the Yoga practice, I’ve made it to class 10 out of the last 12 days (assuming I don’t forget to go at 4:30 today).
Follow this path a little further, and I’ve sent in my application for the Baptiste level 1 teacher training in Mexico. Details on what exactly goes on there are not readily available, this is a good thing. Everyone that I know who has been says that it is an amazing experience.
What is even more exciting? Cortny has decided to apply for the teacher training as well. Hopefully, we will both get accepted and go through this together. She isn’t sure about teaching, but this is the first step both in teaching and deciding if you want to teach.
We found out about acceptance within two weeks. Will keep you updated.
