Live, Run, Grow

I can’t believe my two and a half months of yoga teacher training is almost done!  This week was our last week of class time, next week we review and have our practical test and the following week is our written test!

I feel like we have learned so much, I don’t even know where to begin with my studying, I have A LOT of reviewing to do!  We’ve learned so much more than just yoga poses – we learned about yoga philosophy, chakras, anatomy, being in the business of yoga and even teaching yoga to kids!  And best of all I’ve pretty much gotten to spend the past two and a half months in yoga clothes!  : )

This weekend I’m going to be spending a lot of time getting ready for the practical part of the test.  We were broken into groups of 4 and each randomly chose which 15 minute block of a 1 hour beginner class we need to prepare to teach.  I, of course, chose the beginning of the class which is probably the part I am most nervous about, but as our teacher said, “you choose the part you need the most” (or as my husband reminded me, “the wand chooses the wizard Mr. Potter!”).

The beginning of a class includes setting an intention or theme for the class, usually with a quote or reading by the teacher.  I’ve always been nervous about teaching this part of class because yoga teachers always sound so wise and profound when they’re talking at the beginning of class…I’m worried I’m going to come off preachy (or even worse like a 5 year old!).

My teacher recommended finding a passage, story or quote that speaks to you, if you identify with it you’re less likely to come off insincere or preachy when talking about it.  Be true to yourself and your inner teacher.

I got out all of my yoga books and was about to start searching when I knew exactly what I was looking for.  I love yoga, I’m excited to teach and share yoga with others, but when it comes down to it I think I consider myself a runner (albeit still a relatively new runner) who loves the practice and benefits of yoga.

So, it’ll come as no surprise that instead of a yoga book my quote came from The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life.  I even wrote a post about the quote awhile back, so I went to search for it (now here’s where it gets WEIRD!), amazingly I wrote the post exactly a year ago TODAY (or yesterday by the time this gets posted).  Just weird and as far as I’m concerned that settled it, that’s the quote I’m going with.

I’ll share the quote and my plan on how I’m going to incorporate it into my class in a few days once I work through my thoughts a bit more, but I think it’s perfect for this!

I can’t believe just a few months ago I was still struggling to decide if taking this class was the right decision for me and now it’s almost over!  Our group has definitely had a few curve balls thrown in to our training – two weeks without class due to Hurricane Sandy and one of our two teachers leaving the studio halfway through our program – but it’s been a great journey with these 20 women that I’m sure I will never forget!