Yoga Teacher Training: Weekend 1
The 200 hour yoga teacher training course that I enrolled on takes place over 13 weekends in the course of a year. This format was absolutely perfect for me; I am a mum of three young children, my hubby works long hours and we have very little back-up childcare, so I was unable to jet off to an Indian ashram for a 4 week intensive course.
Now I have started the course, I would definately not want to do it that way anyway! There is sooo much to learn and I feel having time between classes allows the information to slowly sink in over the course of a few weeks before the next class.
If you are considering going to an Ashram to receive your teacher training, I would suggest you consider your own persoanl style of learning; would you be better with the ‘drip-feed’ approach whereby you receive smaller amounts of info and have more time to process it?
Or, maybe you have no responsibilites and are able to commit to a four week intensive course, where you can fully immerse yourself in the experience ….that may be the way that will work best for you. It will completely depend on your own personal circumstances and preferences, just something to consider fully before you make your decision.
Anyway….back to WEEKEND 1, Days 1 and 2
Day 1
On the first day of my yoga teacher training course, I was so nervous and excited that I hardly slept the night before. I was nervous about finding the studio, nervous about meeting my classmates, nervous about the level of yoga….nervous about everything really. But I needn’t have worried, I arrived on time, my new classmates (21 in the class), were all so friendly and nice, much more than nice, they are an amazing bunch of truly inspirational women. I knew instantly that we would all get along, and perhaps become lifelong friends. Our course tutor, a lovely guy, with years of yoga wisdom and experience. His enthusiasm and knowledge is truly inspiring. He presents the course in a professional and engaging manner, always keeping it light and fun. He did a great job of making us all feel relaxed and welcome.
We received our teaching folder and booklets with the course content and we were also given a timetable for the weekend which I loved, I like to know what’s happening next….and when it’s lunchtime 😉
After introducing ourselves to the group, we got stuck in to our first yoga asana practice. I had worried that it would be a stronger practice than I was used to, but it wasn’t at all, it was just enough to warm us up but it definately wasn’t a sweaty practice.
After our 90 minutes asana practice, it was straight into teaching practice! We were to teach each other in pairs….easy cross leg pose (sukhasana) and cat / cow pose (marijariasana / bitilasana). Easy peasy I thought. How wrong was I?! Oh my goodness, finding the words for a pose that you just do so easily and naturally was so much harder than I thought!! And we had notes in front of us to work from! This was going to be harder than I thought. BUT I loved it! I loved it so much. I was definately meant to be here.
Then it was lunch time, we were able to get properly chatting and get to know each other. So many inspiring ladies, all with their own reasons for being here. It was pure joy to meet people on the same wavelength and hearing all about their personal journeys and what brought them to yoga.
After lunch, it was more teaching practice and learning about relaxation techniques. It was so interesting to learn all this new knowledge and exciting to take away and put into practice.
We ended the day with a much needed, blissfully long, yoga nidra.
What a wonderful start to teacher training!
Day 2
The second day was even better than the first day. After our 90 minutes of asana pratice, we learnt a little about the history of yoga, the main currents of yoga and the five main paths of yoga.
After a lunch break we were intoroduced to our philosophy teacher, Michael; I was blown away by his wisdom and knowledge; he knows everything there is to know about yoga and the roots of yoga.
(Here’s a brief word about him from the studio he currently teaches in….”Michael is one of the most experienced and highly sought after teachers of meditation in Ireland. He has spent many years of study and reflection on this subject and offers the student an immense reservoir from which to draw. He draws from his many years of deep immersion in Gyana and Raja Yoga. He has studied extensively under Swami Nishchalananda Saraswatiof Mandala Yoga Ashram, taught Yoga philosophy, subtle anatomy and meditation in all the leading Yoga schools throughout Ireland. He will help inform, illuminate and guide, and through his living practice of what he preaches, inspire students to live a life with the practice of meditation at its centre. He teaches with immense-wisdom, compassion and humour”).
Michael introduced us to ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’, ‘The Bhagavad Gita’ and ‘The Upanishads’. He chatted about the history of yoga, the different schools of yoga and the main currents of yoga. Lots to take in. But we were assured, we shouldn’t get overwhelmed by it all, we would absorb lots of yoga wisdom naturally as the course progressed. We received a recommended reading list (I’ll do a post about that later), so we could read around the subject at home.
After a short break, we learnt a bit about Yoga Nidra then it was more teaching in pairs. We guided each other through a breath awareness meditation….being on the other side of this was very new to me, something I would have to work on, as aspiring yoga teachers need to find their own voice for guiding meditations.
We then talked about developing our own self practice and ensuring we made time every day for our own yoga, even if it is only 10 minutes. This part definately isn’t a problem for me; I am on my mat for at least 30 minutes every day, 6 days a week. (I acheive this by committing to being on my mat every night at the same time. I aim for 15 minutes but I’m always there longer. I go to 3 classes a week so on those days I don’t have a home practice. If I have something on in the evening, I get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning and do my home practice before everyone else is up).
After more teaching practice this afternoon, we discussed the reasons for keeping a journal. A journal can be of anything, a particular part of your life or a daily journal of your day or a journal of your yoga journey. I love to journal, I have a ‘Law of Attraction’ journal that I use daily for all my appointements and intentions for each day. I have recently started a ‘Yoga Journal’, one just for my yoga progress which also charts my menstral cycle and the phase of the moon (…another post on these coming soon 😉 ) and then I have this, my online blog of my yoga teacher training journey. Hmmm, upon reflection, that is a lot of journals….but hey, they are great for improving focus, providing insights, tracking development and for facilitating growth….who doesn’t need plenty of that? 😉
After chatting about journalling, we finished the weekend one with another beautifully long guided meditation (I think! I may have fallen asleep!! Yikes!!) What a wonderful weekend!
I couldn’t wait to the next teaching weekend!
