I am about to leave for Advanced Teacher Training with my amazing teacher Ana Forrest. I have been teaching for over twelve years now, completed three different trainings and hundreds of hours of Continuing Ed., but I am still scared! I know this training will be intense physically, and anytime I work with Ana I evolve. Cue David Bowie singing Ch-ch- ch-Changes.
Daily for almost twenty years now, I have practiced gracefully surfing change on my yoga mat. No amount of self help and therapy prepared me better for my biggest adult challenges than my yoga teacher trainings. I follow Ana Forrest’s teachings as well as classical yoga philosophy. I now teach yoga philosophy and the yoga sutras as part of our Stellarflow Teacher Training. Because I frequently feel that my life is fraught with constant change and transitions – some I move through gracefully others I go kicking and screaming – these teachings are my life raft. They keep me floating on the stormy seas of change. When we can meet our challenges with curiosity and willingness to bend into uncomfortable shapes, we expand rather than contract. In my experience, there is no greater truth than feeling my breath and aliveness. No matter what transition or card of fate I’ve been dealt, when I stop to breathe I connect to my inner wisdom. Then I can rest in the seat of my intuition.
When we launched our first Teacher Training two years ago, I felt the trepidation of both starting something new and holding it in such high regard. I had already been teaching for over ten years, and I knew that I had a unique perspective on teaching to share. Yet, it remains a huge responsibility to offer young teachers their foundation. Teaching yoga is a bit like playing the drums – each hand and foot doing something slightly different yet everything coming together to create a solid and steady backbone for the whole composition. In any one moment while teaching I am tracking multiple layers of information: deepening my own breath; seeing anatomical alignment; feeling the energy of the students both as individuals and as a group; talking the class in and out of the asanas in intelligent sequence; and laying healing hands on students. Teaching yoga is always deeply moving, inspiring and rejuvenating for me.
You don’t have to want to teach in order to take part in a yoga teacher training. The only guarantee is that you will not be the same person as when you went in – evolution, baby! I actually believe it can be better to take a foundational teacher training without the pressure of launching a career. Teacher training will take your practice to the next level: learn how to keep yourself safe in any yoga class; figure out how to heal your own injuries; study the philosophy behind the physical practice of yoga. Take concrete steps toward changing your life and your relationships: begin to bring a sense of magic and ceremony into your life through setting intention and creating sacred space; learn to speak with passion, and walk your path with integrity; cultivate a deeper breath and stay grounded in the most challenging of situations.
We have now graduated two classes from our Stellarflow Teacher Training, and many of those graduates are already teaching, a few are assisting me in my classes while others are creating volunteer opportunities to teach yoga in their communities. Many of them are continuing with their careers away from the yoga studio, and simply enjoying the depth of their yoga practice. All of them walk their path with more grace and confidence.
So if you are ready to fast forward your own personal evolution, I invite you to consider teacher training with me and my fantastically skilled colleagues. Click here for more details.
Hi Michelle, looking for a Yoga Teacher training and thought of you. When is your next one?