Sunday, January 27, 2013

The Journey....I'm Officially A Certified Yoga Instructor!

Yesterday I became a member of the first class to graduate from the LI Kula Yoga Center's first 200 hr yoga teacher training program! It was a long 6 months and had it's emotional ups and downs. But all of my hard work and efforts paid off.
I remember the thoughts flying in my head after our first full day..."what the hell am I doing her?!". I had no idea what I was signing up for or even why. I didn't even think that I wanted to teach at that point. I kept telling myself..."I'm only here to learn more" I really didn't know what was to come. As the weeks went on I became more and more fascinated. Having only been hardcore practicing for under a year, I had completely immersed myself into the philosophy and all the other aspects of yoga aside from the asanas.
I'll never forget our first teaching assignment  We were given it in class and had about an hour to prep it. It was only a short sequence...nothing too crazy. But the nerves were flowing in full force, how was I going to get up in front of my peers and teach them! When it was my turn I felt my face turn red, my voice got shaky, "oh no" I thought. Considering the nerves it went pretty well...only problem was breathing, demonstrating, and talking all at the same time. I didn't understand how linking all three things was ever going to be possible.
With practice and efforts this all became easier. Our next teaching assignment went so much better. I had a month to prep it, teach it, and practice. Speaking and demoing was so much easier this time. This is about when I start to think that I might be able to actually teach. As the weeks went on the teaching and round robins became slightly easier and easier.
Before I knew it, it was time to start prepping my final hour long class. I still cannot believe how fast those 6 months went.  I knew exactly what I wanted my apex to be. It was handstand, mainly because handstand was something that I had struggled with and through my teacher training journey I had be able to start kicking myself into it and began to love and become obsessed with going into the pose (side note: I now kick myself up into handstand at least once a day to make sure I don't loose it, haha.) I slowly began to build my sequence. Warm ups  shoulder openers, apex, cool downs oh and donkey kicks because sometimes it is just necessary to kick yourself in your own ass...and they are great intense handstand preps. On Thursday night I saw a quote that really just set the tone of this whole experience  "Life's not about the destination, but the journey".
This quote really just solidified everything. I felt almost at peace and ease when I saw it. I instantly knew that it needed to be in my opening and closing meditation of my class.
The day was so emotional and amazing at the same time. At the end of it all it was such a humbling and amazing journey to be on. I cannot wait to see what the next path holds for me.
*Special thanks to everyone at LI Kula Yoga: my amazing teacher Desiree, My amazing classmates (Linda, Beth, Stacey, Kristina, Lisa,and Ernie). You have all helped me grow and find myself!
<3 Jess

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