To Rouse Them

Wrapped up Yoga Teacher Training this past weekend, wow! It was bittersweet, for sure.

I am happy about having another weekend to rest but I will miss my mat mates and the intense learning experience (with deadlines).

For our final weekend, we had to turn in our 30 class log, assists/adjustments and Seva project paperwork. Kept thinking that surely I had missed something and that not all boxes were checked but that was untrue.

Some of my mates brought their children for Family Yoga on Saturday and it was an amazing class and I see why Stacy enjoys teaching children so much. Stacy is a great trainer but she's even better with children.

We also practiced on Sunday, took group pictures, had exit interviews and were presented with our official yoga teacher certificates, wow!

Yesterday, I taught a 30 minute class at work and, later on, taught a relay-style class with some of my classmates. The studio has had a couple of relay classes and they're usually around the holiday and to benefit an organization. This time the class was to celebrate our graduation plus to benefit one of my classmate's Seva project, Paraquad.

My classmate, Roxanne, has actually reached our group to see if someone else is able to teach classes as well. It's during the work day so I would need to figure out the logistics.

On another note, some good news is that yoga is covered under my sound therapy insurance so I don't need to look around for that. The insurance industry, ugh.

More good news... Sequencing is starting to make a little more sense. Transitions will pop into my head. I would have to practice the sequence before it would occur to me to put in a transition pose. I still practice the sequence but when I'm writing it, I'll be like Oh, I need a child's pose here or a downward-facing dog there. 

There were six of us that taught in the relay last night and my role had already been decided as Stacy told the studio owner to put me in the "restorative spot" with singing bowls. It went well and everyone really liked the post-savasana chimes that I used to rouse them.

In other news, we celebrated Pi Day at work.

Practicing

Today's Classroom

Because of yoga teacher training, I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare for today's yoga class.

Skipped swimming yesterday, wrote a sequence then practiced it.

Practicing a sequence totally makes a difference as it allows you to see where the gaps are as far as transitions and it also allows you to see how much time the sequence is going to take and, ultimately, if the sequence is safe and makes sense.

As a trainee, there is the urge to rush through teaching but that's the opposite of what you should be doing and, as Stacy says, you also have to respect the silences.

The anatomy of sequencing made more sense to me despite having less time to write it. I intuited what pose would come next and I didn't use every pose when I taught but Stacy also told us to be okay with not using everything that we've written and, overall, it's better to have too much than not enough.

Went to Zumba today and the teacher forgot steps in several songs and that was a sign for me that stuff happens.

I've been enjoying playing my singing bowls through savasana. Felt more confident about that today too. It’s amazing what happens when you’re patient and mindful. Was glad that I set a silent alarm on my Fitbit as I'd forgotten to disable the lock screen on my iPod and, therefore, couldn't see what time it was. As a general rule, I don't want to fidget with an electronic item while trying to teach. I read, somewhere, that gadgets, especially a phone, is a reminder of busyness.