You Cannot Prepare

Went to observe and assist a yoga class for one of my YTT mates' service project when a woman, Stephanie, with vision impairment approached us. A woman that Stephanie knows was looking for a yoga teacher for National Blind Sports Day.

I bellyached about minding my own business and the fact that there are more qualified yoga teachers in this area but after looking up information and seeing the percentage of blind and visually impaired individuals who don't get regular exercise, I agreed to teach. Overall, it just felt meant to be -- seeing that I was out of my normal routine when I met Stephanie and given my love of exercising.

Thankfully, when I reached out to my other classmates, someone else agreed to assist.

National Blind Sports Day was yesterday. I have a certain amount of naivete that works in my favor at times.

Some of the conditions for yoga yesterday:

Newbies

Outdoors

20 people ranging in age from 10 to 65

We ended up not having yoga at the park because there weren't enough staff at the school that hosted the event for some of the staff to be at the park and for others to be at the school. I understood, from a logistics point, why the organizer wanted to have yoga in the park but I'm glad that we ended up practicing in the school's gymnasium because it was a challenging enough class without adding the outdoors.

Back to my naivete...

I prepared for that class but there was no real way to prepare. I'm not sure if I should have even planned a sequence. About a month ago, I watched a video on Yoga Alliance about adaptive yoga with Matthew Sanford and he pretty much said that you cannot prepare your way through an adaptive yoga class. What he said about it being a collaborative process is so true.

What I didn't want to do yesterday was ruin anyone's first yoga experience.

So many thoughts have crossed my mind -- before and after the class. As Jocelyn said, we could have easily used two other teachers and I wondered if I was doing harm by agreeing to teach the class with less than four teachers.

Forgot a few things like offering people an option during savasana. Luckily, Jocelyn's radar was intact and she caught that and offered options.

I'm glad that I took my singing bowls. While I played, Jocelyn provided savasana assists and she went around the room with lavender oil which smelled amazing.

My strategy might not have been the best but my intentions were good and I'm going to give myself a break.  I also think there's that part of me that needs to take chill out a bit and not take things so seriously.

Yoga Teacher Essentials

Double Backed

Interesting and lovely occurrences today.

Two of my co-workers emailed me to say that they couldn't make it to yoga but they've been enjoying the classes.

Another co-worker told me that Wednesday is one of her favorite days for two reasons and yoga is one of the reasons.

After class, a fourth co-worker double backed to tell me what she had appreciated about the class.

It's as if they knew that I had been feeling like an impostor of late...

Decided to get a logo made. Curiosity got the best of me. Here's part of the logo with a watermark still on it.

I like the way it turned out.

Well, Warm Up Then...

As I prepared for Zumba yesterday, went to retrieve my water bottle from the car and decided to see if my mother wanted to go to the Botanical Garden instead since we are having unseasonably warm weather. My mother enjoyed herself and quickly came up with one of her constituents (my word) that she can take on an outing to the Botanical Garden...

My favorite statue in the Linnean House surrounded by poinsettias. 

String beans?

Bells Chimes at MO Bot

Garden Glow Prop

A Caribbean Feel in the Climatron

Went to a yoga adjustment workshop after vising the garden. I was excited and terrified about the workshop but it turned out much better than I expected.

The whole yoga assist/adjustment thing is interesting because many teachers don't give adjustments anymore and most teachers only give them to students that they know very well and I can totally see why.

I like the advice of our workshop teacher, Kim. Don't give anyone any creepy, tentative assists and Stacy, our YTT trainer, has pretty much said the same thing. Their advice is to get consent, let them know what body part you'll be touching and do the assist firmly. You should also get student feedback and even when you don't get verbal feedback, you need to tune in to people's body language.

Overall, it was a great workshop with lots of good advice, including that if you don't feel called to give assists or don't feel comfortable doing it, you can totally opt out as it's not a necessary part of being a yoga teacher.

I also recalled what Stacy said about observing people practice yoga and how it's is an intimate experience. Kim asked me to get into Wide Legged Forward fold so that she could demonstrate an adjustment. I heard someone point out the position of my head and feet. One of my regular teachers came over to offer a block and experimented with putting it at different heights.

Head and Toes, not relaxing...

Kim said that she's noticed that even in savasana, the final relaxation pose, that people have a hard time letting go. As we continued to discuss, Stacy simply said It's a known issue.  All that to say, we are learning and looking at bodies and alignment and gets intimate. It totally felt like there was a hot, spotlight on me...

But it was so exciting when we talked about Pigeon pose and external and internal rotation. It was like an episode of CSI and also a reminder that none of us know all the answers.

Example of an adjustment...

At the beginning of the workshop, someone asked Kim if we were going to warm up and she asked us if we felt the need and, to someone's affirmative response, she said, Well, warm up then. Let's give it 10 minutes.  Kim is the opposite of pomp and circumstance.

The Year That Was

In February went to Montego Bay with my mother and aunt. The most memorable moment was picking up a passenger on several walks who showed me the real Jamaica.

In between February and May, my mother didn't feel well and I wondered if I should sign up for yoga teacher training -- (YTT) originally slated to start in March but ended up starting in June. I take the plunge -- never imagining that I will make it past month three.

My aunt Debbie wishes that we would have waited until her spring break to go to Jamaica and I promise that I will go on a trip with her so when she asks me if I would like to go to Las Vegas in July, I agree. My cousin, Chiquita, also joins us. I enjoy the trip and am in awe of the Valley of Fire.

Somewhere along the way, I get fascinated by singing bowls. I'm sure the fascination has a lot to do with the sound meditations that I went to. Unbelievably, I sign up for a sound therapy training.

It's kind of funny. One of my sound sisters, mentioned collecting yet another certificate in a long line of certificates and I realize that I have a few certificates:

1). Healing Touch, Level 1

2). Sound Therapy Training

Right now, I am in love with sound therapy.

For lunch today, went to Hello Juice and Smoothie with a fellow yogi and got the Match Hemp bowl with peppermint, banana and cacao. Next up, was a  4:30 p.m. yoga class. Knew that it was going to be more intense than I like but I wanted to meet a YTT goal.

Chiquita had me cracking up because she thought that there wouldn't be very many people at the New Year's Eve yoga class. I assured her that yogis like to reflect and set intentions. The class was, of course, packed -- to the point that the teacher had to adjust the heat which still didn't work because there was so much energy in the room; we totally fogged up the windows. As expected, the class was intense but fun. We also had a DJ. It was a perfect way to pay homage to New Year's Eve.

When You Don’t Feel Like Sitting Up

Took a different way to work to see this hibiscus...

The teacher, Kelli, is about 4'11, petite and all muscle.  I've heard about her before but I'm pretty sure that I'm relatively safe in a Basics and Beyond class. Although, the beyond part can be played with...

The Kundalini teacher (who taught the class before Kelli's) explains that her class is new and that she enjoyed Kelli's 15 minutes during the special relay class that happened during the studio's one-year anniversary but that she is strictly Kundalini and will  have to work up to participating in Kelli's class...

Kelli checks in with everyone and hands out assist/no assist coasters. It's yogi's choice for how we start -- in easy pose or on our backs. I go with the back because, frankly, I didn't feel like sitting up.  The beginning of class is so sweet. Kelli asks us to remember when yoga first came on our radars and what kept us going back to our mats; she asks us to connect to that feeling.

I almost laughed when Kelli said that we were doing "Turbo Dog" -- I'd never heard downward-facing dog referred to in that manner but, you know, I'm better at taking care of myself so I modified. Plus, my body had not fully recovered from the hours of yoga practice that took place last weekend.

Super Funny

When I went to deal with a down payment for yoga teacher training, saw one of my fellow yoga peeps, Deena, who likes to "give me the business" when she doesn't see me for a while.

Deena told me how she sets a goal of 20 yoga classes per month; otherwise, she slacks. As she told me that I wondered why she hadn't signed up for training but I, who'd only been to two classes in the last two months, was preparing to undertake an almost year-long training.

Life is "funny" that way, I guess.

Another time when I dealt with a payment, I handed an envelope to the studio owner and the lead trainer, Stacy, said What is that? Your resignation letter? For some reason, I found that super funny. Another comment about seeing me later because I probably had some wall to climb was equally funny...

Recently finished Trevor Noah's book, Born a Crime and really "enjoyed" it. Enjoy gets quotes because it was an intense book. From now on, the books that I will read will have the work yoga somewhere on the cover and a lot of them will be intense too. I will say, though, after taking four yoga classes in one week, I felt much calmer.

It was nice to have my weekend back. Went to Zumba, shopped, cleaned the living room, washed loads of clothes then had pool time with the 'Fugee and that was just on Saturday...

At work today, the staff celebration committee hosted and Eid celebration. To my surprise, my coworker to my right started to put henna on someone. I didn't know she had skills that. I asked her to put a design on me. She kept apologizing because the tube was not cooperating but I had no complaints because I don't apply henna at all and I can't draw.

I can see why henna is used ritually at wedding parties etc.; it's a bonding experience. I had such a nice time talking with coworkers that I don't see regularly. I asked one intern who is super calm and happy if she meditates and she said “No, but I pray.”

Someone made baklava happen. I didn't have any though...