Tag Archives: Yoga

Yoga Teacher Training – Weekend Six

We are officially more than half way through our Yoga Teacher Training!  I can’t believe it! You always know when you go into something like this that it will probably fly by, but then when it does, ah! I wish I could freeze time or at least just slow it down during our training weekends.

This past weekend was sort of a new chapter for myself and my Yogaversity family.  We began our second half of the training “Descend into the Heart of Others.”  We dove head first into TEACHING!

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Mitchel and Tracy shared with us their process going into a class.  We went through the three major focuses of a yoga class; creating inspiration, having clear direction. and creating a meaningful and thought provoking class, ultimately leading to a transformational experience for your students.

  • We learned about sequencing and how to put together a healthy class where the student is ready and prepared for each pose.
  • We learned about adjustments and how to put students in proper alignment in some basic poses.
  • We learned about effective communication, a significant part of teaching yoga!  Ironically, this is probably what is most uncomfortable for me.  Learning to use my words and my voice in a clear, confident, and concise way in order to deliver a good class is going to take me way out of my comfort zone.

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Yoga Teacher Training – Weekend Five

This past weekend was Weekend Five of my Yoga Teacher Training a.k.a Yogaversity.  I can’t believe we are half way through! That means 100 hours down, 100 to go.  Ahh!

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I have learned so, so much in these first five weekends about my own practice and the proper alignment of the asana practice as a whole.  It’s crazy to look back and realize that for two years I may have been doing poses with improper alignment or simply just not known the reason for that alignment.

Knowing that reason or the “why” is something I’m really coming to value during this process.  I’m so grateful to be learning from teachers who have such an immense depth of knowledge.  If I’m going to become a yoga teacher I’ve realized that it’s important to me to know where Yoga comes from and how it’s gotten to where it is today.  And let me tell you, there is A LOT to learn between the two.

This weekend we covered…

Reviewing the rest of our manual which included inversions (!) and seated forward bends and twists.  I definitely need the most practice with inversions.  Going upside down, and the hesitation my body faces, is definitely mental.  I know I just have to practice, practice, practice, and get out of my own head!

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Yoga Teacher Training – Weekend Four

Well my fourth weekend of Yoga Teacher Training (a.k.a Yogaversity) is here and gone.  I can’t believe it’s already March!  Time is flying by as I predicted it would.  It’s just another reminder to myself to live in the present moment.  Not to wish away the weekdays, or weeks in between training.  Not to wonder what it will be like when we get to the weekend 7 or 8.  Just to take it all in.

These words have seemed to stick with me recently… 

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“It was one of the best days of my life, a day during which I lived my life and didn’t think about my life at all.” Jonathan Safran Foer

We had an awesome weekend learning about…

  • Backbends
  • Lakshmi, the goddess of good fortune, wealth, and inner and outer abundance
  • History of Patanjali’s Classical Yoga and beyond
  • Nomadic Poses
  • Sanskrit!

It was such a heart opening weekend (I’m seeing a common trend here).  Because there is so much information I learn during these weekends, I’ll stick to the trend of keeping it short and sweet.  

Here are a few things I learned this weekend.

Thank you to Alley Maher, our official Yogaversity photographer.  How beautiful are her pictures?!  

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Earlier yoga (around the 1970’s) consisted primarily of seated poses.  Backbends have become more prevalent in just the past 10-15 years.

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