Yoga Teacher Training: The FINAL week!
"Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality." - Earl Nightingale
A sankalpa is a statement to live by - a commitment to support our highest truth. Yet, we so often can’t see/face/accept the truth in ourselves – good or bad. A sankalpa can be a theme or a goal you set for yourself. We were asked the first day of teacher training to write down a sankalpa for ourselves. We turned these in and were told we'd get it back the last day of class to assess how we felt at the beginning and end of teacher training. My first reaction was confusion and my mind went blank. It’s kind of like the interview question, “what is your greatest weakness”. Most people give an example of something that really portrays them in a positive light and nobody really tells the interviewer their greatest weakness.
The discovery of a sankalpa requires listening to what you already desire and is there waiting to be heard. It's not something that requires a great amount of thought – just listen. After I heard the request to establish a sankalpa for myself, I tried to clear my mind and I heard one word – enough. I tried to think further because I didn’t know at the time if that was even a real sankalpa and that’s all I heard over and over again – enough - you are enough. I haven’t felt like enough for a while. It made sense even though it was hard to accept and write down on paper. So, there it was – my sankalpa - I am enough.
Highlights
The last week of teacher training came with mixed emotions for me! I was so excited to finish training and get my certification, but I was also sad to think I wouldn’t see everyone each week. The week started out with a business of yoga class and our final written and teaching exams. The written exam was more difficult than I expected, but when we were done and could look back at everything we learned in the past 8 weeks, it was really gratifying! Everyone did well in our partner teaching exams and that was it!
We ended the week with a celebration! Our instructors treated us to a class taught round robin style and we opened our eyes to find a little gift from CPY along with a Gerber daisy - which just so happens to be my favorite flower!
Our graduation gift from CPY!
We all brought food to share and took tons of pictures. We were asked to bring something to share with the class to sum up our experience. One of my classmates is a dancer and she performed a dance for us that was so beautiful! We were like paparazzi snapping pictures of her dancing. One of our creative and talented instructors gave us beaded bracelets she had made from all the instructors as a gift to us - check out her store on Etsy! I love my bracelet which represents harmony and balanced chakras - I wear it almost every day and it makes me smile when I look at it.
One student shared an exercise in which you said something positive about yourself and then shared something positive about someone else. I’m going to be honest, before teacher training, I wouldn’t have been so comfortable with this, but it turned out to be very powerful and nicely summed up our teacher training experience. We laughed, cried and felt genuine gratitude towards each other.
I can’t explain just how much yoga teacher training enhanced my life and I owe much of that to the awesome group of women I lucked into being around for 8 weeks. The instructors were all wonderful in different ways and gave us a well rounded experience. I took classes taught by 4 of them and they are now all my favorite teachers! I have so much admiration and respect for each of them!
"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." William Arthur Ward
As a student...
This week I took the last class of my 60 class requirement to obtain my certification! We finished teacher training a few weeks ago, so it was just a matter of completing my classes! I have to admit, I took a little break from everything for a few days around the holidays, but I almost made my goal of completing class 60 before 2018!
I've already made a couple of playlists I'm excited to use in my own classes and have toyed with different sequences so my students won't get bored! In order to teach at CPY, you are required to take their extensions class which is another 5 weeks of training and teaching. Even though I've decided not to do extensions right now, I might at a later date. I'm very excited for summer to arrive so I can get my SUP yoga certification! The opportunities are endless.
My aha moment...
To my classmates - a tremendously talented group of women! I knew from the first night our group was something special. We all had the same goals and love for yoga. I love that I have a group of people I can talk to about chakras and yamas without thinking I’m crazy and will match my excitement and curiosity. I sincerely hope we all stay in touch and do many yoga things together in the future!
What about that sankalpa we were handed back on our last day of class? I read mine - I am enough. When I read it this time, it didn't make me sad or feel weak - I felt stronger. I'm not there yet, but teacher training gave me so much confidence and learning more about meditation, chakras, yoga sutras along with my teaching skills make me confident I can share the power of yoga and feel like enough. I have the tools - all I have to do is listen.