Teacher Training Begins Despite My Mood Swing!

Yesterday I woke up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready for a big day - last night was the first night of my Yoga Teacher Training! I was going to finish packing up my room by 1pm so our handyman, Martin could paint it before my move, and do errands in the afternoon and then be ready by 7 to be in San Francisco for class at 8. I was so excited even the storm clouds outside of my window made me happy as I pulled open the blinds in the morning.

Yet as the rain began to fall, so did my mood. And both fell hard! I got everything done but was just feeling heavy and put through the ringer as I completed each task on my to-do list. It didn't help that my errand companion, Brendan, was also feeling sour that traffic was crazy because of the weather and that, around 4:30, I got a call from Ellen, whose car had been stolen. As I drove back to my house from taking her to the Berkeley Police station, I tried hard, in vain, to psych myself up about the evening. Even as I scored a parking spot right in front of the Stanyan St. Yoga Tree studio, I was not in the mood for the first day of class like I used to be.

It wasn't until I stepped through the doors of the studio and was welcomed by the faces of 15 of my to-be fellow students that I snapped out my funk and remembered why I was there in the first place...yoga inspires me!

I quickly began to grin uncontrollably as we all signed in and got some of our first required materials. It wasn't long until the studio was filled with over 40 of us, all from different walks of life but here to undergo the same process of learning about yoga.

We began the night with a welcome from Darren Main, our lead instructor, and the two founders of Yoga Tree, Tim and Tara Dale. It was clear as they spoke how much these folks really care about our experience and the quality of this training. It was also clear as Darren spoke how much the outcome of this program depends on our input as students. I'm going to have a lot of homework over the next 6 months!

After intros and going through our requirements, we all got to know one anothers names, where we all live and why we're here. Reasons ranged from wanting to deeping individual practices to a desire to start a whole new school of yoga. I fall somewhere in the middle, knowing for sure that that I'm here to deepen my practice and very open to teaching when I'm done. More on that in another post.

I've got to run and get to day two, but I guess the take away here is my mood yesterday was similar to what they say about the weather in Arkansas: You don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it'll change. It was worth the wait to experience the burst of energy I got from training last night and I hope that the next 10 minutes holds more of the same.

Here goes everything...

At the beginning of 2010 I left a great job during a recession, gave up my iPhone and decided to move to a more expensive apartment. Its all in the name of becoming a yoga instructor. Some may call these changes foolish, stupid or even crazy, and its possible that I am all of these things. This choice however, call it what you will, is something I can tell will change my life.

In the past few weeks, since I've been increasing the number of times I go to yoga from 1-2x a week to 3-4x, I've felt shifts in my mind and my body that I just never thought were possible. I'm beginning to really want to move my body on a regular basis and more than ever I can feel the impact that the food I eat has on my mood and my ability to do the things I want to do. Aside from periodic episodes of exercise and participation in some team sports in college. I've never considered myself an athletic girl until about a year ago, when I began to practice Bikram yoga at least once a week.

Beginning February 26th, I'll be shaping my practice and learning the fundamentals of yoga from a handful of instructors at Yoga Tree in San Francisco. To be honest, I don't know a lot about this program. I chose it because the timing and structure were right for what I wanted to accomplish. It meets every Friday night (8-10pm), Saturday and Sunday (1-4pm) for 6 months and during that time I will develop a yoga practice that I plan to sustain (and build upon) for the rest of my life. At the end of it, God willing I pass my tests, I'll also have a 200-hour certification to teach yoga. I'm taking classes at Yoga Tree and like what I've found - mostly vinyasa with a lot of chanting and storytelling woven into the classes.

To support myself while my training is going on, I'm also doing some work that has thrown me for a lifestyle loop. After a little more than two years of fundraising for progressive non-profits, I now spend my days playing with, feeding and changing diapers for an 8-month old named Mira OR creating invoices for a company that is run by a wonderful woman I met on BART out of her home in Berkeley. And, despite the hassles of Cobra and my current baby-induced cold, these dramatically different days have been like a breath of fresh air. I've realized how easy it is to assume your world view is just like everyone else's. Au contraire, I'm learning, my day-to-day activities have a huge impact in shaping both my body and my mind.

I want to share the ups and downs of the next six months here so I can keep a log of these changes. After all, I did major in History. I hope you enjoy my insights and that you share your reactions to my posts, either below or face to face.

Deep thoughts about the picture above: I saw a dog doing what this dog is doing the other day and thought "That movement looks so natural for him." Now, this may seem like a given, since the yoga posture that he's doing is called "downward facing dog" but the image is something I want to carry with me to remind me that movement, on the mat or anywhere else, comes naturally to me as a human being and I don't have to be afraid to go where my body moves me...