Yoga Teacher Training #10

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I would not say this weekend was marvelous, but then that would be negative right?! I don’t want that. This weekend was stressful. Mostly I am just so relieved it is over and honestly things turned out well, so maybe I could say marvelous for the outcome. Yoga is/was stressing me out. I know that is the opposite of what should happen with yoga, but it is the truth.

Friday at the office was a pretty normal day except that half the people were working at home because we got like 12 inches of snow on Thursday (no joke!!) and the roads were terrible even on Friday. Reasons why I am glad I walk to the train station. How is this the day after?!? The only reason you can tell the difference between the sidewalk and street was that bridge of snow in between.

Luckily the city looked a bit better. I was just hoping that the buses were still running and they were.

I caught a bus after work and headed to the yoga studio. But first I ran into a fellow yogi and we headed to the little tea/coffee house by the studio. I did not want to buy anything, so waited for her and we found a seat and talked while I ate my dinner I brought. We were discussing how our yoga training is quickly coming to an end and while we are sad, we both can’t wait to have weekends back and get back to other exercises. I am glad I am not the only one. Lately I have just felt so out of balance with solely doing yoga. I miss my weight lifting, swimming and Zumba time. As much as I love the yoga studio environment, I miss the gym environment.

Personally, after yoga teacher training is over, I plan to take a bit of a break from yoga. It is a good time for me to do so as summer approaches and swimming time comes and hopefully I will find a new gym near my new apartment next month to add in some weight lifting/strength training. Once I get settled into a new routine, maybe I will think about some subbing for yoga classes, but not making any commitments right away.

So back to the training…this was weekend 10 of 13. Friday evening we began with a student led practice, discussed what she did well and what to work on and then we wrote up a new sequence.

Saturday was my teaching day, so basically I did not sleep well Friday night. I woke up super tense, thinking of yoga cues in my head. There was so much pressure in my head that I had a slight headache even. It felt like when you have a cold and your head is all stuffed. Since I could hardly sleep I was up at 6:30am. I had time and made some pancakes and bacon.

Then I headed to the store. Due to the fact that the streets were still not the best I chose a closer grocery store to shop at and stopped at Whole Foods on my way back since their produce always looks better. Grocery shopping helped me to de-stress a bit, then I came home and threw together a quick chickpea salad.

Cooking/baking definitely helps me de-stress. It is no wonder I find myself so happy in the kitchen and spend a good amount of my time in there when I am home. I was excited for this new simple recipe and how colorful my food was. It’s the simple things in life.

I then had a half hour before I was heading out. I had something quick to eat and tried to run through my practice quickly but I kept messing up so I decided I already knew it well enough to teach. In the morning we had also received an email that we were switching the order of things for the day and I was no longer teaching first due to our workshop. So I would have to wait. I felt like it was back to a time in high school when you had a test but it wasn’t until the last period of the day and all you were able to think about in every class was that test.

What actually happened was we began with a discussion of the homework and received our tests back from the last time. I actually was surprised I did so well. I was really happy to just forget that test ever happened, but I was pleased with my grade. Then we did a 2 hour arm balance workshop. I really wanted to be present during this workshop as I love arm balances these days. I have realized that other than crow and side crow, most of the arm balances I have learned in the last 1 year of my doing Instagram yoga challenges. Pretty cool to think about how many things I have learned through Instagram that I never would have expected.

It was a really sunny day on Saturday which was great except that the studio was full of like 30 people and it got hot quickly. Normally I do not mind the heat, but my hands were sweating so much from the arm balancing and my nerves for teaching later. I was becoming dehydrated quickly. I tried to drink water throughout, but I still wasn’t getting enough. Then I got hungry and the end of the arm balance workshop was really rough. Afterwards, I immediately grabbed my chickpea salad and scarfed that down and a luna bar. I was still hungry and thirsty and just not feeling great. I ran over to Whole Foods next door (too convenient) without even wearing my coat because I was so hot. The fresh air felt great. I didn’t know what I wanted to eat, but I grabbed a ginger cookie, some kale from the salad bar and a cold bottle of water. I hate buying bottled water, but on yoga days to have a cold bottle of water is sometimes necessary. I ate the kale, saved the cookie and drank the water over the next hour. While at first I felt stuffed, once my food and water started settling as we worked with props, I felt sooo much better.

At 6pm, I finally got to teach. At first as the teaching time was approaching I was nervous, but my head felt a bit better thanks to some distractions throughout the day. After 5 minutes or so into my teaching, I felt more confident, I had practiced and honestly I think it went pretty well, except for my forgetting to change the lights in the middle of the class. That was one thing I couldn’t really practice at home since I didn’t have a dimmer. Everyone clapped at the end and gave me helpful tips. I am sure a lot of it will come with practice.

Then it was time to head home. WOW what a long day! I was relieved to be done teaching and relax, but I was exhausted. The wait at the train station felt like forever, but finally I was home. I drank a giant glass of water, brushed my teeth and headed to bed. There was no time for anything else. I just needed sleep.

 

I woke up Sunday morning feeling more refreshed and my head less heavy which was good. I didn’t have anything specific I had to do in the morning so I just relaxed. I drank tons of water and ate all morning. I think I was still making up for Saturday. My hips were super sore, so every time I lifted my knee up towards my chest, like when putting on boots or something, it was hard.

At 11:30 I headed to the train station. I caught up on blog reading while waiting for the train and then spent the train time writing. On Sundays due to the train schedule we always have like 40 minutes before training begins, so me and one other yogi headed into Whole Foods. I still felt like I needed more food and water so I grabbed a zucchini muffin and water which was finished before we even started at 1:30. I felt so much better than Saturday!

We began with a student led practice and then discussed how it went. Then we had an intro to backbend before a quick break before meditation for 2 hours. The 4 hours flew by! The nice thing about the time change was that it was still nice and sunny when we got out at 5:30 and walked to the train. Spring is around the corner!! We waited at the train station and talked for a bit then I read on the train home.

I got home and I just couldn’t believe the day was over. I felt like I had only been up for a few hours but the day was gone. Once I got home I spent a while writing, which was much needed. I think I am still processing everything that happened Saturday, but at least there is one less thing to worry about. Now I am working on our written sequence assignment. My goal is to have this done by the end of this week and then time to review it the next week. Hopefully by writing out this goal I will accomplish it. I believe I can if I set my mind to it though 🙂

And here we are back at Monday. Let’s hope the weather predictions of getting to 50 degrees are correct and there are no surprise 12 inches of snow in the forecast!! I am enjoying that the sun is making its return for Spring weather.

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