Is it really Monday already? The weekend kind of went by in a flash for me. I was running around in the little time I had in the mornings before yoga teacher training all weekend long.

Friday I packed my food bag, my yoga book bag and mat up and took the train to work.

Work couldn’t go by fast enough as I was excited for my evening of yoga teacher training. Finally 4:30 came and I decided to figure out the buses in Philly. I hopped on one bus and learned that my train pass works on the bus and then rode the bus half way to the yoga studio. I could have waited for another bus to basically be dropped off at the door of the studio but just decided to walk on Friday. It was beautiful outside. Maybe in the winter I will take both buses. Actually my company is moving a few blocks down in a month and then I have to figure out which bus to take again, so we will see.

My yoga studio is right next to Whole Foods and since I was an hour early, I stopped into Whole Foods, sat at a table and ate my dinner I brought and used their Wifi. After a half hour, I went over to the studio. I was the first one there of course and waited for another class to finish up before I could go in the studio and change, etc.

Eventually shortly after 6pm we started, as we were waiting for everyone to arrive. The first day we didn’t use our mats, just sat on blankets, played a name game and learned about what to expect and discussed our first book. We ended with a wonderful shavasana and were let out 20 minutes early which allowed me to get to the train station plenty of time before the train. Unfortunately the train schedule is not that great based on when the trainings end and since the train only comes once an hour in the late evening and weekends, if you miss that first train, you have to wait another hour. This will probably be the case most nights for me unfortunately.

I got home at 10pm and talked with my bf for a while on Skype before saying goodnight as I had a list of things to do in the morning before going to training.

Saturday I got up around 7am, made breakfast and headed to Wegmans. I got all my grocery shopping done, except I realized I forgot chicken stock for making shredded chicken. Luckily the yoga studio is next to Whole Foods and Superfresh which is another grocery store and I was able to pick that up later. After Wegmans, I took a quick walk over to Staples because we needed a binder for our yoga training manual. Then I created a quick cover for my binder and colored it. Yep I had time to color in the morning before leaving and I was quite proud.

 

 

I then had enough time to eat a bit of soup (something light since I wasn’t that hungry) while finishing Halloweentown 2 and then packed lots of snacks and a salad for my dinner. Then it was off to the train followed by 7 hours of teacher training. 7 hours looked like such a long day, but I have to say, it didn’t feel like 7 hours at all. We had multiple activities and we even started teaching in partners. It was awkward for everyone at first, but slowly we are learning how to switch up our words and describe the poses and sequence. It was only day 1 and by the end of the day, I definitely felt more comfortable with the sequence we were working on. Towards the end of the day, we started to learn adjustments. Adjustments are one of my favorite parts about going to a class at a studio. It is sometimes hard to tell whether your arm may be in the right place or you realize your hips are not exactly square and sometimes need a little push to see how it feels and then the next time the pose comes up, I try to readjust myself to get that feeling again.

We were all given a lot of information Saturday and now we have to find that balance when instructing, to not give too much info, but to give just enough that the class understands exactly what to do.

I feel like when I am in the teacher training, my mind is solely focused on yoga and I am really enjoying that. We have a wonderful group of people and I know over the next 6 months, we will really get to know each other, which I am excited about!!

Saturday evening I was able to walk to the train station with a few people from my class. I don’t mind walking around the city during the day, but in the dark and alone, I am not too fond of, so it was nice to have some company while walking to the train. Since we were all taking the same train as well, we had a good 40-50 minute wait together where we talked and the time passed by quickly. Another day was done and I got home shortly after 9pm. You would think I would have been exhausted but I somehow wasn’t and ended up cleaning up the kitchen and preparing snacks and even got my chicken going in the crockpot for overnight before finally heading to bed.

 

Sunday came and I definitely did not want to get out of bed. I actually got up at 6am to turn off the crockpot but then went back to bed until 7:30. Sunday morning was a bit more relaxing because I didn’t have to drive to the store and I planned it that way. I started my load of laundry and made a pancake breakfast, using up some of my FlapJack Protein Pancake mix. I loaded my breakfast with protein knowing that I would probably only have 2 main meals during the day and snack through lunch.

Then I did some meal prep, shredding the chicken I cooked overnight and roasting some veggies. I also prepared my lunch/dinner for yoga, making a chicken, avocado and red pepper wrap.

Finally it was time to rest and slow down. I had about an hour and a half to relax before taking the train to teacher training and that time was much needed. I started this post and watched some shows online.

I arrived at teacher training early and sat outside enjoying the warmth from the sun for a while with some of the other students. The teacher arrived and a class was finishing up before we could go inside. Once we got settled, we did some chanting and discussed our homework for the next time. Then we worked on sun salutations and variations of them for most of the afternoon. Saturday we were introduced to moon salutations and I got comfortable with leading those, but sun salutations threw me off a little yesterday because there were more poses to describe and even though I have done sun salutations hundreds of times, it was very different describing them. Definitely quite a learning experience throughout this journey.

We were let out on time and I walked to the train with other students and we had about 45 minutes to wait where we talked for a while. After spending the whole weekend with the same people, it is weird that I won’t see most of them for 2 weeks. I may see some of them as I attend yoga classes at the studio, but for the most part it will be two weeks. I am happy to have the 2 weeks though to do the homework and reading and get a start on my 50 required yoga classes.

I finally got home and saw that my yoga journal arrived from Amazon. My teacher recommended a journal to write down quotes and our thoughts throughout the process. I love to write and express myself so I think it will be very good for me and curious to see how my thoughts may change over the next 6 months.

It was a busy weekend filled with good company at yoga teacher training. Even though I know there will be times I question why I signed up for this, taking away my weekends and all the material we are going to learn, I am still feeling really excited about all of it and happy to deepen my practice and share yoga with others in the future. The yoga community is always so supportive and I love how even though teaching this weekend to just our partner was awkward, we are all getting more comfortable with the cues and being with one another.

Thank you Katie for hosting and one day I hope to practice yoga with you!!