Final YTT Weekend

Hello All! So yoga teacher training has finally come to a close and let me tell you, I am both excited that all of our hard work has culminated into this amazing experience where I have grown in knowledge and in my yoga practice, and I am also really sad that I will no longer see my fellow trainees on a regular basis.  The group of people that you go through this training with are so special and unique and they are lifelong friends and part of my yoga family. Yes, I did cry on the last day, and no, I am not ashamed of it.  Even writing this blog brings happy tears to my eyes and I am blessed that I still feel so strongly about every single one of those people who helped me get through the weekends.  

This weekend got started in such a fun way, June and Monica cooked an Ayurvedic meal for the group so Friday night we ate and hung out for an hour before moving through more of what Ayurveda means in a food and meal context.  It was freaking delicious and once I have more free time, I am going to start exploring this method of using food for healing because I have been eating garbage lately in what I refer to as “eating my feelings”.  But anyway after a wonderful night of food, friends, and laughter, I went home feeling excited for the remainder of our time together.  The next day involved more practice teaching, but this time we had guest students who had been through the training previous to ours.  Now it was showtime and we all had portions of a class to teach to the group.  Some people were observers and some people were participants.  This allowed for some really great feedback on teaching styles and areas for improvement or to keep in mind.  By this time, we were all so much more confident in our own knowledge that it was like night and day from the first time we taught to today.  It was basically teaching and exam review for the rest of the weekend.  

I can’t end this blog without my shoutouts to my new yoga family and what I learned from each of them.

Jen is this steady force with a chocolate addiction who has such a funny sense of humor.  She never got rattled by anything we were doing and approached every lesson with confidence and skill.  I learned so much from her.  She has a lucky family and I count myself among them.

Jess was one of the quiet ones in the group, however the amount of growth she showed was amazing.  She was completely outside of her comfort zone and still approached each teaching experience head on and was able to take our feedback and make herself better each time she got up to teach.  Her quiet energy was so great to be around and she’s also pretty freaking funny.  She also asked really great questions in each class which helped all of us grow.

Dean was one of the guys in our sessions and I don’t think that I will ever meet anyone quite like him.  He has an engineer's mind and so the way he would see the information, was so unique that it helped me expand my own viewpoints as well.  He also never failed to make me laugh, even if unintentionally.  I will always be grateful that he would go and get me a large ice tea with extra lemon at the dunkin donuts whenever he went :)

Ashley…...what can I say about this girl except that while we are complete opposites in most things, we shared a really strong connection.  She was another one who I got to see grow so much, from being super uncomfortable with answering questions in the first weekend, to offering up her personal experiences for us to see without judgement.  She is so tiny, but she is one of the strongest people I have the privilege of knowing and I can’t help but sing her praises.

Kim is another quite one to watch out for.  Her dry sense of humor often caught me off guard and I loved just sitting and talking to her about anything.  She has this quiet strength and confidence in who she is that comes across.  I would often listen to her teach a pose and take notes on what I was going to steal from her and use in the future.  She knows who she is and that is something to admire.

Ann Marie joined us about halfway through our training and I am so glad she did.  She had started the process with the previous group and needed to finish up her training hours.  She is another one who has a unique look at the world and will ask questions until she understands what she needs to.  Her one liners often had us all rolling in laughter and she was always so thoughtful and empathetic when one of us needed it.

Courtney is so graceful and knowledgeable, especially with the sanskrit.  This poor girl survived multiple illness, a broken toe, and anxiety over teaching.  She also shared her amazing baking skills with us.  She has so many talents and now she can include being a yoga teacher.  Her calm quiet demeanor opened up after a few weekends and I am happy to have gotten to know her.

Dale, I have so much to say about this wonderful, and mischievous man.  Being the oldest in our group, and a male, he certainly put up with a lot from us ladies.  He has a sneaky side and he likes to mess with people.  We would often play jokes on each other and I really enjoyed learning from him and his experiences.  

I could write so much more about these people, but I’m trying to keep it short.  I’ll close this one out by sharing the picture of our “graduation” dinner.

“I honor the place in you where the entire Universe resides.  I honor the light, love, truth, beauty, and peace within you, because it is also within me.  In sharing these things we are united, we are the same, we are one.”  

Namaste.

~ Laura