Foundational Vinyasa Teacher Training - 200 hours, Full- Time
This is the final blog in a series of five - thank you for sharing your experience with us Stephanie! If you have enjoyed reading about the journey of teacher training, contact us and have a chat about how you can 'Awaken Your Potential'!
Week 5: If you can't smile, you're not really doing yoga.
I've started writing this sentence about 7 times now, and backspaced the lot every time. Turns out this might be the hardest blog of all to write. How do you wrap up and reflect on a magical 4 weeks in one succinct blog post? Especially when it feels like a lifetime ago, in a way. I know it's only been 5 days, but I miss my girl gang so much. I miss greeting each other with smiles and hugs every morning and practicing together. I miss spending all my days learning. I miss feeling like I've run away from the real world for a little while.
Because that's the thing. The real world is still here. And on top of trying to figure out how I want to teach yoga, I'm also trying to make this new freelance thing work for me in my other life. Which is scary, but also bloody brilliant. Things are manifesting and I'm so lucky, and I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm in this yoga thing (and this life thing, for that matter) for the long game. It will happen on its own timeline, as long as I keep doing the work. Showing up on the mat. Practicing teaching. Learning always.
Although I am back in the real world, I'm still so in the bubble in the ways that matter. Determined to keep up the beautiful rhythms and rituals I've created over the last month, I've meditated and practiced every day. I taught my family the other night, and plan to teach them again tomorrow morning. I'm still processing everything I've learned and realised and am very much sitting with how to carry that forward now.
And also reminding myself on the daily that all those things I loved about teacher training can be part of my life now as well. I can practice yoga everyday. I can meditate every day. I can learn something new every day, from a person, book, podcast, blog, course - the options are pretty much endless. I can continue this journey of self-inquiry and sharing and keep teaching whoever and wherever comes up. And I can keep surrounding myself with bloody legends every day, at yoga, in my work life, my friends, my family. It's all a choice, and one I am so in control of and able to make.
I wrote at the end of the last post that what I'd be taking away from this course was a whole lot of joy, wonder and delight. And that's possible every single day. My dog is outside lying in the sun right now, just soaking it up. The wisteria out the front smells sublime. I made banana bread this morning, and am about to cut myself a warm slice. I can hear the pages of books turning in the next room as my Mum and sister sit there reading. My green tea just got to the right temperature. Life is so freaking magical. And yoga helps me to remember that every day, to pay attention to the present moment before it disappears along with all its deliciousness. If that's not worth sharing then I don't know what is!
So what's next for me? Staying with yoga. Continuing with the practice of teaching. Committing to learning more. Connecting with my sangha, my beautiful community of yogis. And having fun! As a wise teacher once told me (probably as I huffed and puffed and frowned my way through some kind of eagle pose), if you can't smile, you're not really doing yoga. Amen and namaste.