Week 2 - Yoga Teacher Training

This has been another week of hectic learning and getting to know my fellow trainees better who are an amazing group of yogis with different backgrounds coming together to support each other as we share a common goal and our passion for yoga.

I am finding that I have to do a lot of  unlearning and relearning as I learned the proper alignment for the yoga poses and getting rid of my incorrect habitual ways of doing the poses.   The daily asana practice has provided a stronger understanding of the poses as I listened to David's instructions for the poses.

I find the anatomy studies to be the most interesting as I learned how the muscles and joints movements affect the poses we do.  Although it sometimes get confusing trying to figure out the position and movement of the joint, David's advice on doing the pose ourselves help to make it clearer.   The anatomy and asana studies also help me to remember the verbal cues we should give for the key simple, counter and complementary actions when the students are in the pose.

The sutra studies is getting easier to understand as I start to connect the yoga philosophy with my practice and how it relates to my personal life.  

We have been doing a lot of practice teaching which is the most challenging part of the program for me.  When I am asked to teach my fellow trainees the pose, the words I am supposed to say gets stuck in my throat.   I end up becoming nervous and my voice would become softer making it difficult for my "pretend students" to hear and understand what I am saying.

I have been trying to overcome this by saying the instructions out loud as I am stuck in traffic driving home after training.  I have also recorded myself giving out the instructions at home so that I can listened to how I sound like.  I am still trying to find my voice and I think I am slowly getting better with the encouragement and support from David and my fellow trainees.

I found out that there are some talented artists among my fellow trainees as I have seen Noah sketching David as we sit listening to his teachings.   Another trainee, Szefone has made drawings which is an innovative way to help her to study the breath and poses for Surya Namaskar A and B which she has allowed me to share them here.

Surya Namaskar A

I am looking forward to deepen my practice further for the next two weeks and I will end my post with this inspirational quote for my fellow trainees and myself.