November 20 marked one year since I graduated from the Asheville Yoga Center (AYC) with my 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher certification.
This past Sunday, while reflecting upon the three-week, intense, immersive experience, I felt extra-sentimental and weepy. Perhaps that was due to my escalating pregnancy hormones! Nonetheless, it's an experience I recall with huge feelings, one that transformed me forever.
Thus, for this blog post, I share with you my "baby pose," Crescent Lunge, shown in the photo above. Each teacher trainee was assigned a pose based on his or her introduction to the rest of the group within the first 15 minutes of training on the first day. Throughout the three weeks, our teaching assignments had to include our "baby pose" in some way.
For this reason, Crescent Lunge will always hold a deep place in my heart. Each time I'm in the pose, I think of Jay, Jackie, Carol, Susan, Gillian, Sarah, Clay, Joseph, Claire, Barbara, Sam and Andie, my fellow teacher trainees who moved with me, breathed with me, meditated with me and laughed and cried with me during that rigorous, fun, challenging, transformative time in our lives, as well as our amazing teaching staff who allowed us to be us, to grow, question and process in our own unique ways.
Before choosing AYC as my yoga teaching school of choice, I explored the decision of becoming a yoga instructor for seven years, since 2009, to be exact. I nearly quit graduate school to go study with my Anusara teacher in southern California. Instead, I remained in school and read the Anusara teacher training manual, practiced to Anusara founder John Friend's DVD's and read yoga texts on my own. As most of us know, Anusara is no longer an entity, but the practice gave me a solid foundation of anatomy and alignment cues that I carry with me today. Another route I explored was Ashtanga. I developed a consistent Ashtanga practice and also read Ashtanga texts and became proficient in the Primary Series. I took Bikram, Hot Yoga and Kundalini classes, workshops for the chakras, to honor the changing of the seasons and to open the hips. I developed a home practice and read anatomy, meditation and asana books.
It was sometime in 2011 when I discovered AYC. I was living as a white-water rafting photographer on the Chattooga River and on a weekend visit to Asheville, I decided to take a class. I fell in love. After reading further into the center's training program, what appealed most to me was the focus on a variety of styles of yoga with a highly trained teaching staff who studied with some of the most respected and well-known names in yoga. Since 2011, I happened to find myself in Asheville about once or twice a year and always made it a point to take classes at AYC.
All in all, I'm glad I chose you, Asheville Yoga Center, for the rock-solid experience you gave to my group of 13 one year ago! And I'm even more happy that I took such a significant amount of time to do my own self-study, to build a solid foundation of yoga knowledge and to explore the many, many types of yoga before committing to teaching.
Yoga teacher training gave me the courage and confidence to share my love of yoga with others, which is equally as rewarding as my own personal practice. I look forward to continuing my yoga journey with AYC's 300-hour teacher training program!
This past Sunday, while reflecting upon the three-week, intense, immersive experience, I felt extra-sentimental and weepy. Perhaps that was due to my escalating pregnancy hormones! Nonetheless, it's an experience I recall with huge feelings, one that transformed me forever.
Thus, for this blog post, I share with you my "baby pose," Crescent Lunge, shown in the photo above. Each teacher trainee was assigned a pose based on his or her introduction to the rest of the group within the first 15 minutes of training on the first day. Throughout the three weeks, our teaching assignments had to include our "baby pose" in some way.
For this reason, Crescent Lunge will always hold a deep place in my heart. Each time I'm in the pose, I think of Jay, Jackie, Carol, Susan, Gillian, Sarah, Clay, Joseph, Claire, Barbara, Sam and Andie, my fellow teacher trainees who moved with me, breathed with me, meditated with me and laughed and cried with me during that rigorous, fun, challenging, transformative time in our lives, as well as our amazing teaching staff who allowed us to be us, to grow, question and process in our own unique ways.
Before choosing AYC as my yoga teaching school of choice, I explored the decision of becoming a yoga instructor for seven years, since 2009, to be exact. I nearly quit graduate school to go study with my Anusara teacher in southern California. Instead, I remained in school and read the Anusara teacher training manual, practiced to Anusara founder John Friend's DVD's and read yoga texts on my own. As most of us know, Anusara is no longer an entity, but the practice gave me a solid foundation of anatomy and alignment cues that I carry with me today. Another route I explored was Ashtanga. I developed a consistent Ashtanga practice and also read Ashtanga texts and became proficient in the Primary Series. I took Bikram, Hot Yoga and Kundalini classes, workshops for the chakras, to honor the changing of the seasons and to open the hips. I developed a home practice and read anatomy, meditation and asana books.
It was sometime in 2011 when I discovered AYC. I was living as a white-water rafting photographer on the Chattooga River and on a weekend visit to Asheville, I decided to take a class. I fell in love. After reading further into the center's training program, what appealed most to me was the focus on a variety of styles of yoga with a highly trained teaching staff who studied with some of the most respected and well-known names in yoga. Since 2011, I happened to find myself in Asheville about once or twice a year and always made it a point to take classes at AYC.
All in all, I'm glad I chose you, Asheville Yoga Center, for the rock-solid experience you gave to my group of 13 one year ago! And I'm even more happy that I took such a significant amount of time to do my own self-study, to build a solid foundation of yoga knowledge and to explore the many, many types of yoga before committing to teaching.
Yoga teacher training gave me the courage and confidence to share my love of yoga with others, which is equally as rewarding as my own personal practice. I look forward to continuing my yoga journey with AYC's 300-hour teacher training program!
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