Living my Yoga - Day 8 of Training

Day 8 of Training was actually on Sunday, February 27th, so I'm writing about it almost 2 weeks later. Mostly because these last two weeks have been a whirlwind, and I haven't had the opportunity to sit and ponder the Observed Teaching yet.

Think of it like a Midterm....a BIT stressful, especially coming from a perfectionist. There were approximately 20 of us 'teachers in training' and we were each assigned to teach 10 minutes of  a yoga flow to each other with a smooth transition. There was no time in between each person for feedback. So...let's do the math 20 teachers * 10 minutes = 200 minutes or about 3.5 hours of yoga. I LOVED IT! How often do we get to practice 3.5 hours of yoga from 20 different teachers (who are now also friends).

The only part that wasn't lets say... 'wonderful', was the lack of variety in the poses we taught. Likely because we are all in the same class, we taught many of the same poses - so some variety would have been nice, but regardless...it was wonderful...and my body remembered  (aka - ached) for days afterward.

My 10 Minutes of Teaching:

I always tend to get little butterflies in my stomach, and my chest tightens before any type of public speaking...and teaching yoga is a LOT like public speaking. All my life, the way I've overcome the fear or dealt with public speaking is to say as little as possible, stick to the facts and only say exactly what I know for sure.

So, knowing that about myself, the feedback from my yoga instructor did not at all come to me as a surprise. He said, I should allow my tone of voice to change and to be a bit more dramatic as if I am putting on a performance. In other words have a bit of flare, let my personality shine through my words.

I don't seem to have a problem to let my personality shine through with my husband or guinea pigs...it's something about the 'test' environment of my classmates and instructor reviewing me that scares me. I just need to find a way to move beyond this fear. I hope with practice this will begin to happen naturally.

I also struggle with remembering the entire sequence I have planned in my mind, and moving the class from one pose to the next - the transition. Once I get the class in the pose, I enjoy identifying vocal cues to point out and I enjoy assisting....it's finding the right words for the flowing transition that stumps me. Again...I believe this will come with practice.

I am grateful we had the opportunity to have this 'midterm' to check in with ourselves, identify what we are doing good and where we need to PRACTICE.

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In the afternoon of Day 8 we focused on backbends, which have great benefits:

• help to open the chest cavity (open heart)
• open the muscles in between the ribs (intercostal muscles)
• stimulate the thymus gland (integral to healthy immune system)
• strengthen back and shoulders

Backbends can be very scary, because in our day to day life we are always moving forward and bending forward. Prior to yoga, I really can't remember any reason to do a backbend, except maybe when watching TV lying on the stomach (but then that always tended to hurt because my shoulders would inch their way to my ears).

Backbending is one of my favorites now, they instill such an excitement and level of confidence. Here are a few pictures of me in training.

The first is an example of how to help someone into wheel who needs assistance.

The 2nd is a stretch for someone who is in wheel pose The two individuals are pulling in opposite directions...felt completely amazing...I definitely felt 2 inches taller afterwards!

To read more about backbening:

http://www.yogawithamey.com/backbends.html