Beginners Mind

I have decided to do another 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training. The first official teacher training I did was with Paula Tursi at Reflections in 2006. It was life-transforming. But I never meant to be a yoga teacher. I was changing careers and wanted to develop a deeper practice and understanding of the yogic systems. It was in Guatemala , on the edges of Lago de Atilan, I fell in love with Thai Massage and I was moved into a deep calling for this traditional art form to become my primary practice.

Now, 2014… I have just returned from teaching a 7-day yoga retreat at Anamaya Retreat Center in Montezuma.  And all I can think is...I want to be a yoga teacher when I grow up. And I am a teacher… really I am. I specialize in yoga therapy, seeing people mainly in their homes, emphasizing pain management, increasing range of motion, and facilitating conscious breath.

I shy away from teaching public classes. I excel at one-on-one. But then, I just lead 16 women in a 7-day discovery of the koshas, and I found that I am in fact an organized, focused, and conceptually-based teacher who has a lot to offer in terms of alignment, strong verbal cues, and spiritual inspiration. The students reminded me of the initial years of training and how I can lead people deeper into their practice.

So why take another training?

I found Studio Anya almost 5 years ago and I am deeply invested in its success, even though I have only done a handful of formalized trainings with Courtney Bauer, the founder. Its a home base. The language links philosophies and practices from the mundane to the divine, east-to-west, and physical-to-metaphysical. It is very dynamic. It is like leaping into an Alice and Wonderland rabbit hole of introspection and mental/physical/spiritual dissection. It is going to be intense.

I am ready to embark on this journey, with a beginners mind to discover the yoga teacher voice, the constant seeking of knowledge, and the reiteration that I am in fact, a yoga teacher. Training once again, the beginners mind,