Wednesday, June 4, 2008

CorePower Power Teacher Training

The universe spoke and I responded.

One weekend while I was snowboarding, I missed her. It had been over a year since we spoke, and as I waited for the slower people in my group to reconvene at the ski lift, I missed her. We used to snowboard together. We used to mountain bike together. We were even beer fairies together! Where did Kiara go?

At the end of the day, I checked my phone and I had a message. Believe it or not, the message was from HER. Kiara had called to catch up and ask if I wanted to go snowboarding before the season was over. Things started to fall into place. We reconnected. She mentioned that she had applied for yoga teacher training at Corepower and encouraged me to consider it. (This wouldn't be the first time that she inspired me to try something different!)

The thought of yoga teacher training had crossed my mind before. At one time, I had plans to move to California and start an interdisciplinary studio/practice that included yoga with my best friend from college. Friends and family had suggested it. But I didn't really consider the possibility until Kiara brought it up.

There are about 40 students in this CPY training class. It was like the first day of school.

Stream of consciousness about "what is yoga?":
harnessing energy. maintaining focus. being present. listening to yourself. listening to the others. listening to the instructor. listening to your body. listening to your heart! being purposeful. being thankful. showing gratitude in a physical format. flowing with breath.

Everyone in class had a different stream of consciousness. Some streams sounded like dictionary or encyclopedia definitions, some were reminiscent of a math proofs, and one woman wrote a poem (that was publish-worthy!) in a five-minute span of time.

We went over the origins of the word yoga. Wikipedia's page for yoga is similar to what we discussed. The term yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj, which means "to yoke", "to control" and "to unite". The word yoga has different meanings for everyone.

Finally, as students we were advised to "always speak highly" and to practice saucha (cleanliness).

All in all, Day 1 was exciting. It felt good to embark on something new, something that felt like school but wasn't a formal academic school, which I have seen enough of for this decade of my life, at least. It was good to meet the instructors in person, rather than just on the phone, via email or on their websites. Lisa lead the class. Marley (named after Bob Marley) lead the C1 flow that opened the training. The other instructors were present: Heather, Marisa, Laura and Patty. I had no idea the first night went from 6:30 to 10pm. I honestly lost track of time while I was in there. By the time Kiara and I left CPY, we were starving for dinner, but realized that most food establishments were probably closed, so we decided to plan better next time we met up.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I've been interested in doing yoga teacher training as well...Would love to hear more about your experiences...