Yogi in training
Litchfield County, Connecticut
The experience of my 200-hour yoga teacher training with My Vinyasa Practice and recording a 60-minute karma yoga class made me nervous but also exhilarated. I was anxious about being perfect, about saying all the right cues, and about hitting the exact right amount of time for the postures and savasana. I was fixated on delivering a Peloton-quality class with DIY equipment and a miniscule fraction of the experience. I spent so long worrying about how I would mess up, that the fear of failure paralyzed me from trying for several months.
As I was preparing the class, I reflected on the eight limbs of yoga and what makes me appreciate a yoga class or asana practice. It hit me that it isn’t the perfection or the precision, but the positive energy and safe space that is created by the teacher for their students. It is the non-judgment and the option to gently diving deeper into your practice. This is what I tried to cultivate when leading led the 60-minute vinyasa class. I was so nervous at the outset of class, but as I went through the beginning warmups and started flowing, I felt myself relax and start to slowly get out of my own way. I was able to tune into the breath, movement, and alignment of my student (my very kind husband) more frequently as I stopped judging myself, my words, or my stumbles. I truly leaned into the theme of meeting myself where I was and focusing on the experience of the student rather than my perception of my own teaching.
I tried to align the asanas I chose with my theme of meeting yourself where you are. I wanted to give any student the opportunity to cultivate appreciation for their body and mind as it is right now. Part of my journey through yoga teacher training has been finding appreciation for movement that isn’t always high intensity, and as such, I offered both more accessible and more challenging modifications throughout class, including for the ubiquitous vinyasa itself. I chose postures that I felt comfortable offering both types of modifications for and refrained from including poses whose modifications I was not able to execute so that my cues and teaching were authentic to my own lived experience.
Teaching for 60 minutes straight and getting my 200h certificate felt like massive accomplishments, but they were also unbelievably humbling. It reinforces that all yogis are both teachers and students, and that the learning and growth is never done. Mastering an asana is not the point. Doing a headstand is not the point. Yoga looks different for everyone and extends far beyond the mat. I can tell that this is only the beginning of my yogic path, and I can’t wait to bring you, my friends, on the journey.
Authentically,Cate