This Is 200 Hours of YogaWorks Teacher Training
I am celebrating! This past Sunday I completed the YogaWorks 200-hour Teacher Training Program. Woohoo! It was such an amazing experience. This is just part of what 200 hours of YogaWorks Teacher Training looks like. Anatomy, asanas, the sutras, philosophy, sequencing, practicing, understanding, learning…
On January 10 — on the eve of the rose full moon lunar eclipse — I started an adventure that would develop in ways no one expected. Astrologists say this lunar eclipse symbolizes the ability to recognize the work you’ve done on yourself and claim the life you want rather than cling to the one you know. That was true for me for many reasons.
Join me for online yoga classes! Learn more and register here.
In 2013 when I quit my job, moved across the country, and launched my coaching practice – Spark Plug Labs, so many people wanted to know how I did it. How did I have the courage to leave behind what was familiar and follow my dreams? It can be scary and hard and the best things in life often come from honoring our true selves, peeling away the layers we are hiding behind, and working hard to make it happen.
I have learned over and over again that showing up is one of the most important steps in accomplishing your dreams. I often say, “Clarity comes from action, not ideas.” You can think about something and plan and strategize, but you won’t know if it works if you don’t go for it.
The last time I went to the yoga studio was March 8. Then the shelter-in-place started and all of our classes moved online.
Yoga has always been part of my life. I experience yoga in such a different way today after learning and studying – 200 hours in class and many more hours with practice teaching and studying.
As a kid I got to experience the spirituality and poses of yoga. That’s about all I knew. My first time in a yoga class was in my 20s when I lived in Paris. Then when I came back to the states I got a subscription to YogaJournal, some yoga cards, and the Baron Baptiste Power Yoga DVD. I started practicing at home.
When I moved to Washington, DC at 29 I started going to studio classes regularly. My practice was a way of grounding myself from the busyness of life. Then came prenatal yoga, mommy and me yoga, and my practice and understanding of yoga continued to evolve. One day in 2010 I went with a friend to a studio in DC for a class that brought me deeply into the spirituality and the potential yoga could serve in my life. A second time in 2012 I went with a friend to Steph Snyder’s Bhakti Flow class when it was at Urban Flow and loved yoga on a whole new level. It was the best class I had ever been to.
In 2017 I went on a yoga retreat to the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas (blog post on that here) and that’s where after years of people asking me if I was a yoga teacher, I decided that I finally did want to get certified.
I am so glad that I finally did it. We completed our in-class final exam on Friday, June 5 on the night of a full moon. Sometimes it takes a while for time and place to align. But it is never too late to follow your dreams.
I am already looking into what is next to evolve in my practice as a yoga teacher and I can’t wait to share my teaching with all of you.
If you would like to practice yoga with me, let me know! I am going to start some small-group meditation and yoga classes based on experience on Zoom. Subscribe here to get on the list.
A huge shout out to our teachers and the incredible work they do – Melanie Salvatore-August, Mynx Inatsugu, and Kate Douglas, and to the YogaWorks team for making it happen in the middle of so many global hardships.
I would also like to honor two students who are doing some really cool work and contributing to the yoga world in cool ways. Check them out!
YogaJadeOcean and her Etsy Shop for yoga mat straps - Seaweed Waves
Yoga with Sophia Colette, a range of yoga classes on YouTube
On the last day of Yoga Class I shared this quote that I often share when I lead workshops and is so important to me now as a reminder of the courage, big or small, that we all need to create a world in which we want to live. I want you to have the courage you need to show up and do the work that matters.
I can’t wait to be in touch with you!
