My first week of Teacher in Training was pretty amazing. I will admit I had no idea what to expect and still have no idea what to expect. I walked into the Pacific Palisades YogaWorks studio with a little of the “deer in the headlights” syndrome since I was ‘clearly’ surrounded by yoga aficionados. Aficionados = people who have been doing yoga for 5 – 20+ years. How do I know that? Well, you can just tell. More to come on that later.
At exactly 11:00.01 a.m. the program started and I knew at 11:01 a.m. that I was late for class. Hmmn. At 11:02 a.m. I was asked to sign a couple of things and provided with 5 workbooks:
- Anatomy Workbook
- Asana Manual
- Philosophy and Specialty Topic’s Manual
- Teaching Tools Manual
- Policies and Procedures Homework Manual
Yikes. The program was running like the European rail network: like clockwork. Before knowing who was in the room (e.g. the students), Kia Miller and Jesse Schein were introducing themselves as the Teachers of the program. Not going to lie, I was pretty stressed out. And then, before I knew it, calmness came into the room when Kia guided us with the following invocation chant from the ancient times:
Asatoma Sadgamaya
Thamaso Maa Jyothir Gamaya
Mrithyor Maa Amrutham Gamaya
Aum Shanti Shanti Shantihi
The invocation means the following:
Lead me from the unreal to the real. Lead me from darkness to light. Lead me from death to immortality. May there be peace everywhere.
Pretty rad… and different. After taking Kia’s class tons of times, I finally knew what I was chanting.
After the invocation we began discuss the Policies and Procedures Manual. Om 
, okay, “way to set the tone” and to establish a learning environment. After the Policies Manual, we went around the room and 1) introduced ourselves, 2) shared how long we have been practicing yoga, and 3) why we were taking the teacher training program. All I have to say is “wow.”
“Wow” because the amount of time and experience students had with yoga and the reasons why they were taking the Teacher Training Program. From my perspective, I would say that you could group the students in 4 groups:
- Students who were undecided if they wanted to teach yoga, but definitely wanted to deepen their practice;
- Students with family members who had practiced yoga and had personally seen how yoga had positively affected their lives and their family members;
- Students who had a pilates or personal training practice who wanted to bring yoga to their clients; and
- Students, like myself, who want to teach yoga one day.
As I have shared, my goal with this program is to one day teach two to three classes a week to an under-served community. In summary, my first day in class was pretty amazing. Not going to lie, I was a little lost. “Tadasana urdhva hastasana” means what again? More to come on that later.
Let me know if you have any questions by posting on my blog and will do my best to answer them. Have an amazing day.