Week 4 and Training Wrap-Up

You ask, you get--my journal/email from week 4 (July 17), adapted most especially for this marmotty space:

Well, I can't believe my teacher training is just about over. It went by so fast! I have really mixed feelings. I can't WAIT to get home, and I know some time to absorb everything I've learned, not to mention start TEACHING, is what I really need. But it's bittersweet to say goodbye to this community of wonderful friends and teachers. And I'm going to miss
taking yoga classes twice a day. Yes, folks--today contained my 43rd and 44th classes and I'm hungry for more!

This was an emotional week, some rough spots, but lots of bright ones, too. This week in clinic we taught several poses in series. I forgot a pose and when I realized it, I got really thrown off and didn't know how to start up again and...ran out of the room crying. Teaching in clinics had been going really smoothly for me before then, and I hadn't had any
emotional...stuff, going on, either. Lisa was leading clinic that day so she called a ten-minute break and kindly talked me through it. She told me among other things not to be so hard on myself and figured out I'm a Virgo. My inwardly-focused perfectionism IS that obvious. So I went back a few minutes later and knocked that series of poses out of the park, if I
do say so. It didn't hurt that before I went back to teach it, and after I did so, several of my fellow teachers-in-training came up and gave me hugs, reassurance, and positive feedback.

This last Friday, we did another Sacred Music yoga class led by Lisa. At one point, we did two sets of Bridge pose, followed by two sets of Wheel pose. I tried Wheel a long time ago, maybe two years, and didn't have the upper body strength to do it. So whenever it has come up during my teacher training, I don't try. I always tell myself "I have a weak upper body; I
can't do Wheel" and just do more sets of Bridge. The energy of this particular Sacred Music class, however, got me to truly examine that thought when it came up. And this time, I just told myself I could do it. I remembered something Jimmy had said and pictured myself having already done it. I really _wanted_ to do it, to open up my body that way. And
then: I did it, I pushed up into a full Wheel. I was so surprised and happy, I cried! (As you've probably figured out by this time--par for the course. I'd already cried in that class that day.) And then I almost shouted out "help!" because I had no idea how to get out of it once I had my body up in the air like that! I eventually flopped out of it completely ungracefully, and laughed. But I felt very powerful. Huzzah!

Tuesday, Mike arrives in the morning (early.) There will be one more yoga class, taught by Jimmy, of course, and then we'll have graduation at 12:30. Most people will hit the road, including my dear roommate Amanda, who is driving all the way back to Massachusetts over the next few days, where she'll immediately start house shopping! I want to give her a
massive shout-out--she has been a wonderful listener, a sympathetic instant friend, and she's driven me all over Fort Lauderdale to boot! Last night we had a "goodbye" dinner at this great Italian restaurant down
Ocean Drive and we compared notes--in 30 days of sharing a small hotel room, we haven't gotten sick of each other, and we haven't even gotten on each other's nerves, not even once. Quite a feat.) Mike and I will be in the hotel one more night and we'll fly home to Seattle Wednesday morning. I can't wait to escape the heat and humidity, and return to a sane land in
which one can RECYCLE and older males in Speedos and white tennis shoes are rarely seen on the sidewalks.

More importantly, I am SO excited to come back to my beloved yoga studio and TEACH A CLASS there a week from Thursday! (unless the owner has second thoughts after reading about my little breakdown up there in the second full paragraph. ;) ) I have a feeling I will teach a good class. And on the other side of the coin, as our teachers keep telling us, the training
is just beginning. Learning to teach will be an ongoing process, and I can't wait to put into practice what I've learned, and keep on learning. My students will be the best teachers!