At the end of January I began a Yoga Teacher Training program at The Yoga Studio of Columbia, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Given the magic of Googling things, I do not want to offer any spoilers for future students who may stumble upon my page! So sorry if that is what you were looking for! The surprises are part of the magic of yoga teacher training in my humble opinion. Instead, I'm going to focus on me, me, me. This turned out to be more a diary entry than a yoga blog entry! So forgive me for a self-indulgent post.
One thing you may know or not know about yoga is that is it is more than just the Asana practice, but there are a whole 'nother 7 branches to truly practice traditional yoga. Who knew?! (Seriously I didn't know). Anyways, the first branch of yoga is the Yamas (the social ethics of yoga) that include four different elements. We're focusing the second element of Satya (truthfulness) this month.
It dawned on me as I thought about my blog today after a fellow yoga student asked about this here blog, that I hadn't been exactly honest with myself as to why I've not updated this blog. As a professional writer, I have written a couple of yoga blogs for money. I've also written lots and lots of other blogs. I'm not in some sort of writing dry spell. I've even had times where I started to create a blog, but then I found myself getting this anxious, uncomfortable feeling.
If I'm being honest with myself, I've been AVOIDING this blog like the plague, because this whole yoga teacher training thing is making me feel quite vulnerable. Vulnerability is not something I'm quite used to in any element of my life, and I'm notorious for not handling serious things very well. When serious issues come up I have two ways of coping: avoidance AND jokes. So voila, I've been avoiding my blog, because this whole mushy gushy yoga thing with the inner feelings of yoga is making me feel uncomfortable. In a way it is changing how I perceive and approach everything in my life- in a good way. It is a huge change, so naturally my flight instinct has been kicking into high gear!
I went into yoga teacher training expecting perhaps there would be some "new agey" and "hand wavy" things that turned me off to the experience, but that at least I would get to learn how to physically practice yoga better. Instead, what I'm finding is that yoga teacher training is a journey of the inner being as well as all the poses, and that I actually like all the feel good elements that focus on tending the inner self. Somehow the teacher training is really teaching me things that I already academically understand you need to be a happy person, but I haven't necessarily applied to my life.
So basically, I've been too scared to blog about yoga in my own personal way, because it would be opening up truly to these new changes. I guess by writing this blog I've overcome that step. Maybe. I'm going to have to approach the way I write about yoga and just about everything differently. Some of that will require letting down some callouses on my inner soul when I'm hammering away at the keyboard. Gross. It will be for the better though!
Anyways, here is to a new dawn of this blog where I can write more proficiently about the physical elements of yoga and all the touch-feely stuff that may or may not have cooties.
-Namaste!
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