Recap- Here: https://yogamamampls.com/2013/03/20/creating-my-yoga-adhikara/
I KNEW!
Yea right.
I started my Anusara Teacher Training in January of 2012, I studied with Martin and Jordan Kirk in Scottsdale. It was two weeks, one in January and one in February. It was a great option for me because I was able to stay with family while I was there. I walked into the first of the two weeks excited, confident and a little terrified. It was also the longest I had been away from my family since June had been born. I knew this was going to be a great training.
Day 2, I missed most of because I had been up vomiting the whole night. I was able to soldier through and learn, if not participate physically the next couple of days. On Day 4, I heard something I had never heard before while I was Demo-ing a sequence. Whispered by I don’t know who, ” She has such a beautiful practice.” Who me? I almost started crying in the middle of the demo… maybe I wasn’t a beginner anymore. On Day 5, my husband’s grandfather passed away, and I had to choose not to come home, as the funeral was scheduled for when I would already be back. During this week, even with the distractions, I learned so much. I learned to be a passionate teacher from Jordan, I learned to be strong, fierce and technical with Martin. I learned to sequence, to get over the fear of speaking in front of others as I led my first “class” through some warm ups, and I started to learn the benefit of a beautiful theme.
I went home to a funeral, and to soak all this in before the next week of training, which was three weeks away. The week before we were to go back, Anusara Yoga EXPLODED. Here is the story if you are curious, I will not go into details… It has been done over and over and over again. http://yogadork.com/news/running-timeline-of-anusara-controversy-updates-and-teacher-resignations/ I was floored, but really didn’t really know yet how it would affect me, I was a “third generation” Anusarian… I studied with John Friend once, in a room full of 200 other yogi’s. What brought me to Anusara and to finding my love of yoga were my teachers… Laurel, Sarah, Ali and the Kirks. My teachers on the other hand were deeply and personally affected, that, is what trickled down to me.
The first day back, we were all full of nervous energy, we had hopes that Martin and Jordan would have answers for our pent up questions, I was at this point wondering if some good could come of it. Martin started the class saying that he was teaching this week with a broken heart and Jordan told us that she was teaching from a place of rage. They were as honest with us as they could legally be (Martin was on the Ethics committee) they taught us that week with love, from deep knowledge of their own yoga, and with their whole beings. That week. Was my teacher training. I themed and taught my ass off and it felt good. I feel like I really connected with my fellow students. I think I knew flying home after graduation, that I would no longer be following the Anusara path. The next day, Jordan resigned her certification with a beautiful letter. Frankly, I was a little angry at myself at this point for being such a follower, which is not my usual MO. I felt like it led me to be lost, with no other certification to lean on I was in a really awkward middle ground. Within months, NONE of my Anusara teachers were aligned with Anusara anymore. I was both proud of the lineage of my education and embarrassed to tell people how I was trained. In fact, though trained through Anusara, I could not call myself an Anusara instructor as it exploded in my face before I could get my two years of teaching in. What the heck did I call myself?!
I just started teaching. I taught in the way that all of my teachers had shown me. I told my students in those first months that I was learning as much from them as they were from me. It went well, they didn’t ask me what brand of yoga I taught. It was just yoga… and from that, I learned that going forward, I don’t need to rely on ONE school of yoga to make me a great teacher and yogi. I can pick and choose and take the best from them all. In January, I finished my Level 1 Prenatal instruction from Blooma, which brought my love of birthing and yoga together even more solidly, I hope to do Level 2 in the next year.
I love what Anusara taught me, I still teach the Universal Principles of Alignment and with heart themes. I also look forward to exploring all schools of yoga and am working on creating a list of people I would love to study with. So, if you have any recommendations… please comment below! My plan is to continue MY yoga story with you on this blog, and see where the conversations take me.
Next on my list is Christina Sell at Yoga Garden the beginning of June.
I didn’t realize in the beginning that you had to wade through so much mud to get to the Lotus!
Namaste!
Yoga Mama in Minneapolis 