Teacher Training
So far, Week #5 has been the toughest week of yoga teacher training for me so far. I started off this week feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Almost borderline feeling like I was going to get sick. The overwhelming feelings started this week with my drive into work on Monday morning. As I sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic the whole way into my office, I couldn’t stop thinking about how stressed out I was. Stressed out with work, not getting as much sleep as I should, not completing my 60 yoga class requirement in time for graduation, how far behind I was in journaling about all of the yoga classes and group sessions I’ve attended recently and not having the whole Hot Power Fusion sequence memorized yet. I can barely remember what comes after Standing Splits!
Our Group Session tonight covered prenatal modifications and contraindications along with the use of props and practice teaching with adjustments. I kept telling myself I would make time to practice teach over the weekend and look over my flashcards after work. I’ve had zero time to do either one. My weekends have been jam packed with taking yoga classes or getting caught up on all of my journaling. On the weeknights after work, I feel like I’ve barely got enough energy to get into a yoga class or two. I’ve been doing a few doubles just so I don’t fall behind on the number of classes I have to take before graduation.
I should have been more excited about the group session tonight. Instead, I was a complete stress case walking into the studio. I had a hard time focusing on the lecture and clinic because I was so worried about blanking out during the practice teaching part of the session. And of course once we got to the practice teaching part of the session tonight, I beat myself up the whole time when I couldn’t remember what posture came next or how to cue a posture.
At the end of our session, Mandy pulled me aside and gave me a much-needed pep talk. She told me it was perfectly okay to back off on taking all of the yoga classes and journaling for now until I got caught up. I guess we get a week or two extra after graduation to take any remaining classes we didn’t get to take during training. After talking to Mandy, it felt like there was a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. I also felt a lot better because I’d have the next day and a half off from work so I could just focus on studying yoga. By having this little break from work, I’m hoping to get back some of the excitement I first had when I started yoga teacher training five weeks ago.