Teacher Training
After learning about the Eight Limbed Yogic Path in last night’s group session, I realized what had gone wrong in my Hot Power Fusion yoga class the night before. I had failed at achieving the sixth limb, Dharana. Instead of concentrating on one thing in class, I let all kinds of outside distractions take over my mind. I vowed to make tonight’s Hot Power Fusion class a much better experience for myself.
First off, I was determined to quiet all of the self-negative talk I’ve been letting run rampant in my head during each of the yoga classes I’ve been taking lately. No more being hard on myself. No more judging myself because I didn’t like my body shape or how I’d hold myself in a posture. No more worrying about memorizing the HPF sequence and all of the cues for each posture. No more! No more!
Sunny, one of our yoga teacher training facilitators said something in our group session last night that really struck a chord in me. She told us to, “Trust the process.” This was part of one of the Niyamas we discussed last night. Niyamas are the five observances, which apply specifically to how we treat ourselves, on the inside. The fifth Niyama is Isvara-pranidhana (devotion, surrender, faith). By taking Sunny’s advice to trust the process, I could let go of all my doubt and make room for faith because yes, I’m divine. It’s about time I replaced the self-negative broken record playing in my head with something more positive.
Instead of setting up my mat in my normal go-to spot in the room, which was in the front row, all the way to the right of the studio, I set up on the left side. From this the new spot, I couldn’t see who was walking by the studio or coming in and out of the building. One less distraction for class.
When Jill asked everyone to set their intention for tonight’s Hot Power Fusion class, I heard Sunny’s voice in my head saying, “Trust the process” so I made it my intention for class. And wouldn’t you know it, Sunny just happened to set up her mat next to me for class tonight. I love it when things like that happen. I took this as reassurance of me being on my right path.
All throughout class, I chose the pants I was wearing to be the single point I focused on. I purposely wore a pair of loud, animal print pants because I knew I’d have an easier time seeing the pattern by candlelight than if I were to have worn pants in a solid color. Sure, class wasn’t perfect. There were times when I broke out of my concentration because I looked somewhere else or fell out of a posture. But each time I lost my concentration, I quickly focused back onto my pants.
For once, I wasn’t judging or shaming myself in class, even when I broke my concentration. As one of my previous, beloved Bikram Yoga teachers always used to say, “It’s the practice room, not the perfect room.” I really, truly enjoyed my yoga practice tonight.
Class #17, Hot Power Fusion By Candlelight with Jill at CorePower Yoga Greenwood (HPF-11)