Officially a Yogi

After two months of hard work, I am officially a Alliance Certified yoga instructor. These three hundred hours of training have filled my brain with proper allignment cues, meditation practices, massage and muscle manipulation techniques. Planning classes seems to flow naturally from within; as I've learned to focus on building the weaknesses and expanding the strengths of the class participants. So if you want to see how yoga can expand your mind, ease bodily pain, and rejuvenate your energy take some time to practice with me!

Practicum: Last Test

Just as in college, each yoga student had to prepare a final class. Each lesson was dissected by our three head teachers to ensure we had learned proper alignment, safe lesson structuring (ensuring the body is properly warmed so no injuries occur during difficult poses), and were confident in our hands on adjustments (when you manually help someone dig deeper into a posture). Needless to say this scrutiny was intimidating.

Each student had an hour to instruct their lesson and could theme it in various ways. Some individuals chose to do a prenatal class, some focused on meditation, and others focused on quick paced hatha or vinyasa yoga. I chose to do a high intensity vinyasa class. Sounds like fun right? Well when I stood up to teach, on a muggy hot Friday afternoon, the last thing it seemed everyone wanted was an energetic class. However, I was feeling confident and stuck to my plan.

After a little game of poparazzi, where you and your yoga buddy pretend to be a celebrities, everyones mood lifted. The theme of my class was lighthearteness and I traced it through the yoga class with upbeat music and tender words. The lesson went like this: Centering (focusing on breath) - Sun Salutations- Core work (crunches)- Vinyasa- Stretching- Shavasana (final resting pose). By the end everyone felt as though they conquered the afternoon. While my instructors gave me a few points of constructive criticism followed with encouraging, I was smiling from ear to ear and celebrating with a mental track of "Celebrate Good Times" for the test was finally over!