NamastayGrapeful

I am officially certified to teach Yoga!

It’s really crazy typing this up right now because on October 23rd 2018 was when I made this draft post for my blog. WOAH! I completed my 200 hours at Wild Thing Yoga in Bend Oregon. Helen Cloots is the yoga teacher that taught us 6 girls for 3 weeks.

Let me give you my yoga background first…..

I had been wanting to get certified for a really long time. I fell in love with yoga in high school. I started going my freshman year and I did it all through high school. I would go with my Mom, my neighbor Debbie and her daughter Lindsey. We both live on either side of a hill in my hometown back in NY. It was really kind of cool. We went to see a woman named Rose who was teaching at a local restaurant in East Aurora NY called the Roycroft. The Roycroft is very historic to East Aurora and they had other buildings on the property so she used a spare building to teach yoga. That place had some crazy vibes. I totally felt peoples past energies in that building. There was actually a specific part of the room that Rose showed me that had some really weird temperature changes and you could feel the air was thicker. It was one of my first experiences with anything like that. I just remember it so vividly with Rose. After a few months their Rose was renting a space at a church and then she opened up her own studio. It was a beautiful space. The building was bright pink and purple on the outside. But it had a very calm energy on the inside. I am so thankful for Rose. I needed yoga during high school because it helped me a lot through some depression, self harming, the abuse from my alcoholic father. It was my counselor at the time. When I got to college I didn’t put yoga first anymore to help myself and I just spiraled out and didn’t want to do yoga even though I knew how much it had helped me. I came back to yoga when I was 21/22. I am 27 now. I wish I had had a more frequent practice like I did in high school which was once a week every Tuesday. I started my at home practice and I would use YouTube and I would watch Yoga with Adrienne. Around that time was when I was like wow this would be so cool to get certified to teach. I never said anything to anyone about it. I just kept it to myself. Then a few years after that I saw a medium for the first time. I had never met her before. And one of the many things that came up was teaching yoga. I was shocked. I left feeling so good because I got messages from loved ones that I wasn’t expecting but they were so fulfilling. Then hearing about the yoga teaching I was like omg wow. I finally told my husband about me wanting to do this. I worked towards this goal. I originally wanted to do this last year but it just so happened to work out better this year. And that was it. I had signed up for YTT and I was finally going to get certified.

I made a mini vlog that I am going to post to my YouTube channel today as well, of my feelings before going into my first class and a little bit during and then the end. Its not anything too fancy. I wish I could have gotten more clips. It was such a roller coaster of emotions. It was challenging as well. But in the best way. It really helped grow me and broaden my knowledge. I plan on re-reading my training manual, which I call my yoga bible now, over and over.

I broke my pinky toe on my left foot on our first day off, while grocery shopping. It was really frustrating, I cried because I thought this was going to hinder me from participating more in the practice teaching. Thankfully it didn’t. I was still able to participate and do the best I could.

Most mornings I would go to the coffee place right next to the yoga studio and get a chai latte and an avocado bagel. I loved coming here before starting the day. I would sometimes get a matcha latte in the afternoon when I needed a pick me up.

There were 6 girls total and I couldn’t have asked for a better group to go through this journey with. They were all so nice and supportive. I miss them so much. It was so nice to be in a small group. I was worried it was going to be a big group and that was going to make me more shy and it was going to be hard to get along but that was not the case. We went shopping on our first day together, we got dinner, and even went out on a girls night too. I wish we all lived close so we could see each other a lot more.

During this I made sure to take the time to get a massage. I tried cupping for the first time and I am addicted. I love it. I need to find a place in Olympia for me to do it at. It is so important if you go through YTT to take the time to rest, and take care of yourself. It was a 3 week immersion so it was way more intense than some other YTT out there.

YTT was very healing and eye opening for me. When we got through to the mediation part of training. I was not expecting to be so emotional for me. During a mala bead meditation we did. Which is a meditation where you use a string of them. There are 108 beads on one necklace. You start at the larger bead that the 108 beads connect to and you pick a mantra and then say your mantra 108 times as you move your index finger and thumb over the bead. That day I picked the mantra “I am beautiful, I can do this.” I said that 108 times and I got so emotional. I was the last person to speak in our group of how I felt after and I completely lost it. I don’t believe the mantra I said to myself. But I know it is something I need to start believing. It was a beautiful process and I was shocked I got so emotional over it.

I was so nervous to teach my final class. I figured out my demographic of what I wanted to teach a little late to the game compared to my fellow yogis. So I personally didn’t feel prepared to teach but I did it anyway. I was happy because I taught a 40 minute class. It wasn’t an hour but my goal was at least 30 minutes. I was so proud of myself and it felt so good to do it and complete it!

And the next day we graduated! I couldn’t believe it was done! I am not sure what I want to do from here. I don’t want to teach in a studio. I actually would like to make videos to add to my YouTube channel. I have one big idea but I am keeping it to myself and I am trying to manifest it into happening. I hope to be able to share with you what this plan is but in case it doesn’t happen I will keep it to myself.

When I graduated I was so pleasantly surprised that my sister, a good friend, my Aunt and my Husband surprised me with gifts. Such fun gifts too! Like really thought out which made me feel even more special because it all related to yoga which was so much fun.

Thanks for reading! Cheers & Namaste!

Wild Thing Yoga Bend