First Yoga for Charity Class and so much more ~ Day 8 of Yoga Teacher Training
Day 8...WOW!
First of all, I have to share with you the last part of the day. Our class of teacher-in-training students hosted our very first public class. It was a Yoga for Charity class, with the donations going to the local women's shelter. The local newspaper did a short story on this *see the article here* and we had an amazing turn out for it!
I filled in at the last minute for another student, doing the introduction and breathing/meditation exercise. Last minute but it turned out to be an amazing experience. I think my background in tourism, even if that was so long ago, and the fact that I work in a social retail environment, really helped me with being able to welcome each person attending the class. Mostly, I really enjoy meeting new people and especially those interested in yoga! I started the class with an alternate nostril breathing exercise, with first having everyone taking a deep breath in through the nose and letting it fully with the mouth. That first exhale from all the students doing it all at once was so powerful to hear. Usually I am one of the students, but to be at the front of the group, wow..that was something else! Truly something I will remember for a long time. The rest of the hour long class was taught by two other student-teachers, Connie and Karen, and they did amazing! To think that just two months before, we were all so nervous to get up in front of each other to practice a simple "pretend" introduction of a yoga class! Erika, one of our teachers, finished the public class and then gave us feedback. Two of our fellow students also had feedback as they sat and observed the whole class instead of participating. I received great positive and helpful feedback!
The rest of the day prior the public class was intense. We started with a lovely catch up session with granola and chai tea that our teacher made for us. So yummy! We then did a meditation called RaMaDaSa (play the video below to listen to it!). It was beautiful and had a strong effect on many of us. The rest of the day was very emotional for me.
We continued our day with learning more about sequencing the standing poses portion of a yoga class. We also learned more about anatomy, in particular the different nervous, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, endocrine, and lymphatic systems. So much information to try to retain! Anatomy is definitely not my strong subject...
We are learning more about holistic nutrition too and which poses might help with certain parts of our body systems. In small groups, the whole class created short sequences of poses to help specific systems. We worked on the lymphatic system and the endocrine system. I really enjoyed choosing poses for that short sequence, being able to learn and explain what they might help with.
