3 Secrets to a Strong Finish at Yoga Teacher Training
In yoga studios all over the country teachers in training are in the final push towards certification. This Sunday, we will celebrate our amazing 200 YTT students as they graduate and close this chapter in their yoga journey. There is so much hard work, time and energy that goes into this certification. We are proud of every single one of them.
Our founder, Linda, wrote the 3 Secrets to a Strong Finish at Yoga Teacher Training several years ago in Elephant Journal. While this will serve as a great source of encouragement for our teachers in training as they push towards the end of the certification, there is something beautiful we can all learn about facing our fears and taking risks. We hope these words inspire you, wherever you are in your yoga journey.
When I signed up for my 200 hour training I originally adopted the mantra scary is my happy place. I wanted to face my fears - especially the made up imaginary sort. Dragons I call them. My intention was to graduate as a powerful, impactful teacher. To walk bravely through the gate from student to teacher I had to dig deep. This required a new mantra:
Show Up. Stay. Do the Work!
1. Show Up.
To really show up we have to decide. This is more than the initial decision to sign-up, this is bigger than the money and a great many weekends dedicated. Really and truly—decide. You will have to ask yourself: Am I willing to do the work? If the answer is a big,”Hell Yeah!” then start digging. There is not a human being still breathing that doesn’t need to grow.
We all need to grow. In Sanskrit this intense self study and reflection is called Svadhyaya. In English; know your shit.
Know all your shit—the things you were asked to learn and put in your head and the things already going on inside your heads that needs to be dealt with. This is where I had to learn to use feedback as fuel towards growth. When we get feedback—especially the hard kind that hurts, the best thing is to implement right away! Create a pattern interrupt, stop the samskara before it creates a groove, by getting right back up there in front of the class and trying it again. Dragons and demons be damned.
2. Stay.
This goes back to #1—but deeper. To stay means we must commit. We cannot wait for someone else to tell us what we should be doing. Want to teach a community class? Reach out and say so. Want to assist? Show up and offer to assist. No one is going to hand your dream to you. You have to go get it.
To stay means doing the homework, supporting each other in community classes and being accountable—each and every week. Committing also means showing up on the mat as often as humanly possible—because the hard truth is:
Who we are on the mat is who we are off the mat.
We have to be in charge of our own growth. But here’s the gem about committing—the thing that whispered to you to do teacher training? We have, I dare say, a holy responsibility to honor that. This path is not for the weak. Not just anyone is chosen. Something moved in us—someone gave us something in a class somewhere and the sacred stirrings of service rumbled through our bodies and minds prodding us to action. Honor that. Or Don’t. But once we commit, the freedom of that conscious decision comes with the radical responsibility for that choice. Complaining and not doing the work is a cheap luxury of the disempowered. And that, my yogi friends, ain’t us.
3. Do the Work.
Doing the work requires that we face our fear. Recognize that our deepest fear is our light. If we are honest with ourselves we know—greatness is possible. That little voice or feeling that whispered? It knows it’s possible. And there are 1000 ways to sabotage it. I, myself, have tested most of them out! But here’s the thing—the moment we face what scares us about teaching, a whole world will open up. It is not by accident that we begin the sequence as children—moving slowly to honor the sun. Only then do we move into warrior. We cannot get to balance, grounding or any of the heart openers until we move through warrior.
Us. As. Warriors.
So please, in the name of all things sacred – have a good hard look at whatever dragon still haunts you and is blocking the gate to a strong finish. If it’s large and scary take out your sword and end it. When it falls—take a breath and bow.
It’s only fear – so you choose: Dragon Slayer or Dragon Rider?
Read the Original Article at Elephant Journal.
Join our NuPower Yoga Teacher Training students as they co-teach their graduation class. This is a FREE class. Join us for this beautiful afternoon of celebration!