Yoga teacher trainings are tiring, long, brain intensive and absolutely delightful. It's one of the very rare times I feel like I truly belong.
Yoga teacher trainings always give me a good reminder of my dharma.
This year though, I attended training with a big clunky boot cast on my foot. Six weeks ago I fractured my foot, sprained my ankle and did some damage to the ligaments in the ankle. Yeah me! I've got a couple more weeks to go in the boot and then physical therapy.
When it was time for the yoga practice part of the day, everyone looked at me and my boot.
Oh, no worries, I'm taking this thing off and doing some yoga!
As a yoga teacher, I'm always telling my students to ground evenly through their feet. Spread the toes. Root down in order to lift up.
Oh, sweet baby Jesus, mother **%*, damn that hurts! And all I did was try to spread my toes.
Now, in years past, I would have been totally willing to amputate the foot myself and keep going. In times past, there was no way I would even consider not keeping up with the class or not finding the full expression of the poses.
But, this time, I accepted down dog was out of the question. I was fine with modifying the poses and in a couple cases, even doing a completely different pose that was accessible to me while the class did something else.
I think I'm actually, finally, maturing in my yoga practice.
After ten years, 500 hours of Yoga Alliance recognized teacher trainings, I can't even count how many hours of teaching, my own hit or miss yoga practice, I do believe I am now practicing yoga.
Yoga as it is meant to be practiced.
Wow, that's impressive! I've had a few odd experiences when I've been at my yoga classes I can tell you. Except I won't because frankly I don't come out of the stories too well if you know what I mean! I too feel that I've matured into my yoga after many years. My chi feels like a fine wine.
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