Svadhyaya

The last few days I have been focusing on STUDY or SVADHYAYA, the Sanskrit word (and also the 4th Niyama) which means self-study or the "education of the self by study of divine literature" (from B.K.S. Iyengar's Light on Yoga). When I practiced on Monday, I thought to myself "love" on each inhale and "study/svadhyaya" on each exhale. Again this morning when I practiced (for 50 minutes this morning! Which is a long time for me to practice in the morning before going to work) I made "svadhyaya" my intention, and I brought it to mind several times throughout the practice. I used the sequence I wrote the other day that I plan to teach this weekend. Then I deviated after half of it in order to take headstand and handstand.

Last night I joined a study group to begin reviewing and preparing for the final exam September 9th. Although I heard that there would be about 5 or 6 fellow students, there was only 2 of us. I was happy with how productive we were. We went through some of the questions on the study guide that we were given a couple weeks ago. It helps me a lot to avoid procrastination when I have a study buddy. I am grateful to the host for providing a space and structuring the time for a weekly study group from now until the exam. She said next time she would like to focus on learning the asana Sanskrit names, and that goal is in line with my own needs. For a long time I've been aware of the challenge it is to learn the Sanskrit names of the poses. Even before this course began I started to make flash cards for learning them. I have learned some, but there are many more to learn. I can see now that I can do it and I can see times and ways to do it.

This weekend is the last weekend of classes. We have August off to study (and continue with our individual yoga practices). This weekend is all review classes with 3 different teachers. We aren't learning anything new, just preparing for the test. I think we will be well prepared for the test in September. I'm gearing up for the work ahead and enjoying the process so far.

Sequencing

After being sick for a couple weeks, I recovered and had such a great weekend. Yoga teacher training class on Saturday was AWESOME. I learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence in one 3 hour workshop. I taught a group of 20 classmates and I did well. I feel like I'm finally gaining an understanding of how to sequence a yoga class.

Yesterday (Monday) I spent 3 hours creating a class sequence for a group of friends that I plan to teach on Saturday. I looked over all my notes on sequencing, looked up descriptions of a lot of poses, made a list of poses I'd like to teach, and then put the list in an order that made sense. Then I practiced the sequence and made a couple adjustments to the sequence. I'm so relieved to have the sequence fully written out, because I'd been thinking about writing it for weeks and was starting to procrastinate. I'm really starting to have a solid basic knowledge of how to teach yoga and structure classes. It is exciting.