My First Year

My first year as a Yoga teacher and what I've learned. Well hello sweet souls and welcome to my blog where you can follow my journey of life as a Yoga Instructor and a full time Family Nurse Practitioner. Let begin by taking a look back at the beginning and fast forward to today. In 2017 I decided to take a leap of faith and deep inner soul calling to join a teacher training course offered by Austin's school Yoga Yoga. The training course happened to be in my neighborhood, literally right across the street from my home at Sweet Soul Yoga Studio, how could I say no! Prior to that I had been practicing yoga intermittently for about 7 years. I was inconsistent with my practice but every time I went back to the mat I felt at home and in peace.

I was first personally introduced to Yoga at a local gym. I had no idea what I was looking for nor did I know what I was doing! I just jumped right in with no expectations or experience! Ok, maybe I did have a small expectation I wanted to try something new and exciting and I wanted to feel good. That's about it in a nutshell. Nobody told me where to go, or which class to take. I had no idea there was more than one type of yoga either. I had a gym membership and the gym was offering the yoga class at the time I was available, that was pretty much it. I have to admit I was a little intimidated and nervous about a group class at a gym. To give a little bit more background, I suck at group choreographed classes, for example, aerobic classes where the teacher is dancing and stepping to fast tempo music commanding everyone to hop, lift, and glide squat to the left, well I was the one always out of sync turning right way over thinking the commands, wait did she say squat than glide? Well needless to say I never felt like I quite fit into high impact aerobic classes or any class that was well choreographed with fast music. Hence my intimidation with starting a new group class at a gym. But I was in, committed and plopped down right in front of the class. Talk about bravery! I thought if I'm going to try this I better try it right by sitting smack dab in the front of the class so I can pay attention and listen to the instructors every command.

To back up a little more, I also had this preconceived notion of what the teacher would look like because after all I was a magazine junkie at the time, long before my Pinterest and Instagram perusing. Magazines kept me up to date with all the latest and greatest in fashion, health and what ever else the media at the time decided was phenomenal and beautiful. All I have to say is I thought a very tall 6 foot tall, beautiful model type woman was going to walk in to teach us how to do handstands for my first yoga class.

So here I am, with all my nervousness and ridiculous preconceived notions and in walks in a small, normal sized woman. The Yoga teacher was maybe about 5-4 and normal type woman, like myself. If I had to guess and she was probably in her 50's, oh and she had a Spanish accent. Well everything I had in my head was completely de-bunked and thrown out the window in less than 30 seconds. To this day I wish I could go back and remember all the fine details of that class. I wish I could remember the poses she taught or even how I followed her instructions or even just her name! I wish I could go back and hug her and just thank you her for introducing me to yoga in the beautiful way that she did. Thank you for planting a little yoga seed that I would continue to grow and flourish and bring me here today. But sadly I don't. The one thing I do remember is the impression she left on my heart. I left class feeling as if she had given my soul a hug. To this day, seven years later I find myself still thinking about her class and the lifelong impact she left on my life.

I can vividly remember the class beginning and then the class was over. A one hour class was like five minutes. I had entered this yoga time warp of rest, connection, and relaxation. I can remember her telling the class to not compare your self with others, she most definitely had a way to reassure her class with her words. At the end of the class she left a little positive, affirmation note at the end of everyone's mat for us to read and take home. After that I can remember how I felt emotionally more than physically. I felt a warm embodiment of inner peace. I felt like I had found something more than just an exercise or a yoga class. I had found my deepest, inner self.

Fast forward to today and I'm now teaching at that little studio in my neighborhood on Thursday nights. I also teach an outdoor class on Saturdays at The Botanical Gardens. I have continued to learn and grow emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically through yoga. I love teaching and I love to serve by offering a little bit of light, love, and inspiration in all my classes just like my first yoga teacher taught me.