If you've ever done your yoga teacher training, it's hard to explain the experience to someone else, because there's simply nothing like it. Have you ever wondered what it's like to be right smack in the middle of it? Gina Anderson, recent Evolation graduate, shares a day in the life.

Evolation Yoga encourages journalling during our trainings because it's a great way to track your day-to-day progress. We often have journalling workshops to help you perfect this tool that so many yogis carry with them beyond their trainings. 

If you're interested in applying for your yoga teacher training, this can be an insight into what you can expect. If you've already completed your certification, perhaps it'll bring you back to those transformational days of your yoga teacher training...

Gina ANDERSON

250 hour Flow Training - Buffalo, New York - June 4th-30th

#yogastory

Day 7 (June 11th 2018)

It’s the beginning of the second week! I’m learning so much, every day. And everything is fascinating!

Today during Posture Mechanics we discussed the Sun Salutations – Surya Namaskar A and Surya Namaskar B. We walked through alignment and cues. And we did an exercise on Chaturanga with broadening out through the upper back to understand the feeling of the correct alignment and how to guide students to find it. We also taught some of the poses and got feedback. I had good rhythm but need to add more cues for upward-facing dog and downward-facing dog. Kelly encouraged us to record ourselves teaching, as an improvement tool; she also said it could be helpful to become aware of any thinking language. We also discussed Ujjayi breath – what’s is all about, how it works, etc.

We practiced teaching each other outside on the lawn during Group Study and after lunch. It’s not very hot here at the moment but it was sunny out! We’re working on mastering the Sun Salutations, with the breath cues, and also developing our own integration/warm-up sequence.

We’ve been teaching every day since Day 2 of the program – first one posture at a time and now we’re linking multiple poses together. In Teaching Clinic today we taught Sun Salutations – I need to be careful with breath cues and make sure they’re smooth. Watching other people teach and listening to their delivery style and cues is really helpful for improving my own teaching. And getting concrete feedback is very useful. Teaching every day has helped me learn so much, and progressively feel more confident with teaching.

Philosophy Lectures have been really good – mostly on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras so far, but this evening we started on the Chakras, which was fascinating. I’ve heard of Chakras before but never specifically studied them. We discussed them one by one and also related them to everyday life. Chakras are energy centers in the body. Ideally energy should move dynamically through your body, but any blockages can lead to emotional or physical imbalances and even illness. Chakras can also been seen as perceptual filters – how do you understand the outside world? With a focus on grounding or communication or openness?

Doing yoga every day is making me feel great! Even through the program is intense – long hours, lots of information to learn and teaching every day, etc. – I’ve been feeling good. We have at least one class per day (or more!) plus we do poses during posture mechanics to feel things in our own body, as well as in teaching clinic.

It’s been really great to connect with everyone in the program! Some people are doing hot training and others are doing flow training – and having a mix of both has been valuable. The first week some posture mechanics were combined – which was useful for understanding different approaches to the same posture. Everyone is already making progress! From the first day when we were all terrified about getting up and teaching until now when we’re already linking poses together and becoming more confident with our cues. It’s awesome.