Blogging my way through 230 hours of yoga teacher training, starting tomorrow!

I'll keep this short and sweet since I've got studying to do.  Tomorrow is the official start of my 230 hours of Veda Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training at Open Heart Yoga School!  We're kicking things off with an anatomy quiz, so I'm dusting off my old textbooks tonight. 
Two weekends ago, John and I went to a beautiful evening of kirtan with Prema Hara, and they were truly amazing.  They've got a new album coming out on April 12.  Check it out! 
Love love love...

Lazy Blogini

I haven't blogged for a few weeks, due in equal parts to laziness, busyness, and time mismanagement.  But I'm back, and I've got a super exciting new yoga adventure coming up!  In a few weeks, I'll be starting Open Heart Yoga School's 230-hour, six-month Veda Vinyasa yoga teacher training program with the amazing Allison Dennis.  I did a shorter Anusara Yoga immersion and teacher training back in 2004 with the lovely and talented Mona DeFrawi at Quantum Yoga in Baltimore (now under new ownership as Baltimore Yoga Village), and taught beginner-level classes in the Baltimore area for a while.  Back then, I was still figuring out my career path and who I was as a person, so I didn't stick with teaching for very long.
Ready to delve into a deeper exploration of yoga asana and philosophy, I decided that it is time to do another training so that I may share the amazing gift of yoga with others once again and with greater knowledge and experience.

We are so blessed in the Chapel Hill/Durham/Raleigh metropolitan area (the "Triangle" for y'all non-Carolinians) with a plethora of places to practice yoga and to train to become teachers, including (but certainly not limited to):

• Open Heart Yoga School, linked above, is a donation-based and spiritually-focused yoga studio in the heart of the lovely town of Carrboro where I am blessed and grateful to live.
• Carrboro Yoga Company, another amazing Carrboro studio, offers a wide variety of styles and levels of classes (everything from Yoga for Athletes to Kunga Vinyasa to Yoga for Recovery).  I practice there often and especially enjoy classes with Molly Drake, Melissa Peng (on maternity leave now, but back soon!), and Michelle Johnson.  I recently tried co-owner Sage Rountree's Yoga for Athletes, and was pleasantly surprised (see my blog post on the subject for more).  CYCo. usually offers several free classes monthly, or donation-based classes whose proceeds benefit charities such as the Orange County Rape Crisis Center or Goathouse Refuge.  They have two different teacher training programs, too: one with a variety of great local teachers and one with the Asheville-based Stephanie Keach, who is a true master. 
• Triangle Yoga is home to superstar Anusara instructors Paul and Sommer Sobin and Aerial Dance instructor extraordinaire Rebecca Drake.  Triangle offers many workshops with master yoga teachers throughout the year, including Paul Grilley this May.  
• Franklin Street Yoga Center, right on Franklin Street in the heart of Chapel Hill, offers Baron Baptiste-style power yoga classes.  Although I don't make it there too often, I especially enjoy the super fun and light-hearted Rock Your Asana class with studio owner Lori Burgwyn. 
• Blue Point Yoga Center, right across the street from Duke's West Campus, offers a variety of yoga and Pilates classes and OM Yoga teacher training.  
• Patanjali's Place is another Durham yoga space.  I haven't yet had the opportunity to visit, but I hear great things. 
• Hillsborough Yoga and Healing Arts, a bit north of Chapel Hill/Carrboro in Orange County, offers a variety of yoga classes, along with Nia, bellydance, and Pilates. 

(This list doesn't even begin to include the rest of Durham or any of Raleigh.)  

The decision regarding the right training program was initially complicated by the number of programs available, but became simple when I stumbled upon the right fit for my particular yogic interests, schedule, and financial situation with the right instructor.

My first assignment is to re-read Yoga and Vegetarianism by Sharon Gannon.  I initially read this text after taking a Jivamukti workshop with Gannon at CYCo. in February of 2009.  As a 14-year vegetarian and occasional vegan who has incorporated a small amount of humanely-raised meat into my diet over the past two years, I'm looking forward to revisiting the ethics of eating, one of my favorite philosophical topics. 

Days 12, 13, 14

A nice, restful weekend was in order following the crazy busyness of my work week.  On Friday night, I did the Day 12 Peak Pose Sequence (Bakasana).  Instructor Jason Crandell choreographed a moderately challenging, progressive sequence to open the hips and strengthen the arms and core in preparation for the main event, bakasana (crow pose).  After successfully lifting my toes off the mat for a few moments, I felt rather accomplished and ready to celebrate my bakasana success, so I walked the few steps from my house (brr, it was cold!) to Johnny's to indulge in a treat from the taco truck.
I didn't do a yoga practice yesterday. I did some laundry and light house cleaning, talked on the phone with some family and friends, cooked a simple pasta dish for dinner, and read several chapers of the fantastic book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.  
This morning, John and I got up and had a yummy biscuit at Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, then went to Grace Church to meet his family for Sunday service.  After devouring several more chapters of my book, I did the Day 10 Core Focus sequence and the Day 13 Tension Release Shoulder Openers Sequence.  The Core Focus sequence is a repeat from last week (and well worth doing again and again).  The Shoulder Openers sequence was low-key, but would be excellent to do at the office during my lunch break.  The whole sequence is performed in a chair, and all of the movements are a good foil to the actions of hunching over a computer, talking on the phone, and sitting stationary for most of the day.  
Tonight, I think I'll cook that soup I've been planning to cook all week long, then enjoy a new episode of Big Love.

Day 11

After spending most of the day sitting in chairs in meetings, my back welcomed the opportunity to explore several variations of shalabasana during the Day 11 Aligning and Refining Backbends practice.  Elise Lorimer introduced several interesting arm variations intended to open the shoulders during the standing poses portion of the practice.  Lorimer seems to love one of my least favorite asanas, utkatasana (chair pose), weaving it in to nearly every sequence she has led during the Yoga Journal 21 Day Challenge and providing me with multiple opportunities to practice non-aversion.   

Day 9

Work sucked today. I'm a Pharmacy Benefits Counselor, which seemed to have gotten confused somehow with Pharmacy Magic Worker. The day following a weekday holiday is always challenging in the Hematology Oncology Clinic, because we have to treat all the patients we normally would have scheduled for the previous day, and deal with all the prior authorization requests and other insurance (or lack thereof, more often) issues that we would have handled that day as well. Normally, I maintain a calm attitude and handle it all with relative grace, but today I nearly lost it.  Everything went wrong, it seemed, from the vending machine eating my $1.25 without giving me my caffeine fix to being transferred by Aetna a record seven times in 57 minutes while trying to obtain authorization for a patient's pain medication, on which he has been stable for nearly three years. At one point, I hastily scarfed down six mini Twix bars.  The day got progressively better, thankfully (I got that OxyContin authorization after all) but I was elated when the clock struck 4:30pm.  All I wanted to do when I got home was lie down on the sofa and numb my brain, courtesy of Time Warner Cable.  But I knew I'd feel better if I did my yoga practice.
So, for Day 9 of the Yoga Journal 21-Day Challenge, I did Day 8's "Fun Flow". (I'll admit it: I was hungover on Day 8 and didn't do anything.)  Elise Lorimer led another lovely mandala vinyasa sequence, followed by some back-bending and hip openers.  It was slightly more challenging than I'd been hoping for, but by then end of the 45-minute practice, all the stress of my day had melted away. John even joined me for a few forward folds at the end. 
As Judith Lasater reminds us on January 16 in A Year of Living Your Yoga, "Yoga does not solve our problems."  True, but it sure puts them back into perspective and helps us handle them with more ease, gently reminding us when we've gotten out of balance and pulling us back toward center.  

  

Day 7

A third of the way through the Yoga Journal 21-Day Challenge!  My friend Gia, a yoga teacher and all-around awesome gal who lives in DC, was kind enough to agree to do the challenge with me, and we've both made reasonable modifications along the way (e.g., she counted teaching yoga as her practice one day, and I counted practicing ahimsa toward myself as my practice on another day) but we've made it this far.  We agree that the challenge sequences vary wildly in difficulty.  For instance, today's Day 7 Evening Sequence is appropriate for all levels of yoga practitioners.  However, as experienced yoginis, we both found the Day 5 Hanumanasana "Peak Pose" sequence quite challenging.     
I didn't post a blog yesterday, but I did both the Day 6 Tension Release Hip Opener Sequence and the Day 5 Hanumanasana sequence, in that order.  It worked out well, because the hip opening I achieved from the first sequence helped me release further into hanumanasana in the following sequence. 

Yoga Journal 21-Day Yoga Challenge Day 5

Today, I did the Day 4 Aligning and Refining Practice: Standing Poses with Jason Crandell, followed by a repeat of Day 3's 20-Minute Core Focus with Rebecca Urban.  The standing poses sequence focused on good alignment and stability in the postures, and reminded me of the way my former Anusara Yoga teacher, Mona DeFrawi, used to teach them.  This is another sequence I'll do again.  

I'm keeping it brief today because I am exhausted and hungry, but I've got a three-day weekend to look forward to!