I’m on the tube on my way back home after my first Pregnancy Yoga teacher training day. I know as soon as I’ll meet Luca I’ll shower him with the uncontainable excitement that I’ve built up throughout the day. I jokingly summed it up to him over the phone in “an amazing geeking out session of yoga and pregnancy”. In my teacher training diary I want to recount the million emotions and positive energy this 9 to 6 day has stored up for me so far.
I made sure I got there on time as I didn’t want to be in rush and flustered as I arrived. The room was still empty and Cherie was just setting up. She’s the director of Yoga Mama and till that moment I had just emailed her and didn’t have the faintest idea of what she looked like. She welcomed me with kindness and warmth.
Slowly all the other women enrolled, made their entrance in the room, gentle smiles exchanged, soft gazes at each other picking up on the first vibes and just trying to find someone who looked friendly enough to sit next to. I went for the mat close to a girl who in some way reminded me of my friend Mandy even though she looked like she had Indian heritage.
The few admin bits were shortly out of the way and the journey of us sharing who we are and what brought us to the course started. I was truly interested in every single one of them. I don’t think I lost focus at any one point. The observant side of me was trying to pick up on little things that I could then remember of them and associate them with. I was surprised at how many of us were pregnant. I was the furthest in. I loved that us pregnant ladies were free to sit, stand, move, snack and we were treated with a lot of TLC.
Everyone openly shared deep details of why they were there and slowly we felt like we were building that circle of trust where people felt like they could lay bare their truths. Something beautiful was said about this “sharing your truth is what allows people to let everyone else be okay with sharing theirs”.
I felt emotional at some points during the day which could be down to the hormones but I am sure it was also because of the strong energy that was flowing around. I noticed the same palpable energy in every room I walked in with lots of pregnant women. It’s beautiful that we all sit there with the consciousness of being in the process of creating life.
We followed the manual and at any each point we would stop to share experiences, views, ask question and the conversation was flowing easily and the time passing rapidly.
A lot was shared specially when it came to the women who were earlier in their pregnancy and might had not heard of certain conditions or general information like hypnobirthing. I shared my experience and recommend it to many of the moms. Hopefully if they go ahead with it they will feel the same benefits we got from the course.
The day was made much more comfortable by a short yoga nidra session which made me feel full of energy straight after.
Teacher Training journal part.2
I didn’t do my journal for the following 2 days of the first part of the training as my working week started immediately after and of course I got caught in the vortex of day to day things.
More material was covered, women’s health physiotherapy was quite a full on topic from which I feel like I learned the most. We observed a beautiful class and started working on structuring our own class. I soaked up so much from the exchange with the other women, with Cherie and the lecturers. We created a very sacred space around us of which we were the strong pillars. “Am I the only one feeling this?”. i kept asking myself. That sense of safety. You question it because until then those people were strangers to you but it’s in those moments that you realise that we are actually all connected.
And that takes me right to a catalyst moment of our 2nd part of training. It was actually the last day, Sunday. We all sat in a circle and we were asked to pass a wollen ball of yarn after having spoken of a woman who has inspired you. Little did we know that sacred space would have turned into a bonfire of strong and enlightening truths that lie ordinarily beneath our smiles and what can look from the outside like a perfectly content soul. It was all very beautifully cathartic, not only the thread was connecting our wrists but our tears and broken words all linked somehow, in one way or another.
We practised our class plans with the consciousness that to do this job you ought to be real, you ought to bring softness and mindfulness in, because that is what connects you to your students and to other people. “Be strong but not too strong” one of the teachers said.
I gave and received so much in these days from all the women who were there to learn just like me but also from the teacher and lecturers. I find that if the “leader” of a group, a community, a school has integrity and knows how to nurture the people around her, empowering them and respecting them, that group, community or school will radiate of a light so bright and warm. That is how I feel right now and I’m sure my baby feels that too.
