first day at intensive yoga teacher training

Hola friends!

It's 8:00 right now here in Tulum, Mexico. I just returned to my treehouse over the carribean sea. See the picture above? When I'm lying in my bed and look out, all I see is the most amazing sea. :)

It was quite the day. My alarm went off and 5:00 for me to study ayurveda, as my midterm is perfectly timed for me to take as soon as I return home. Talk about being able to relate to the students here about test anxiety! I didn't actually study ayurveda though. I spent about an hour prepping/reviewing materials for the day.

At 6:10 I walked next door to Cabanas La Luna where almost all the students are staying. Arrived at our operation asana space. Turned on music (i brought ipod and ihome speakers), lit incense (was super impressed that i was able to strike these baby Mexico matches, certainly a first), rolled my mat out, set my props and books up, just as students were filing in for us to begin at 6:30.

We did a class together focusing on sun salutations (classical version, and A & B) and a 20 minute meditation. This took us to 8:30 which was breakfast time. yay! Delicious and beautiful food to feed the hungry and hard working yogi's. It's not a leisure breakfast though. We're back at 9:00 diving into more training.

9:00 - 12:30 we spend discussing sun salutes, breaking down each of the poses in the sun salutations. Looking at ways to approach, ways to modify, what to consider, and sooo much more. We do group work where the 3 groups break down one of the sun alutes and write 3 cues for each pose. And everybdoy teaches for 10 minutes! Yes, we just dive in. It is a yoga teacher training. It's good. Really good. I continue to be amazed at each training about how quickly the time goes.

We break for lunch & siesta 12:30 - 2:30. I eat, take a 20 minute dip in the sea, shower, get dressed, and return for the yoga party. We spend the next hour (2:30 - 3:30) discussing the framework of a yoga class and qualites of yoga teachers. It's inspiring for me to hear the things/qualities these students love in their teachers from all around. In discussing teachers we also let ourselves be open to pondering wonderfulness of all teachers that we've encountered.

Tracy is here and she finished the day by teaching anatomy from 3:30-6:30. Half was lecture and half was lab. Of course everyone thinks Tracy is just the cutest person. And she quite possibly is. I think that all students should sign up for yoga teacher training just to be around Tracy's bubbly, cute self in presenting this material. Cute as a button she is. :) yes I said that.

We clap. We high five. We've just made it through the first day of yoga teacher training!

So satisfying to see these students intrigued by their body, the poses, and this whole process. I'm pretty impressed by the group. Such a great, diverse group from all over. And they're sooo cool! Such rich lives. AND they love yoga. And they're open to doing things differently. And they really want to get it.

I'm a very happy camper right now perched up in my treehouse. I'm pretty darn tired. But happy. Looking forward to tomorrow. Which gets started at 5:00. Which means bunenas noches mi amigas.

Love to all of you.