TT: Second Weekend
This was the second weekend of Black Dog Teacher Training and I had the students all by myself on Sunday for a few hours.
What a treat it was, what a joy! This is truly a dream come true. We sat in a circle and centered with the Om. I reminded them of how Om is made up of three sounds and four parts. Of how the first sound, the "A" sound symbolizes creation. I asked them to journal briefly about what is new in their lives right now, what is being created. Then when we sang the Om, it had more resonance, more meaning.
We then went over the Yamas, and in particular satya.
Then I asked if they could name the Sanskrit and English names of all the poses in Surya A and Surya B. And they could!
Here's the thing- already in their second weekend they can name all the poses in the Sun Salutes, they can do them and most impressively, they teach them to each other! Incredible.
We then went through anatomy (which I love) and I focused on the major bones in terms of relationships to other bones. I also taught them what to look for in Tadasana and in doing so, they would find that alignment in every other pose.
That is: feet parallel, thighbones back, top of the armbones back, head in line with the spine, etc...
We then played a memory anatomy game to see if they remembered the anatomical names of the bones and they did!
We ended with viloma pranayama.
I had such a blast with them, and at the end of the session they clapped and I almost cried.
I can't wait to see them next week.
Oh, one more thing. I reminded them how important it is to find the good first. Even thought this training is not Anusara, I still think this is a critical note to remember as yoga teachers. To always find the good first in the students. Otherwise you will always be looking at what your students are doing wrong and always be noticing what's negative. They really were grateful for that.
We then did an exercise where I "tested" them- I had a student stand in Tadasana and I asked them to tell me the first thing that they "see." Everyone said misalignments. I kept asking and asking until slowly they realized and started to say what was beautiful about Cindy, the lovely yogi who was doing the pose. And once they started saying what was beautiful, they couldn't stop!
I reminded them to look for the good first.
I then read a powerful quote from Marshall Rosenberg, the founder of Non Violence Communication:
"Telling someone what was wrong with them
never got me what I wanted from them."
Such good stuff....
Good night!
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