I’ve just finished my second weekend of practical teacher training and I’m feeling really positive about the journey I’ve started.

As with most things, the more I learn, I realise how much more there is to learn – but isn’t that sort of the point? You can train for years and still discover new things; continue to progress both in your physical practice and spiritual understanding. I love that about yoga!

In terms of my physical practice, I am definitely seeing an improvement in strength, stamina and flexibility which I mostly attribute to finding a connection with the breath. Of course, this is also down to practising more regularly and paying close attention to correct posture and technique, but breathing is a huge part of yoga practice.

In addition to the obvious physical progression, I am learning a lot about the philosophy of yoga. There is so much to get my head around, but it really is fascinating stuff if you have the patience for it. For example, we had an interesting discussion this weekend about the ‘6 causes of success’ discussed in The Hatha Yoga Pradipika; something that I previously knew nothing about.

A big hurdle I’m struggling to overcome is my understanding of Sanskrit. As a teacher, I must learn the names of every posture in its original language to properly understand the practice. To this end, I am filling my notebook with sketches of each posture, along with its English and Sanskrit names (spelt phonetically, so I can pronounce them!) and plan to study each one until I know them all by heart. It’ll take some time, but I’m in no hurry. The further I progress into my training, the more I’ve come to realise that there really is no point rushing this stuff. When it’s ready, everything will fall into place.

So after Weekend Two of practical teacher training, I left feeling refreshed, motivated and excited to take on the challenges this month has in store. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity to learn more about what I love.

Teacher Training:  Anatomy Workshop

This weekend we had a fantastic Anatomy Workshop, lead by one of the other trainee teachers who is a physiotherapist. She explained the inner workings of the muscles and bones with such clarity, that something I’d previously never had much interest in, became really fascinating. It’s important for us as yoga teachers to understand these things, in order to tailor our classes to suit a range of abilities and find alternative postures for those with injuries or difficulties.

A really great book that I can recommend on this subject, is Yoga Anatomy by Leslie Kaminoff & Amy Matthews. It’s a fantastic book to clearly illustrate what happens to the body during yoga practice and is both detailed and accessible for those (like me) without a huge amount of prior knowledge.