Yoga Teacher Training Notes

What I really want is a masters degree in Health Psychology, and a mental health counseling license.  In the mean time, I'll add to my wellness certifications, and start the process of yoga teacher training.  One bucket list item I have is to study yoga therapy at the Kripalu Center, and this is step one. 

Along with ad-hoc asanas before/during/after my strength training routines, my yoga practice has consisted of one simple routine, the Joint Freeing Series from the book Structural Yoga Therapy by Mukunda Stiles.  During the pandemic, I decided to use this flow as my daily practice.  Since the poses are single-joint range of motion movements, I created an assess-and-practice routine to track progress on movement restrictions, weakness and pain. 

Repeating the same flow, at least occasionally, and tracking results, has helped me come a long way with multiple small nagging musculoskeletal problems.  A little wrist pain; a clicking elbow; neck tension; shoulder weakness.  I have very mild hip arthritis and I discovered some hip joint weakness that I've been able to keep track of, and also improve. 

I've become a believer in assess/treat routines.  I'm just really happy with the yoga therapy model of practice. 

I have some imposter syndrome around yoga teacher training before I've even begun!  Only a fraction of yoga is asana... and I'm concerning myself with mostly pranayama (breathing practice), asana (posture practice), and mindfulness practice.   Doesn't yoga involve a deep understanding of the Bhagvad Gita, chakras, mudras, etc.?  And when it comes to asana, I have been injured by poses I've come to understand as problematic (for me, and more broadly).  So to see teachers in deep bends and think I have to learn to teach this... well that's just a mind dump on why I've been hesitating to do this. 

But my first hours of study were this past Friday night.  I jumped to the end of the syllabus and heard a lecture on the four traditional paths of yoga.  In the end, philosophy is one of my hobbies.  There is a lot of overlap in the ancient wisdom I've studied over the years.  I was so happy to find myself curious to get back into yoga philosophy.  Not every path is for everyone; feeling "less-than" because I'll feel I won't live the Bhagavad Gita 100%?  I can drop that. 

Practice was three different short sitting meditations, and a video on adapting sitting poses with props.  I'm committing to 5 minutes a day of seated meditation.  I did that twice yesterday, and this morning.  I'm just taking small steps, and trying to build a few practices into daily habits.