I had been thinking about doing yoga teacher training for a while, but an intensive training never really crossed my mind, as at the time, I didn’t think I’d take time off from working to do it. However, once I had decided in my mind I wanted to long term travel in South America, I knew it was the perfect time to do yoga teacher training.
A few days before arriving in Montañita for yoga teacher training, the anxiety started– what if everyone is an Instagram worthy yogi and can do all these fancy poses? What if everyone comes in knowing all the yoga philosophy? What if all they wear is Lululemon?
Not the case whatsoever. Everyone else was just like me. I feel like Montañita, Casa del Sol, and Authentic Yoga Teacher Training with Cheryl was just what I needed, and occurred right when I needed it. Funny how that works, yeah?
I’m still trying to digest the experience and everything I’ve learned the past month. Honestly, there are really no words to fully explain. All I can say is I am beyond thankful to have met and learned beside the people I can call family.
what an intensive yoga teacher training is like
Think back to college. You’re living with your best friends, so you wake up and see them every morning. You’re walking around campus and of course run into someone you know. You go to a dining hall to eat and run into your friend there and join them. You go to class and sitting beside them every day (in this case, sitting on the floor of a yoga studio). Throw in lots of chanting, asana practice, adjusting, workshops, studying and that is exactly how the past month has been at Casa del Sol.
I don’t think I’m alone when I say I thought, yoga for 30 straight days? I’m totally going to be able to do (insert pose here) after that. Can I do that peak pose now? Nahhh. But that does not mean my practice has not been deepened.
I mean of course, doing yoga two to four hours a day does mean I have found more steadiness and ease in some more challenging poses. However, before I got here, I honestly did not know too much about yoga philosophy or history. Each morning we spent the first two hours learning and chanting yoga sutras (the 196 sutras are the principles and basic teachings of yoga). Very simply: they sum up how to live a meaningful and purposeful life. Sounds corny to say they’ve been life changing, yeah? But honestly they have.
vitarka-bādhane pratiprakṣa-bhāvanam – “when faced with something negative, cultivate the opposite” (II.33)
you’ll make friends from around the world
Not only has my yoga practice deepened, but I have developed some great friendships. Coming here I was hesitant about allowing myself to be open enough to new deep relationships as I tend to be somewhat guarded. I had a shared room and one of the first nights just talking about why we came with one my roommates, it turned into a conversation where I felt like we had known each other forever (we also may have had a little bit of a bonding experience over a mouse visiting our room the first night… but that’s another story). I hadn’t shared an actual room with anyone since freshmen year in college, but now it’s hard to imagine that not being part of the experience for me as we’d just lay in bed talking before falling asleep every night.
And sure, I’ve probably done navasana (boat pose) hundreds of times over the past month, but honestly my abs are sore from laughing so much. My classmates, and now friends, were from all over (Germany, Finland, Canada, France, USA, Austria) and each brought something great to the experience. I’ve only just left and already missing them. After spending a month in a bubble with them, our jokes became all we knew. I mean, how many people are going to understand the weird yoga/Sanskrit jokes now?! And honestly, the yoga sutras chanted are pretty dang catchy, so we were all humming them (in a few cases, rapping them haha) the entire month… so that will be interesting when someone on my travels asks me what I’m singing.
To put it in simple words– if you’re thinking about doing yoga teacher training, just do it! By doing the intensive yoga training in Ecuador at Casa del Sol, I not only deepened my practice, but also developed amazing friendships with people who live around the world!
If you have any questions by yoga teacher training, and especially specifically the program I did in Montanita, please let me know!
