Today so far has been really interesting in the yoga training realm. I mean the day started in the most un-yogic way possible: loading my queen sized bed, box spring and all on to my aunts forerunner. Driving through torrential rain to get from newton to Cambridge. And then unloading and realizing exactly how much space I don't have. And in typical my fashion it pretty much stopped raining as we pulled up. So I have a bed in Cambridge which I'll be luck to sleep on tomorrow... If I lucky.
Well I could dwell on that but lets get back to what happened...finally...since its only been 3 wks..oops.
I came in very nervous. I realized that quickly most of the girls knew each other from teacher training. So I was like oh great here comes the feelings of being a social paraya. So I ended up talking to this one girl who also didn't know everyone which was excellent. So i knew there had to be others. But another one of my worst fears happened , that I was the most and I mean capital most inexperienced in the group...typical. Feelings of inadequacy welcome to the game.
But anyway, we started with a long chat about what assisting was and the goal and sort of things to expect in the training. Like don't be too hard on ourselves because its a very kinestetic teaching method which Ms. Textbook...me... was a bit unsure about. Understandably. But we commenced and an interesting thing happened. I had to hold back tears. We had a few warm up "games" and stuff. Then we learned the assist for child's pose. Definitely a good one since every class you spend a fair amount of time in it. And its a really good way to get someone to relax. If you're good at it...that is. Including in an hr of power class. So anyway we learned the basics about how to assist and then we got to practice on eachother. Which was a total yikes moment. So of course the very first time....i touched a person...ever... I was extremely tentative and just ok. Fortunately in child's pose there is little you can do to hurt them.
I realized how much of a need I have to want to do things "right". Maybe its the scientist in me. But definitely something I want to work on because other things its not good for the blood pressure. Fortunately with a kinestitic environment there is a lot of chances to practice. So as the day went on it became easier in that pose. Then we went on to assists in vinyasa assists (during a flow) Or breath assist. Those are a whole different ball game. Because the person is moving a lot. Though in some ways I like those better because since its so quick its almost like you get a chance to try something quick and leave so its also a quick abort. Like if you try and adjust someones shoulders or something. You can go in and try it but if you try something and finish and say that didn't feel right it was only a moment of the practice. Whereas if you assist someone in child's pose and they aren't feeling it or something its a lot harder to abort. So we practiced those a bunch and did this thing called the typewriter. Which is a fancy way to line everyone up and practice assists in a "class" setting. Which was good to at least simulate the speed of a real class. We broke for "dinner" and a bunch of use went to Life Alive. Demi Adventurer...YUM!!!
After dinner we did half pigeon assists. Which was also one that I was very excited about because it can feel amazing to have it done to you. But also has the potential to really hurt someone. I mean I've even hurt myself in half pigeon by trying to be too much of a badass.
It actually had a lot of similarities to child's pose assists. Also good. Much less to remember at the onset. Though this one is hard because there is a huge possibility to hurt someone because the knee is in a bad angle and a lot of people can't take the pose for that reason. But it is a really cool assist because it feels really good. I got to practice on Ray for this one which was awesome because its good to practice on a person who is bigger than me.
I feel like we did something else but I don't remember.
At the end of the practice class we had a 20 min or so restorative practice. Can I say heaven. Especially since I was sore already because it was the first day that i had done yoga in a month. During this practice Ray did a spinal traction on me which was unbelievable. I was excited to learn this assist because it was that good. I will definitely be using it.
After it was all over I walked to whole foods and picked up some stuff. In my usual fashion I roamed around the store for awhile because I was tired. I did get my favorite chocolate peanut butter and spinach and baby kale. And I've been enjoying salads all week. I went back to check on my bed... still wet. Off to newton for the night.
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