YTT Weeks 12-14 - Presentations, Inversions and Anatomy

I am way behind on all of these posts, it has been a busy couple of weeks!  We had some presentations these past few weeks and learned a bit of anatomy and inversions, I will recap and attach notes/documents here if you're interested.  :)

April 6th (Week 12):

We listened to the rest of the presentations on the Yamas/Niyamas from the week before, and people's spiritual/religious beliefs and their relationship to yoga.  I love personal presentations, or really any time I get to spend with my classmates during lunch or before class, I love getting to know these yogis as people.  This is the fun part about teacher training, in my opinion.  I wrote about my personal/spiritual beliefs in relation to yoga, here.

We also talked a bit about inversions to prepare us for our next 4 poses that we were going to learn.  Some notes about inversions:

• Youthfulness, keeps you young.
• Brings venous blood from lower body into torso.
• Helps prolapsed organs.
• Activates sluggish organs.
• Balances metabolism.
• Supports function of endocrine glandular system.
• Deepens ability to focus and concentrate.
• Strengthens self esteem.
• When giving instructions – refer to points on the body or areas in the room – disorienting.  Always demo poses first.
• Big poses – can offer a lot but there is a lot of responsibility that goes along with teaching them.  Must understand your audience first.

April 13th & 15th (Week 13):

We had our first Anatomy lecture on Wednesday night and then continued it on Friday.  The women presenting is VERY knowledgeable about anatomy, loves it and has so much information in her head that it makes it confusing to us, as students.  A few of us left a bit disappointed in how the night went on Wednesday and then on Friday I still left confused.  She is one of those "put your notes down and just listen, let it all soak in" type of people and being a teacher, I am SO not this person.  Plus, knowing how the brain works and how when you learn things you MUST put them into practice right away or you'll forget them, this just doesn't make sense to me.  I remember nothing and am happy we have our book to help us study for our test in the middle of May.  I would just love to know what we need to know and that's it, kind of an anatomy for dummies type presentation instead.

After the presentation on Wednesday she sent over a 120 page slideshow that she used, and after our meeting on Friday the slideshow was 74 slides total.  WAY too much information for this brain of mine.  I printed it out, of course, but it has no organization, no real sections or anything so it didn't really help in my confusion.  I have a lot of respect for our teacher, I do, but her lectures just made me realize that being a teacher is definitely an art form, you have to be able to take all that you know and put it in terms that newbies will understand.  Something that someone so knowledgeable and practiced will have trouble with.  Agh, two more anatomy sessions are coming and I'm not really looking forward to them.  (I won't even attach my notes here because I'm sure they make no sense.  Ha.)

April 16th (Week 13):

Today we learned 4 inversions:  Rabbit pose (sasangasana), legs up the wall (viparita karani), handstand (adho mukha vrksasana) and peacock pose (pincha mayurasana).  I have attached my flash cards here, if you'd like a copy.

I was proud of myself, I did all the inversions (at 34 weeks pregnant) and got up into handstand and pincha.  I am definitely heavier than I was, and have less arm strength, but my body remembered how to do it, so that was pretty neat.  However, like past yoga weekends, I totally wore myself out on Saturday so I was a complete waste of life on Sunday.  That will teach me to do ALL the poses, next time I won't so I can be kind of a human being on Sunday.  I learned my lesson!

Our teachers modeling some modifications for us:

April 20th (Week 14):

We did presentations tonight on medical issues that were given to us.  We were told to research them, give the history, causes, prevention and some yoga poses and/or breath work that would help with the condition, and that we could teach as teachers.  

Mine was sciatica, and I've never had sciatica, so I did my research online weeks before and made a really thorough document to explain/teach my condition.  However, tonight when we were supposed to present, I got dinged for not relating it to me personally, or finding someone that had the condition to talk to.  However, this was not in the requirements for the assignment so it kind of made me upset.  I also was told that my voice was quiet at first and then was ok, which is funny to hear since I've been teaching for 16 years.

I know that our teachers are there to help us, and I love them all and appreciate everything they've done for me, but I was kind of sad about my critique last week.  Everyone was really praised after theirs and I felt like the teachers were a bit hard on me.  

It's the weird thing because I've taught yoga classes for the past 8 years, have been a HS teacher for the past 16 and then am in yoga teacher training, something I thought was just natural to me, since I've already done it.  I am having to relearn how to teach it though, something I didn't expect, because I wasn't necessarily teaching it correctly all of these years.  It is interesting because I thought I had an advantage over the other people in teacher training but am finding that I actually have a disadvantage, because I'm having to be reprogrammed.  And, maybe that's why they are a bit harder on me than the others?  And listen, they were not "hard on me" at all in what they said, but I took it like that and would probably agree that I am just extra sensitive, carrying this baby and all.  Oh and being a teacher, following the assignment exactly and as a perfectionist.  Hahahhaa.  Let it go.

Anyway, if you have sciatica and are interested in yoga poses/breathing that can help, here is my presentation with sources.  Enjoy!