Loving the Yoga Teacher Training with Laurel Hodory & Faculty!

By Leah Moody currently enrolled in the winter 2014 Yoga Teacher Training with Laurel Hodory & Faculty

To my lovely teacher trainers Laurel, Sally & Mary!
 
I just finished listening to the Yoga Experience lectures and am finishing the self-reflection lessons this week. I have so much gratitude for the influence that you and your teacher training program have in my life!
 
The holiday break in the middle of my teacher training program has been a tremendous blessing! Let me explain.

As a master’s student at OSU, it took me a full week of living without pressure, deadlines, and a bombardment of information to realize that even with my daily practice of asana and meditation, the haste and chaos of repeatedly full days inevitably takes its toll on me both physically and mentally.  The constant motion and noise of my days also affects my authenticity. 

While listening to the Yoga Experience lectures about the yamas, I made the connection that satya, truthfulness or authenticity, is the one that I struggle with most. I thought I would share with you a portion of my Yoga Experience self-reflection assignment on this topic here.

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I’m realizing the importance of having prolonged, unstructured time for both physical and mental digestion of experiences and deep rejuvenation in order to truly live authentically.  During the past two years I think I have deceived myself into believing that my body and mind are capable of rejuvenating in just one day or the random afternoon I have off.  Now I realize that my body, my mind and my soul are capable of having shallow rejuvenation during these short time periods – only enough to get me through the week or the next exam – but not enough to have an actual, true, deep, complete rejuvenation of my body, my soul, my mind, my true self and my authenticity.

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Being the first time in over a year that I have had this much “time off” from my responsibilities (yoga included), I now realize how unbalanced, or untruthful I have been to myself.  It took two weeks of nothingness for my mind to get out of cruise-control mode and for me to realize that time off is not something that I can choose to skip out of in order to accomplish more.  On the contrary I now see that time off is something that my soul needs and craves in order to live truthfully to myself, no different than my body needing food and water.  Prolonged peace and quiet is a basic human need.  And most importantly, it is up to me and me alone to pursue and protect that time, which can be easier said then done in a collegiate atmosphere.
 
In the past weeks I have been writing and reading more than I have in years.  I have been spending time connecting with people who I otherwise wouldn’t and smelling lavender oil and running again.  I have had the time to drink jasmine tea, watch the birds for hours without interruption, and reflect on where I have been and who I want to be.  I’ve realized that it takes time, and a lot of it, before my vrites, my mind chatter actually begins to calm.  From now on, I am going to protect my time for rejuvenating my soul – for relaxation and creative expression — just as intentionally as I pursue eating daily.
 
I’m SO excited for the teacher training program to continue on January 10th!  This program has truly been transformative.  I’m confident I will continue to mentally and physically digest the wisdom that it has brought me for years and years to come.
 
It now seems almost insufficient to say it but thank you for being a catalyst for my growth.
 
With love and peace,
 
Leah