I suppose, like most yogis, I was discovered by Yoga and not the other way around. I found Yoga when I was at the lowest point in my life. After a year of practicing yoga every day for 2 – 3 hrs, I decided that I really wished to share this passion with others by doing a yoga teacher training, and I chanced upon Shades of Yoga.
I was a beginner in many ways, I was pretty flexible but I had zero strength so I honestly did not know what to expect from the shades of Yoga Teacher Training.
Shades of Yoga’s RYT200 HR was NOT easy, it was intense and it was tiring! The wonderful trainers assessed our physique very early on the course and immediately pointed out that I needed to work on strength. So I listened, that’s the whole point of the course, to surrender to new knowledge and experience. I no longer wanted to rely on flexibility but really focused on strength building.
In just one week, I felt stronger, I was actually sick by the 2nd week of training but surprisingly my strength grew in leaps and bounds and illness didn’t hinder my practice at all. Vinyasa became so much more enjoyable and meditation became more calming and I almost looked forward to our 10 hours of class everyday. I might have struggled through in the first week, but the strength I gained was incredible. I can now go into arm balances and jump back to chaturanga relatively effortlessly and even though I didn’t focus on flexibility, my hip flexibility has improved tremendously after the course.
Aside from physical asana practice, I really enjoyed all the theoretical work. I find everything from Sanskrit to Yoga Philosophy to Yoga History to Anatomy to Chakra’s a total eye (and mind) opener. The trainers have a way of making it interesting, engaging and we could easily related to it.
There are many yoga schools out there in the world, hundreds upon hundreds of yoga teachers are being churned out everyday. No doubt, I have never been trained in any other YTT 200 courses but what I did gain from Shades of Yoga was genuine information, asana knowledge, postural alignment (they really pounded this into us) and my absolute favourite part, humility and respect.
I have started to teach the moment I got back to my country and using the Shades Of Yoga way, I garnered quite a lot of students eager to do Private sessions with me. It is all because of their effective training style.
Thank you Shades of Yoga, I learned to surrender into the process in order to progress.