Wellness Wednesday- Gentle Nudge
Sooo you know in your heart that you never wanna teach yoga? That's what I thought too!
My yoga journey started many moons ago, but let's rewind to the Winter of 2013. I found myself immersed in a yoga world I never knew existed. I always went to class, zoned out, and got my "work out" in. Around this time I began to learn a deeper practice and began dedicating much of my free time to this practice. There was so much more to yoga than I realized and I knew at that time I was only just beginning to learn and was craving more.
Let's just say that my lack of free time didn't go unmentioned. On the weekends my friends would always make note that I'd missed out on weekly meet ups. They too became curious about what was consuming my time and then they'd insist that I teach them yoga.
At this point I knew enough about yoga to know I didn't know enough about yoga... that is to say I felt comfortable enough to teach a proper yoga class. So with some liquid courage it usually just ended up being that we would "Play Yoga" in my front yard.
As the year pushed on, I continued to be encouraged to teacher. Finally and very gratefully our very own Heather Perry invited me to attend one of her teacher trainings with her. I went willingly but drew a firm line in the sand making it known that "I'm only going to depend my own practice". Selfish right? Little did I know what I was getting myself into.
As it turns out the Yoga Fit training requires you to do 8 hours of Karma Yoga teaching in order to get your certificate. Being that I'm a "check a box off a list" kind of gal I couldn't go without completing a task I set out for.
I gathered two of my most insistent "teach me yoga" friends and rolled out a couple of mats in my living room. I can only imagine what that first yoga class looked like... between dogs jumping over us, my very tiny living room, and my shaking voice. Did I mention still to this day that I'm petrified of Public Speaking?
Even now my nerves can get to me before I teach many of my classes. These days it's more like the nervous/excited butterfly feeling you have when you know you're falling in love with someone. Except for now, falling in love has turned into falling in love with this community and wanting each and every yoga class to exude all the feelings I had on my mat in 2014... No pressure, right?!
Needless to say my 8 hours of free teaching turned into us "Popping Up" at different parks around Ventura. The ever supportive Ms Jen Spencer was the one that realized this was a sustainable idea. Fast forward to April 2015; Jen, Heather and I committed to bringing a Sunday morning and Thursday evening donation yoga class to Ventura each week. Fast forward to Oct. 2016, we are celebrating the first week of our/your new HOME!
So why tonight am I sharing this long winded story with you? We hope to inspire any of you curious yogis out there to think about: What is on the other side of that next ujjayi breath? How can you live yoga off your mat? And most importantly how can yoga positively continue to change your life?
If your heart strings were pulling when you read this and you are wanting to deepen your yoga journey, we are so honored to share with you that we will be hosting a Level 1 Teacher Training course in January! That's only a couple months away, so please email us at hello@venturapopupyoga.com to get more information!
We believe in YOU!
J&J
