Mountain Pose revisited

Mt Rainier - Doing a perfect Mountain Pose

 in her skirt of clouds (no yoga pants here)

Mountain Pose is easy as pie.  Ya' just stand there.  Stand on your two feet, arms at your side and close your eyes.  Ta DA!  You're a mountain.  That's it.

Hahaha, I'm so funny.  Of course that's not it.  That's not Mountain Pose.  This is Yoga we're talkin' about here.  One must mindfully be a mountain, grasshopper.  What were you thinking?  

I want to point out that Mt. Rainier has no idea what mindfully means.  There is no mindfulness when one is a mountain.  This mountain is only exhibiting mountain-ness, not mindfulness.

So on Saturday morning at the "Fundamentals of Yoga" class, while Mt Rainier was decidedly still sleeping under the over casted blankets (and I was not), I was minding my own mountain-ness when the instructor instructed us to stand equally on both feet, to feel the heat of my feet warm the floor, to feel my toes on the floor, but not grip the floor.  The instructor says I am to feel the earth come up to meet my feet even as I have allowed my own feet to be grounded on this floor.  She says "grounded" in such a way that I understand  my own poundage is meeting the floor as forceful as the floor is rising to ground me. 

It was not a resting pose so much as a grounding pose.  It is actively grounding me.  Standing on the floor has become synergistic.  I couldn't do my part unless the ground did it's part.  We played our parts out beautifully and then my instructor had us transform into trees.

Yoga gets trippy for me.



The Cost of a Yoga Teacher Certificate

There may be hidden charges in getting a certificate to teach Yoga. There are a couple of obscure remarks on these websites that lead me to think this way. I'm thinking this one through.

A basic Yoga Teacher Training Certificate is a 200 hour course. That means 200 hours of training. The vernacular for this is RTY200 Yoga Certificate.

One local studio has a tuition of $3,300. They have a payment plan, of course. The nice surprise is that the price is the same whether I pay all at once or go on the payment program. They could have easily tacked on a "processing" fee. What they do tack on is a three class per week minimum requirement. I see elsewhere on the site that those students that are in teacher training get a discount for classes. As a "drop in" the cost is discounted from $16 to $10 per class. Overall that comes to $30 per week, on top of the $3,300 for tuition. I am sure there are additional discounts if I were to sign up for a six month unlimited pass. The point remains, $3,300 is just the start.

I'm still shopping. Another studio offering training for the RTY200 Yoga Certificate offers the training at $3,000 with discounts for paying in full prior to start of training ($500 off the total). This studio has pricing for required classes at $40 a month for students. In essence for a ten month program the studio would recoup the $500 I saved by paying early. This studio also has a ten weekend program...it's in the fall. Maybe I can get my yoga-ness up to that level by fall. Maybe by fall I will be ready to immerse myself every weekend from October through December. I'm thinking about it. Three months versus ten months sounds like an accelerated program.

The most exciting option comes from the studio that only offers training. This is not your classic studio. This woman runs her studio only to train future yogi. What makes her studio so exciting is of the 200 hours of training the last 80 hours -two weeks- are spent overseas. She's a travel agent for yogi's. She is offering courses at $1,900 plus about $2,000 for the travel. I know, I know it's the most expensive at $3,900 but it includes international travel. This year she has booked a retreat in Puerto Vallarta. Next year in July she is looking at Greece. I can see where international travel has its appeal and its drawbacks. Though Greece sounds divine, it concerns me with the refugee issues occurring in the Mediterranean this year, and the financial instability of Greece in particular before that. At one point her site suggested Thailand. Now that option to me is a no-brainer, absolutely-yes-sign-me-up yoga retreat. I could say I did my training in Thailand. My passport would back me up.

Photo from wikitravel.org (used without permission)

Gotta Do It

It seems that I just gotta do it. It's that mental monkey being let loose as action. Just gotta do it. Yoga. Yep, it's that simple. That's all I'm really talking about. I'm one of those people that needs to be doing something. Physical exertion is the sweetness of living. Or sweat-ness, depending on your point of view.

Yoga for me is exertion without sweat. I'm not a fan of hot yoga. I get light-headed too easy to add heat into the mix. I just like how good I feel after stretching every muscle available and massaging all the internal organs that get massaged during yoga.

I've been practicing yoga on and off since I was 19 years old. Last January, over a year ago, I made a personal promise to myself to get a yoga teacher certificate. Just for giggles. Just to say I did. Here I am fifteen months later, missed my own deadline, still thinking this is what I want to do. I want that satisfaction of having reached the goal of earning a piece of paper.

I am 6 days into a 30 day challenge I have imposed on myself to simply attend a yoga class every day. I have 21 days left of this 30 day challenge. It's a step in the right direction. What I have learned in the first week:

1. There are VERY few yoga studios that offer Friday evening yoga classes. This means attending a yoga session every day for 30 days is damn near impossible - Fridays are just not offered. I have adjusted my goal. Mostly because I signed up for a killer six week deal. The adjusted challenge is now to attend a yoga session everyday except Fridays for six weeks.

2. I learned that it's a good thing that I did not jump into 200 hour certificated training. This simpler challenge is a great tune up for me to be in enough shape to sign up for a teacher course. If I had signed up straight into certificated training like I thought I wanted to I would be wondering today if I was "good enough" for it. By challenging myself to just attend, just go to class, I think I have set myself up for success.

3. I hurt. I hurt different every day. It's that good hurt that lets me know my muscles are working. I don't know if I will hurt when I get to the fourth week still. I'll let you know.

4. Each class is completely different. Each instructor brings style with her. It is a good thing to be open. Be willing.

5. Hip flexures are a favorite theme for these instructors. After only two days of concentrating on hip flexure I find myself wondering if I will be sitting in full lotus in six weeks. Do I want to?

6. Shoulders and neck is also a favorite topic. My back is already starting to show definition. Okay, that's my imagination, never mind. My shoulders ache. It's a good ache.

7. I wanted to do two classes on Saturday to make up for not having the one Friday class. I learned that I may be a masochist and I need to just stand down.

Six weeks of classes is not exactly going to be a cake walk. I have a two hour commute every week day as it is. Classes are 75 minutes. I don't get home at night until 7:30 p.m.. When I get back from my son's wedding in May I will have to assess which teacher training site will fit my style best. This year - this year - this year.