Yoga Teacher Training

Have signed up for a 200-hour 24-Day Yoga Alliance accredited teacher training programme @ my local studio this week. Very exciting and excited. It will be held, thankfully, in two parts: October and January 2015. My yoga instructor friend told me that if it was a month-long intensive, students would get injured towards the end because, understandably, the course is physically very demanding. Mentally too, I'm told. Hmm, that sounds a bit scary.

Anyway, I think after 6+ years of practice I'm ready to take it a bit further and deeper. Though the longer I practise the more "issues" I discover I have with my physical body: hips, knee joints, shoulders and my spine ... am hoping through the training I will learn how to deal with these issues as I'm pretty much stuck with this body the rest of my life LOL. I'd also like to meditate more. At the moment, I can sit down for about 30 mins without fretting ... think am still a LONG way off before I can sit down and meditate, say, for an entire afternoon (without falling asleep). Ironic that this may sound but it can be quite exhausting just sitting down and not moving (!)

To prepare for the course, I will have to read up on quite a number of set texts... probably need to start learning Sanskrit *gulp* and write a couple of essays (which is fine, since I blog about my practice anyway). For this particular training programme there are four compulsory texts: Bhagavad Gita, Light on Life, John Friend's Anusara Teacher Training Manual (since the trainer Patrick Creelman is Anusara-trained I guess) and a book on anatomy, which should be interesting. I think I will get these books as soon as I can from the studio. 

But before I do all that, I think I will need to think hard on the reasons why I want to do this course (other than the 50-word sentence I sent to the studio for the application). Is it for personal advancement? Is it to satisfy a curiosity? Is it to do with achieving a life goal, is it about learning a new skill etc etc. I'm glad I've started this blog since I can put my thoughts down in writing in the coming months ... it does help to focus the mind.