My heart is full reading this. You are touching on some of the most beneficial and meaningful aspects of Yoga - self-realization, self-compassion, and discernment… I would take you learning these things over over any fact or figure, any day, every lifetime. Whether you “instruct a class” or not, you are a teacher. Thank you for sharing a part of your journey with us! ✨🙏🏽❤️
Taina!!! If I could like this comment 100x I would. I learned from the best teachers. You helped me get here and I’m grateful for sharing this with you during this pivotal time in my life.
I feel like I’ve been chasing the “back bend” for almost a year and now I’m happy to do my version of stretches.
The release is so sweet, but ever now and then the thought that I “should” be aiming higher creeps in, especially when you see other’s success. Perhaps that’s normal and we just keep on recalibrating - since this is the world we live in??
I agree, there’s a gray area we need to navigate. What’s too much and what’s a good challenge? It’s like yoga, figuring out that answer is a practice. We will see what wants to take shape that day.
Congrats!! So much of my YTT was about learning about myself and how much angst I have against wheel. 😂 I called it the pose that doesn’t bring me joy.
Haha omg I’m going to call it that!!! Actually today was my practicum and someone asked me how it was going the day before and I said, “good!! I took out a part of the sequence that was not bringing me joy! Boom!”
I am with you on this-of not pushing yourself and that hard work is the only answer. Having been a workaholic this is something I’ve worked through as well.
I actually did yoga teacher training in my 40s a few years after Laura passed away. Yoga saved my life and got me through my grief. I will write a post about this. I’ve been thinking about it lately. I did yoga with the intention of healing myself and the yoga teacher training with the intention of teaching yoga to those with greif and loss which I did do and then I also did teach power yoga and kathy yoga again I was in my 40s and I was quite strong physically after doing yoga, practice consistently for a couple of years then I reach my 50s and realize that the slower more gentler restored of yoga made more sense for me and my changing body now that I’m in my 60s I just do my yoga practice at home though strangely I’ve been away from it for a couple of years and just started it up two weeks agoeach morning almost every morning for the past two weeks and I feel definite psychological shift and feel much better. I give myself full permission to honor my body and my mind each day to where I’m at and not push myself if it’s not right I think for you this is a great approach. You were getting wiser than I was at in my 30s and you are way ahead of me on the age spectrum for coming to this conclusion that’s so many women don’t come to until later in life. I applaud you and I wish you all the best on your healing journey and you will know as time goes on. Maybe you will end up teaching but maybe it will be for people with health issues but that’s when you are ready and if you choose to right now, the focus should be on your healing and it seems like you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. lots of love to you Stephanie with your journey- congratulations on completing teacher training I remember how much time it took and how intense it was and all the emotions that popped out during yoga .
I like your article and the way you wrote it -very strong!
A friend of mine and I have decided to use the term effortless to describe how we want to soar through life now . wishing you effortlessness.💜
Susan I love your entire comment. I paused thinking of you doing this training after Laura’s death and how different our paths are when we decide to do this type of training. We all come with such different intentions and I bet most of us leave with entirely new realizations, ones that we didn’t think we had in us.
Workaholic mentality is very hard to break. The hard part is to sit with the stillness. I will need to be aware of the subtleties it brings me because I tend to go for the obvious and “back bending” routes that may not serve me in the end.
My friend also told me today that maybe when I’m 60 I’ll change my mind and want to teach. Who knows!
Btw I didn’t know you could do voice comments on Substack!
Congratulations on almost finishing your training!!! I love that you’ve come to the realization that you don’t want to teach and that you’re content with that. I love that you’ve learned so much about yourself through the lens of Ayurveda and you’re finding benefit in slowing down even though it seems antithetical to your being 🙂 I have a wheel trick that I’m going to film and send to you because even though it doesn’t matter if we can do any of these poses, sometimes it’s still fun to challenge ourselves and it always feels amazing when we do something we thought we could never do.
Ashley, I appreciate your comment. I completed my practicum today and while it was so fun to do I’m reminded again how much I don’t want to teach, ha! Wow, I look forward to watching your wheel pose trick! Maybe I’ll film myself and send it back to you!
I agree on challenging ourselves. We need to grow! Part of my process is learning along the way what extent I want to take myself. Like yoga, it’s all a practice, right?!
My heart is full reading this. You are touching on some of the most beneficial and meaningful aspects of Yoga - self-realization, self-compassion, and discernment… I would take you learning these things over over any fact or figure, any day, every lifetime. Whether you “instruct a class” or not, you are a teacher. Thank you for sharing a part of your journey with us! ✨🙏🏽❤️
Taina!!! If I could like this comment 100x I would. I learned from the best teachers. You helped me get here and I’m grateful for sharing this with you during this pivotal time in my life.
I feel like I’ve been chasing the “back bend” for almost a year and now I’m happy to do my version of stretches.
The release is so sweet, but ever now and then the thought that I “should” be aiming higher creeps in, especially when you see other’s success. Perhaps that’s normal and we just keep on recalibrating - since this is the world we live in??
I agree, there’s a gray area we need to navigate. What’s too much and what’s a good challenge? It’s like yoga, figuring out that answer is a practice. We will see what wants to take shape that day.
I remember when I, too, had the goal of successfully doing wheel pose. Now I just celebrate getting on the mat! And it is quite freeing.
"Not only am I unable to do the wheel pose, I’m no closer to getting there. And I don’t care."
Yes, what a great way to look at it. Celebrate you showed up. Let’s have that mindset more often!
Congrats!! So much of my YTT was about learning about myself and how much angst I have against wheel. 😂 I called it the pose that doesn’t bring me joy.
Haha omg I’m going to call it that!!! Actually today was my practicum and someone asked me how it was going the day before and I said, “good!! I took out a part of the sequence that was not bringing me joy! Boom!”
Bravo on your accomplishment and accepting the true meaning of yoga to shine through. I'm just happy that along your journey we have crossed paths.
I’m very happy we crossed paths too. See you in class sometime this week, Dona!
I am with you on this-of not pushing yourself and that hard work is the only answer. Having been a workaholic this is something I’ve worked through as well.
I actually did yoga teacher training in my 40s a few years after Laura passed away. Yoga saved my life and got me through my grief. I will write a post about this. I’ve been thinking about it lately. I did yoga with the intention of healing myself and the yoga teacher training with the intention of teaching yoga to those with greif and loss which I did do and then I also did teach power yoga and kathy yoga again I was in my 40s and I was quite strong physically after doing yoga, practice consistently for a couple of years then I reach my 50s and realize that the slower more gentler restored of yoga made more sense for me and my changing body now that I’m in my 60s I just do my yoga practice at home though strangely I’ve been away from it for a couple of years and just started it up two weeks agoeach morning almost every morning for the past two weeks and I feel definite psychological shift and feel much better. I give myself full permission to honor my body and my mind each day to where I’m at and not push myself if it’s not right I think for you this is a great approach. You were getting wiser than I was at in my 30s and you are way ahead of me on the age spectrum for coming to this conclusion that’s so many women don’t come to until later in life. I applaud you and I wish you all the best on your healing journey and you will know as time goes on. Maybe you will end up teaching but maybe it will be for people with health issues but that’s when you are ready and if you choose to right now, the focus should be on your healing and it seems like you know exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. lots of love to you Stephanie with your journey- congratulations on completing teacher training I remember how much time it took and how intense it was and all the emotions that popped out during yoga .
I like your article and the way you wrote it -very strong!
A friend of mine and I have decided to use the term effortless to describe how we want to soar through life now . wishing you effortlessness.💜
Susan I love your entire comment. I paused thinking of you doing this training after Laura’s death and how different our paths are when we decide to do this type of training. We all come with such different intentions and I bet most of us leave with entirely new realizations, ones that we didn’t think we had in us.
Workaholic mentality is very hard to break. The hard part is to sit with the stillness. I will need to be aware of the subtleties it brings me because I tend to go for the obvious and “back bending” routes that may not serve me in the end.
My friend also told me today that maybe when I’m 60 I’ll change my mind and want to teach. Who knows!
Btw I didn’t know you could do voice comments on Substack!
Oops-Hatha yoga, not Kathy yoga. I should probably not do voice writing-creates a lot of mistakes!
Congratulations on almost finishing your training!!! I love that you’ve come to the realization that you don’t want to teach and that you’re content with that. I love that you’ve learned so much about yourself through the lens of Ayurveda and you’re finding benefit in slowing down even though it seems antithetical to your being 🙂 I have a wheel trick that I’m going to film and send to you because even though it doesn’t matter if we can do any of these poses, sometimes it’s still fun to challenge ourselves and it always feels amazing when we do something we thought we could never do.
Ashley, I appreciate your comment. I completed my practicum today and while it was so fun to do I’m reminded again how much I don’t want to teach, ha! Wow, I look forward to watching your wheel pose trick! Maybe I’ll film myself and send it back to you!
I agree on challenging ourselves. We need to grow! Part of my process is learning along the way what extent I want to take myself. Like yoga, it’s all a practice, right?!
Here’s the video 🙂 https://substack.com/@ashleyzuberi/note/c-55472642?r=2wxqfb&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action