Teacher Training Insights: Thoughts from the edge of the mat
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By Derek Peach, recent Lumi Teacher Training graduate
What to expect? How many others will there be? Who will you meet? How will you compare? Are you good enough? Are you fit enough? Will you fit in? Can you do it? Do you want to do it? These were the questions that I had racing around my head as I turned up on a Saturday morning in March this year for the Lumi yoga teacher-training course. I wagged my tail and made nice, others responded and I felt off to a reasonably good start. Then came the introductions and due to the nine nationalities present there were some interesting names that I just didn’t have a snowballs chance of remembering!
Phew, there was another man taking the course and hallelujah he was even older than me, good news! We mingled warily, each of us bringing our back-stories with us on this voyage of discovery, the tangled webs we have weaved, the carnage we have sown, the paths walked down and the seeds sown. Let’s face it, most yogis have troubled pasts, we got the bug through necessity, we needed something to anchor us in this crazy and troubled world and the studios and mats of the world were our salvation. We shared whom we were, what we did and where we felt we were going. This collective were to be my family for two months and I liked what I saw, heard and felt heartened by my choice of studio and instructors. This was going to be okay…I was going to be okay.
I had never written a journal before but I was about to get plenty of practice. Yogis have to take this very seriously – it’s the number one rule! Actually there were quite a few rules – Scandinavians surprisingly like their rules, who knew? Heaven help you if you were a poor timekeeper, yoga teachers must be punctual! Yoga teachers have a lot of responsibilities so out the window went my preconceived ideas of hippy dippy, relaxed behavior with plenty of peace and love. I discovered quickly that this is a serious business! It’s tiring – physically and mentally – but you are aware that this is done to “break you” and bring out the stubborn in you.
The adversity brings you closer to your fellow trainees. They probably know more about you than your own families do! Your body quickly adjusts to the beating that you’re receiving where you become stronger, more confident and start changing in a way that is hard to describe. The shift from an inept, mumbling and embarrassed person to a strong confident teacher happens without you realizing. Then one day at a time you step up a level and then you do it again and again and again and eventually you start to realize that maybe you can do it, maybe you can lead a class and remember everything you have been taught. That was the hardest and most overwhelming part – assimilating everything that is thrown at you from every angle that has to be internalized and has to become natural to work well.
Teaching yoga is a lot harder than it looks, who knew?! More than that, who knew that training yoga teachers required such patience, strategic thinking, deep organizational skills and the empathy and love of the Buddha! I feel blessed to have been fortunate enough to complete my training with Lumi and I will always value the sense of community and love that I felt during my training. This really is the best studio in London.
Roll your mat out and come into child’s pose!
Lumi Teacher Training is back by popular demand for an autumn session starting on 9 Oct to 15 Nov. If you’re thinking about teacher training be sure to come to our open house on Saturday, August 1st to get all your questions answers about the course from Ari, Elina and our brilliant new teachers. All the details are on our website here.
Stay tuned for more Teacher Training Insights from recent grads!