I’m going to have to break my weekend recap into two or three posts. First up, yoga teacher training in review while it’s all still very fresh. Then tomorrow I’ll post a recap of all my eats and hopefully also an overview of what happened with Brandon and Sullie while I was gone. There are some pretty great pictures!

I think the weekend can be summed up with this picture.

Happiness. It was another transformational weekend but it wasn’t easy. I think the most telling sign of this is that when I got home today, I immediately went to Brandon for a hug and burst into tears. There is nothing wrong, I am just physically and emotionally exhausted and feel like I cannot possibly absorb one more thing. My mind is trying to process so much right now and while it’s an amazing feeling, it is a bit overwhelming.

The way I feel right now is much different than how I felt after our first two weekends. After those first two training weekends I felt like I was on top of the world. I was on a high from spending so much time totally entrenched in learning more about something that I love and feel passionately about.

I think this is due to two things. First, this was our first time having back-to-back training weekends. I was so busy with work, teaching and social commitments last week that I don’t feel like I ever had a chance to recover and recharge.

Second, I took my practice to a new place. On Saturday I started adding postures from the intermediate series to my ashtanga practice. The intermediate series involves intense back bending, like this posture.

(source)

The intermediate series is known as Nadi Shodhana which means “nerve cleansing.” It focuses on cleansing the nervous system through a variety of very deep backward and forward bends. So far I am only about ten postures into the series and it is already shaking me to my core. I have been going through the entire primary series and then adding on these second series postures.

On Saturday I think that I was just in shock that I was moving into intermediate series and was trying to soak in what my teacher was telling me. Today I knew the ten new postures to do and just went for it. And then things got a little crazy…as I was wrapping my practice up I found myself fighting back tears. It was all I could do not to lose it during savasana (final rest) and as I rolled up my mat and left the room I was shaking all over.

Once I pulled it together a bit I spoke with one of the girls in my class (who just happens to be an ashtanga teacher who is going through training again for the experience and further learning) about how I was feeling. She assured me that it was completely normal after stimulating the spine so much. It took me hours to calm down and I’ve since learned that starting intermediate series can cause you to experience strong emotional releases (good and bad), bring up suppressed memories and have vivid dreams. Craziness.

This teacher training is opening my eyes to a whole new side of my practice. I never thought that I would be as interested in “yoga off the mat” as I am my asana (physical) practice but now that I am in teacher training I am finding myself so inspired by everything that I am learning.

I could go on all night but it’s getting late and I might be losing readers as I type! 😉

A few highlights in photos from the weekend (and promises of corresponding posts to come very soon!).

We spent a while with foam rollers yesterday. Are you guys familiar with foam rolling? I have one at home but don’t use it nearly enough. One of my 2011 goals is to regularly foam roll and yesterday’s session reminded me why this goal is critical to adhere to. (Um, I hadn’t been adhering to it at all until this weekend!)

We foam rolled on our own first and then took turns foam rolling each other. I admit that it is insanely painful but so worth the end results. Would you guys be interested in a Foam Rolling 101 post soon? Maybe with some video?

One of the things I love the most about our teacher training is that it has a strong focus on anatomy and we’re leaning how to really understand the body and things that students in our class will be dealing with. One of the topics of yesterday’s discussion was the evilness of high heels.

This is our teacher demonstrating how high heels shorten the achilles and change gate/alignment. It’s funny we discussed this because I’ve been planning a post about how I gave up high heels while training for Marine Corps Marathon and haven’t looked back. Look for that post coming soon!

We also worked on more assisting. I seriously cannot wait to start assisting classes.

I think I’m going to get a taste of assisting and teaching sooner than I anticipated. I have a fun opportunity coming up in three weeks that I cannot wait to share with you guys. 😀

Thankfully, we have next weekend off from training. I am beyond excited about spending time with Brandon and Sullie and catching up around the house. I have lots of reading to do over the next two weeks! We’re going to be discussing the book Ask and It Is Given next time we meet. I need to get to reading!

Thank you for humoring me with this yoga-centric post. I am just so eager to document and share my experiences. I can’t believe that I’m on the path to becoming a yoga teacher. I just hope that one day I will be able to inspire and educate my students the way my teachers have for me!