I truly did not see this coming. There were no conscious decisions, goals or plans for me to take this new direction of yoga in my life, it literally came out of nowhere at a really low point in my life.
I had been working in accounts for a firm for over 12 years, when one day when I went into the office, we were all told that our jobs no longer existed. This happened just a few weeks after just loosing my father so you can imagine how my head was already in pieces.
So on that day I left work early and decided to put a post on Facebook about what had just happened but that I was going to remain positive and make some plans for my future.
What happened next was a complete turning point, as the comments that I received back from my friends were such positive encouraging replies, most of them saying that I should start teaching yoga as the majority of them knew me well enough to know that I had practised yoga for over 25 years at that time. I couldn’t be more thankful for those messages as this was the turning point for me and I immediately started to do some research on how I would go about this new yoga journey.
One day I came across an advert online advertising Yoga Alliance intensive Hatha Vinyassa Yoga teacher training in El Palmar, Andalusia and everything about it grabbed my attention. I was no longer in work, so why couldn’t I go abroad to attend this? It would be great to get away from England for a while where I could hopefully think a bit clearer, away from where all of my recent heartache had been, away from depending on people in my life who were worried about me and away from all of the reminders of everything that was causing my pain.
It was perfect but it would mean taking a huge leap into the unknown, using my redundancy money for something that I had no idea was going to be the right choice for me, leaving everything that made me feel safe and secure. Then I saw that the yoga diploma course was only weeks away and they only had one place left available. I immediately clicked and booked my place, then sat there thinking ‘What the hell have I just done?’
I had less than a month to complete all of my diploma course work before I actually set off to Spain and in that month I also had a fortnight's holiday booked, which left me with only two weeks to complete it but I couldn't let myself down and had to take back control of my life.
I think it was when I was in the airport when it fully dawned on me that I was going to be spending the best part of a month away from home 24/7 with complete strangers from all over the world as well as sharing a room with someone that I had never met before.
Wow! It was life changing. I immediately new that I had made the right choice. Everyone was amazing but this was not going to be anything like a yoga holiday.
The yoga teacher training started the very next morning before sunrise with our meditation session, followed by a program of yoga physiology, theory, yoga teacher methodology, therapeutics, yoga techniques, adjustments, anatomy, pair work study and of course master classes with Javier Castro and Tomas Tieldy.
It was amazing but both physically and mentally it was extremely demanding for myself personally and there where a few occasions that I questioned myself whether I could get through it as my grief was taking it’s toll on me. If it hadn’t have been for all of my family and friends back at home believing in me and giving me encouragement as well as all of the amazing beautiful souls that were once all strangers to me, all supporting each other, giving encouragement to each other and most of all being beautiful caring friends to each other, it gave us all belief and strength in ourselves that we were all going to graduate together at the end and we certainly did. Coming out of it with not only a Yoga Teaching Diploma but a number of new friends that I will always remember and also hopefully will see again soon in the future.
I didn't immediately fly home after the teacher training but moved onto Jerez in Spain for a few days rest and space to think about what I was going to do and and where I was going with this new yoga teacher training diploma that I had just got.
Who could have ever known where it was going to lead and how the rest of my yoga journey was going to go for e in the future?
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