All you yoga teachers out there over the age of 40, remember the days when you could become a yoga instructor by receiving the blessing of your yoga teacher? Some of you may even remember the days when you had to wait, patiently, in the moment, with gratitude and equanimity, until your yoga teacher invited you to begin the process of becoming a yoga instructor.

        

My mind is not at peace yet. I beg you, Master, please put it to rest.

Bring me your mind, and I will put it to rest.

I have searched for my mind, but I cannot take hold of it.

There, I have put your mind to rest.

WHAT!?!

Well, today we’ve progressed, right? Anyone can hang out her mat and advertise for students to come learn yoga with her. Maybe she went to some yoga classes at her neighborhood gym or watched Yoga A.M. every day for a  year or spent a long weekend in  Costa Rica learning yoga instruction.

She may not know an iliopsoas from a sartorius or an Uttanasana from an Utkatasana. She may think, like I once did, that hip openers are just the thing for a person who’s had a hip replacement. But, hey, she can do a lovely

                     Eka Pada Sirsasana

and a knock out Natarajasana. 

and P.S. She just might look like the women in these photos.

Hmmm. Maybe progress isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

So after trying about a dozen yoga classes in studios, in gyms, in the US, in Israel…even in London, I had the good fortune to land in the class of a wonderful yoga teacher with whom I practiced for 2 years. I received her blessing to teach and hung out my mat.

Nope, didn’t know the difference between an iliopsoas and a sartorius but I had lots of good intention, read up on everything every week before teaching, consulted with my teacher and went forth.

That worked pretty well for a couple of years. My students seemed happy and passed along recommendations to their friends. The numbers in my group increased. I could’ve probably gone on that way indefinitely.

But I decided I wanted certification so I could teach people with special needs and in recognized frameworks.

I searched for a course and found a much-respected teacher in Tel Aviv. His focus seemed to be meditation, which I’ve been teaching for almost 20 years, but I would be able to get the prized yoga instructor’s certificate and become insurable and legal.

And then my teacher recommended Tsipi Negev…drum roll…one of the founders of The Yoga Teachers Association in Israel. One of the yogis who studied in India and brought respectability to yoga in Israel. All that I only knew later. What I knew from my personal interview with her was that the chemistry between us was good and her approach to yoga felt like home to me.

The only person older than I in the class was Tsipi. I think most of the 20 participants were in their mid to late 20s. 19 women and one guy. (other than the assistant who was also a guy)

Getting up at 5:30 a.m. to shower (one of the tenets of yoga is cleanliness of body and spirit) and get out of the house on time – even once a week – was a challenge.

Lunch was 21 people eating unrecognizable food from containers brought from home and one person (guess who) eating a sandwich and a piece of fruit.

Every Monday we rolled onto our mats bleary-eyed and yawning. We twisted and stretched and warmed our muscles like snakes on a rock in the sun, spent 10 minutes turning inward and then 4 hours learning and practicing yoga poses while Tsipi and Assistant Dudu adjusted, corrected, advised, recommended and generally guided us to integrative, holistic yoga. The yoga of Patanajali – unifying body, spirit and mind.

After our healthy, politically correct half hour lunch, we were back at it.

Anatomy and philosophy for almost 2 hours before a little sharing and setting forth into the world.

We did homework. Turned it in. Received encouragement. We grew to a definite closeness and caring about each other. Old (me) and young (most everyone else). Female (almost everybody) and male (two brave hearts). We taught each other. We supported each other with straps, hands on a back here, a foot there, words of empathy.

Four of us gave birth to new babies. All of us gave birth to new selves. We were all changed by our year together.

   

When I began my apprenticeship with my former teacher, I realized how much I’d learned over the year of my course. Wow! I’d actually become a yoga instructor. And, yes, I got my certificate in the mail last week  and I’m happy about that, too, but mostly I’m deeply grateful for the life-changing experience of having learned – really learned – how to be a yoga instructor.

Today I know the difference between an iliopsoas and sartorius. Between Uttanasana and Ukatasana. I know better than to suggest hip openers to a yogi with a hip replacement. All of that is important!

But I also know about coming home to our inner self of compassion, empathetic joy, non-violence, truth, moderation and recognition of the two arrows of life – the inevitable pain over which we have no control and the optional suffering which depends on how we relate to and cope with that pain.

I’ve integrated into my life off the mat that moment of meditative breathing and checking in with my body and my heart to come into the present moment in order to respond to life rather than react from places in my past and concerns in my future.

Yoga Off the Mat

I’m grateful to my teacher, Rachel, for bringing yoga into my life and guiding me to Tsipi.

I’m grateful to my teacher, Tsipi, for bringing yoga into my heart and the very air I breathe.

I’m grateful to everyone I’ve met along my path which has brought me to this fullness of heart. Those I remember and those I don’t.

I’m grateful for being alive in this wonderful time in our wonderful world – full of challenge as it is.

Nemaste