Did I get canned?

The short answer is: NO. The long answer is: Not yet. After enduring a 3 month emotional rollercoaster, I got my pink slip rescinded by my district. Even though this meant my job was now secure for another year, the door had been opened. And opened wide it was. After quieting my mind and nourishing my body with a solid hour of yoga that first night, I quickly got on the internet and began to research yoga teacher training programs.  What I found was overwhelming to say the least.   There were training programs that completely took over your life, something I wasn't prepared to do, at least not yet.  I live my life kind of in two phases:  the phase I like to call "school life" that starts in September with the first day of school and ends in June on the last day of school, and the other phase I call "real life" which of course is the 10 weeks in-between June and September.   I'm sure most people would consider their jobs a part of their real life, but not me.   During the school year I am forced to live my life in a way that I have found is not part of my natural rhythm.  Everything revolves around the clock.   I have to teach math between 8:45 and 10am, and language arts between 10:15 and 11:45.  And heaven forbid should I even mention the words science or history before noon!   I've even trained my bladder to be ready for a bathroom break only at recess.   Structure and rigidity is something I have come to loathe.

Back to my research on teacher trainings.........what I found was that the only way I could do one that would take over my "real life" would be to give up my summer.  Something I wasn't prepared to do.   You see, I am one of those teachers who packs a lot into her summers off.   I've been known to be gone for the entire month of July.   So while the idea of doing a teacher training continued to be on my mind it did get pushed back behind all of my plans to go camping and hiking and whatever else I had planned that summer.   Afterall, I did have my job AND my paycheck for another year.

Why Teach Yoga?

The idea to become a yoga instructor came out of a difficult situation in my life. After teaching Kindergarten for 10 years I received a "pink slip" from my school district. Needless to say I was shocked. I thought tenure meant I couldn't lose my job. Boy have I learned a lot about the California Ed Code since then.........but that's a whole other blog. After enduring 4 more hours of teaching 5 year olds while holding back my tears, I drove home wondering what I was going to do. At first, all I could think about was the negative side to my situation: what about my house, my car, hell, my son's college tuition???? And then it dawned on me. This was a test. Do I really have the inner-strength to get through this? So of course, the first thing I did when I got home was roll out my mat and move through the poses that I knew would bring me to that peaceful state when your mind clears and everything that really matters come into focus.

The Journey Begins....

My journey into yoga actually began 5 years ago when a friend suggested taking a class when I was going through a very difficult time in my personal life. Being a fitness fanatic I thought it could be just another thing to add to the numerous forms of torture I was already doing to myself like running and hundreds of crunches. But I quickly figured out that yoga was not just something for your body, but rather a wonderful gift I could give to my "whole" self: my body, my mind, and my spirit. Thus, my journey began.