Jan 23 2009
Starting Things Off
This week’s events have filled me with such hope and purpose, both on the international and national stages as well as the things happening right here at home. The words hope, change, and progress have been used so many times in recent days (months/years) and it truly signifies a momentous occasion in our collective history.
We will always remember this time. We will look back and tell future generations about it. Where we were when…
…and I will also remember this week as the starting point of my yoga 
teacher training. After many years of practice, it was last year that I began to seriously research the instructor certification process and to investigate the studios in my area that offered teacher training. It didn’t take long to find a good fit: I am lucky to have a wonderful studio in my town that offers many classes and has wonderful teachers. Even before that, however….
…We took a few classes together in college. Our small Ancient Studies department only had a handful of student majors, so we knew each other casually. We had mutual friends and passed each other often in the dormitories. Years passed and both of us graduated from college, got married (to people who also went to college with us!) and went to graduate school… and we both took up knitting as a hobby in that meantime. We both delved deeper into yoga individually. And come 2008, we were both on Ravelry – both in the Namaste Knitter yoga group - and here she is talking about how she is working through her yoga teacher training certification at the same studio that I was looking at… and *boom*.
I private messaged her just to make sure that it was really her. “Flissy? from 
college?” It was just too funny that it all happened that way. We met up for tea one night and we were just amazed that through Ravelry and yoga, we reconnected after several years! I heard about her experiences with teacher training, she heard about my plans, and we signed up for a yoga class together last fall. It just seemed like there was a reason that things were falling in to line so well…
It was last September that I started to take the classes at the studio. I signed up for two classes a week and I knew right away that it was a wonderful place. The styles, the words, the spirit of the place just really felt right for me. I told my instructor about my intentions to do the training and her reaction was an instant hug!
So, after many months of deciding and waiting, the time has finally come! For the next eleven months, I will be working towards my 200-hour Registed Yoga Teacher certification. I am really taking this program as it 
comes… I feel that this is an important time in my life to take up such a challenge. After the many health issues that I had in 2008, and continue to work through (though a lesser extent now, thankfully) I know that the time is right to work towards this goal. I want to do this program for so many reasons – some deeply personal, others as simple and silly as toning up my arms and abdominals…
I will blog about yoga a little more than I have before on account of it becoming such a large part of my life. I want to document this time for my own reasons – to be able to look back later and to see what I thought about this or that… and to see how I have grown, changed, etc.
All I know is that it is going to be an amazing journey.
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**Photos from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens orchid exhibit, November 2008
What a wonderful reconnection! And, very much looking forward to hearing about your yoga training, I am sure it will be a wonderful adventure!!
Wonderful! Best of luck with your training… I am looking forward to hearing about it!
Congratulations on beginning your yoga-teacher-training journey! I, like the other two commenters before me, am also looking forward to hearing more about it.
I’m so excited for you! And excited to hear about your training – I’ve entertained the thought before but have recently lapsed greatly from my yoga practice. I’m hoping hearing about others’ progressions will inspire me to get back to it.
Congratulations, Lolly! I can’t wait to hear more about it!
I’m so happy for you.
I’m so glad that 2009 is starting out so well. I told you so!
That’s wonderful news Lolly…you’ll get sooo much out of it…I did one a few years ago and it opened up my physical and mental world tenfold…..although having said that I have let my practice slide recently and am now trying to get back into it since returning to California…so far I hurt a lot!!…..but I know it will bring me back to a good place.
This post brings tears of happiness to my eyes, simply because my soul sister is on the same path and I can see the joy it’s bringing to her. May your path be filled with wonder and discovery!
Aww this post makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!!!
*hugs*
And it IS going to be an amazing journey!
I’m sure it will be an extraordinary journey, and I truly appreciate that you chose to share it with us.
Good luck with your journey! And Namaste!
Congratulations! I look so forward to reading about your experiences and thoughts on your training. Have lots of fun tonight!!!
/hug Lolly! Congratulations on getting started on such a momentous journey! I am on the other end of such a venture, as I will start teaching a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training course in February. What an extraordinary adventure you have chosen…that of exploring yourself! Know that you have support all the way across the country…and if I can ever offer another perspective please feel free to ask. Bon voyage!
I want to add my congratulations on taking this step! What a great start to your year. I can’t wait to read about your experiences. It’s quite inspiring seeing you start this path. I’ve been trying to get back into a more consistent practice and hope that this year will be a good yoga-filled year also.
i’m looking forward to some amazing yoga posts, and hearing all about your ytt! i’m hoping to relive my ytt experience through you…perhaps i should dust off my old journal…
Mazel tov!
I wish you luck and great success with your teacher training. I can’t wait to hear more about it
Good for you! I started mine a couple of weeks ago, except here in the UK they prefer you to do a foundation course first before signing on for the teacher training. I’m loving it – I hope you do too!
I am really looking forward to hearing about your yoga adventures and journey.
Congratulations, and Namaste!
I’m so glad you get to explore something you’re really passionate about. I admire your determination and your “joie de vivre”.
Its great to find a calling that you love and are so excited back. Good luck and I can’t wait to hear all about your training. Yoga isn’t something I have tried myself, but I will someday. Perhaps I’ll be a little bit enlightened first by reading your posts.
I’m so thrilled for you! I really look forward to reading more about your journey.
I, too, am filled with hope this week, more so than I’ve felt in a long, long time. And what a cool bit of synchronicity to find an old friend through Ravelry! I love stories like that. I will also be looking forward to reading about your YTT, maybe it will encourage me along the beginning of my yoga path too.
Wow I’ve been seeing things about yoga all over the web these past few weeks. Even my sister has joined a yoga class! I’m thinking I need to start looking into it for myself!
I stumbled across your blog through the Project spectrum group on Ravelry and am looking forward to that beginning for the year as well!
That’s wonderful!! Enjoy your journey, I’m looking forward to hearing about it.
Namaste.
I hope your journey takes you to depths of calm and a feeling of being more centred than ever before.
Good for you Lolly! Enjoy your journey. I love hearing about all of your adventures. You inspire me to be better. Thanks.
So exciting! What a wonderful journey to begin!!
Once again, I am so excited for you as you embark on this journey! I look forward to hearing all about it!
I’ve been working through a post (and my thoughts) on my new experiences with yoga and truly remarkable and noticeable differences practicing for 6 weeks has made in my life. I am excited to read about your yoga experiences because you really inspired me to try it out and see what I thought.
That’s quite a re-connection. The world is a small place after all. :-p
Anyway, you’ve been nominated for a Blog award. Go see on my blog.
Good luck! I’ve been looking for a yoga class in my area for some time now. I’ve heard that there is one I just need to find out more about it.
I hope the training process helps to get you where you want to be, physically, emotionally, spiritually and professionally. I’m interested to hear more as you document it. xoxo
Best wishes to you, Lolly! Yoga teacher certification is an admirable goal. How nice also to re-meet an old friend over new mutual interests. After 8 years of not practicing, I recently took some yoga classes. Unfortunately, my back gave me trouble at the same time for a different reason, and my physical therapist is very anti-yoga. I hope to get back to it, as I disagree with the PT (“it’s just twisting yourself up like a pretzel”), I just need to find a beginning class, which the studio I attended was not big on.
So excited for you! And yeah Flissy is awesome.
Congrats on the yoga teaching training!!! That’s fantastic!
I look forward to hearing you talk about yoga…it’s always so inspiring when you do