What the Yoga Teacher Training 200h brought me
By Marion, founder of Tone.
In 2019, I did my first Yoga Teacher Training, the YTT 200h Yoga Alliance. I had been practicing more or less regularly for 9 years, especially gentle yoga and hot yoga.
This is what made me decide to book my first training…
#1 A solution to depression but more broadly to manage your emotions
When I arrived in France. when it was hard and I was depressed in Paris and Dauphine, I dreamed of an “alternative” job I told myself and why not a Yoga teacher, but it was just a very distant dream, almost a joke.
In any case, this persistent winter depression made me start Yoga, I saw it as a way to soothe myself, to manage my emotions (here it was sadness, the lack of my home and family ).
The class I took at university, I thank again this teacher in her forties/fifties with a slightly hippie attitude and a constant smile, was ultra gentle yoga, and I had a blast irrepressible laughter when she told us to breathe through the perineum, she laughed with me. And I continued to come every week.
#2 An anti-aging and a real remedy for physical health, long-term mobility, strength
I came across photos and videos of people over 80 years old doing yoga, and they were doing incredible postures, they had superb skin, they looked crazy healthy. And I think very often about my senior life, I'm afraid of not being able to walk, get up from my chair, I'm afraid of wrinkles 😅
#3 Be more calm
This one I'm still working on, but I told myself that I would have fewer peaks in my overly "hot" reactions.
These are the points that made me decide to book but it was in fact much more than this training had brought me
#4 Just learn more about Yoga
We realize that by just doing classes in the studio, we have difficulty understanding the history, the philosophy of Yoga, and in this training we learn so many things, about energies, about the discipline and benevolence of the yoga, meditation, breathing. We learn lots of breathing techniques and we also learn how to guide them for others.
#5 Get out of your comfort zone, by guiding Yoga sessions, by sharing your knowledge, your practice
Being “the center of attention”, being the person that practitioners look at and listen to, taking responsibility for guiding a session, it’s scary! But it’s also so much good energy, good times, emotions, and whether or not you want to make it your job, these are lifelong memories.
#6 Grief-copping
At that time I had been mourning my father for 2 years, and I had not seen any progress, and sport had already helped me a lot. 1 week after his death my whole family had joined the gym and we went there every day. It seems a bit crazy to me now but that’s what did us good.
Produce endorphins through movement.
So naturally I told myself that this training would help me see things clearly, and also take my mind off things (Spoiler alert, it did…).
#7 Handle stress
Clearly yoga and breathing have helped me in many moments of life, stressful presentations, interviews, stressful breakups, dangerous moments, and now in my life as an entrepreneur.
#8 Physical fitness that I never lose
My strength, to carry heavy things, deep muscles even if sometimes invisible, mobility of the spine, flexibility. I've been in so much better shape since then. And I think it's great to tell myself I'm in better shape at 30 than at 20 yo.
#9 I approach life with a philosophy that suits me
I don't need a lot, I focus on the present, I work on being 80% benevolent (yes we are not perfect. Sometimes we have frustrations which are not necessarily full benevolence), I cultivate positivity, I'm not looking for chimeras that I can't achieve and which would therefore make me unhappy.
These are also values that we discuss in Yoga, with the Yamas and the Niyamas in particular.
#10 I meditate
And that I know is the best thing for my mental and physical health and my longevity. And without this training I would never have managed to get started on my own or with apps, simply because I needed to know everything, the why, the how, before being able to have a routine.
and for all that, I'm doing it a second time, because each teacher has their own point of view, because 3 weeks of intense practice will help me to deepen and work on all of that.
Do you have questions? Let us know and we will answer it, with the help of Clotilde, the Teacher Training instructor.
Do you want to participate in Clotilde Chaumet’s Training? Tell us.
Register for Clotilde Chaumet's YOGA TEACHER TRAINING at Cocoon Portugal from February 17 to March 8, 2024.
