I’m Gonna be a Yoga Teacher

“Life is not what happened to you but what you remember and how you remember it to retell it.” 

— Gabriel García Márquez

Get me to the Shala on Time

Yoga training.  Guatemala.  Here we go. 

I left Antigua on the arduous trek to Lake Atitlan, the location of my yoga teacher training. I’ve spent enough time relaxing and eating while traveling, it’s time to Yoga.

Three hours on a shuttle bus that ran 45 minutes late, and a long walk with a heavy backpack later, and I’m waiting at the dock in Panajachel, a.k.a. Pana. Pana is one of the larger towns on Lake Atitlan, and the one connected to the major roadways. There are roads between several of the other smaller towns on the lake, but the most common way to get around from here is to jump on a shuttle boat. So that’s what I do. I get on a boat and wait for it to take me to the small town of Tzununa.

Let this zen education begin. 

The Lake shuttle boats run frequently, but gets paid by the person. I.e. it’s not leaving until it’s full. So as often happens, I had to wait awhile. The boat sunk lower and lower in the water as more and more passengers got onboard. By the time two obnoxious Americans in halter tops climbed on exclaiming “It’s too crowded here, I’m not sitting at the front of the boat!” I was already planning who to throw overboard should we need to shed excess weight. 

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Upon arrival in Tzununa, a Guatemalan child who looked about 14 years old and 75 pounds picked up my giant backpack off the boat like a true gentleman and put it in his tuk tuk. For the bargain price of 10 quetzales (about $1.50) he drove me drove me 10 minutes down the uneven rocky road to the Yoga center. 

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I’m Here. Now What.

The Yoga center is not exactly how I pictured it, but it’s pretty close.  Lots of open air wood structures, pillows on floors instead of chairs, and signs for kombucha for sale. I arrived a day early, so it’s quiet. There are only a few Guatemalan workers and occasional western yogi wandering around. The other yoga teachers in training will arrive the following day.

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I immediately met Pete from Niagara Falls, Canada who arrived shortly before me. I immediately like Pete.  He’s a retired cop of more than 30 years and is a jack of all trades.  Since retiring, he has tried his hand at opening a wine making store, building pools the side, and built his own addition on his house.  Because you know…it’s not hard or anything.  A few months ago he started getting into hot yoga classes. So he thought, what the hell. I’m going to become a yoga teacher.  He’s planning on opening up a yoga studio with his 30 year old daughter when he gets home for ‘something to do’. 

I can totally see Pete as a stern and serious cop. But also a very approachable one. After 20 minutes of talking, I found myself opening up about my entire life story, relationship, career, and what I’m going to do when I get home.  He’s the kind of person that immediately puts your guard down.  In short order, Pete will also soon be known for getting the giggles during happy baby pose.

Little did he know yet, he is the lone man at this training.

Meeting the Owner

When the dinner bell rang we finally got to meet Doron, the owner and teacher of the studio, as well as several young volunteers he has working for him. 

I wasn’t sure what to think of Doron on initial impression. He was friendly but not overly conversational on introduction, despite my attempts at chit chat. He seemed fairly serious, maybe a little short at times, and more content to talk to his young staff than to Pete and me. This is fine. It’s only day one.  

I chatted with a few other yogis before retiring to my room around 8:30 pm.  Once dinner is served and the sun goes down there isn’t a whole lot to keep you busy at the Yoga center. Fine by me.

Day one and done.  I don’t know what the hell I signed up for here, but it’s going to be a ride to remember. 

A Few Days In

Less than a week into yoga teacher training and it’s been intense. We start each morning with 6am meditation and breath work for an hour, followed by a 90 minute yoga class. Everyday.

After morning yoga we have breakfast, a short break, and two hours of classroom time before lunch. After lunch we can study or relax for a few hours before three more hours of classroom and practice before dinner.

I’ve been going to bed before 9pm each night. Easily. I’m positively exhausted. Doron runs an intense practice in the mornings, and by the end of the week my head is a jumble of pose sequences and sanskrit munbly jumbly words and chants.

Who Else is Here

There are 15 people in the class.  Not unexpectedly, with the exception of Pete, everyone else is female. Somewhat surprisingly, the majority of the group are highly driven professional women in their late 20’s or early 30’s. Only one woman is married, although several mentioned boyfriends back home. No one except Pete has children. As a group we are former bank regulators, engineers, marketing managers, doctors, construction managers, masseuses, documentary camera women, and a lot of other things I have yet to learn. 

I like the group.  Many of them have a very similar, but of course unique, stories to mine. The majority of the group has worked for a few years and is successful by most measures. Still, many don’t feel completely fulfilled. Some ladies expressed a familiar sentiment of always chasing after some achievement that feels a bit empty in the end. Too many are tired from working long hours or making long commutes.  Several of us already quit our jobs in search of travel or something we haven’t found just yet.  Others are still in jobs they don’t have motivation enough to leave despite a lack of strong reasons to stay.

Doron has also proven to be different than I expected.  His yoga classes are challenging, and his body is a daily encyclopedia of difficult to master poses. His teaching sessions are passionate and conversational. I’m tired but I’m learning a lot.

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Doron loves yoga but believes in lifestyle flexibility, which I can appreciate. For example, he believes vegan is best for our bodies and the planet. But it’s also super restrictive and difficult to maintain. Therefore even yoga master Doron is known to eat meat on occasion.

In his lectures, Doron somehow manages to maneuver the often pothole-ridden topic of spirituality without making strict rules of behavior.  The gist of his spiritual lectures often have simple and relatable messages – learn how to be grateful for everything you have. The people in your life, the food on your table, and the birds singing outside. Stop overthinking the past and worrying about the future. Get out of your headspace and be present for the now so you can appreciate life before it passes you by.

That’s the essence of it, and I have to say I think it’s a beautiful place for spirituality to live.  It doesn’t matter which god you’re praying to, just appreciate all that has been created around you. It doesn’t really matter who created it.  It’s here now, and so are you.  So make the most of it. Appreciate it. Be grateful for it. And stop daydreaming your day away. 

This is exactly what I, and so many of us, need to hear. Of course, this doesn’t make the mediation easier.

Brain Training

As is a common complaint so far in yoga school, an hour of mediation every morning is rather excruciating for me. According to Doron, that’s because some of us haven’t emptied our mental trash bins in awhile. We have too much stuff in there we need to get rid of. Too much stuff we throw away but keep bringing back. 

I’m certainly guilty of this.  I hang on to a lot of things – old memories, perceived past injustices or wrong decisions, and to an old version of myself that I don’t have to be anymore.  In reality, I don’t have to carry any of that old garbage with me. Feel it, deal with it, be upset about it and cry if it helps. And when that process is over, let the damn thing go. 

OR. Hang onto it forever and make yourself miserable. Your choice.

I’ve never thought of this as a choice before, but this yoga experience is making me look at how I think. Strangely enough letting go sounds easier but is so very much harder.  It’s really difficult to let go of expectations for our lives, anxieties, fears, or painful memories that we have been reliving over and over again for years.  But at some point, these things aren’t serving a useful purpose anymore. They’re just mind clutter.

How freeing to think that we don’t have to hang on to these things. We can simply decide to release them, like an exhale into the wind. We could all use a little more practice doing this.

Watch out folks, I’m getting all yogic spiritual up in here.