September 24th marks the start of a new teacher training that will last 13 fun-packed days and transform the lives of everyone attending. Tasha Veit explains how the training transforms firsthand. As a recent graduate of a recent Yoga District training, Tasha’s blog post describes her incredible teacher training journey, teaching career, and her efforts to intertwine yoga practice in the military. Learn more about Tasha’s journey on our blog, and consider signing up for the training starting next week. Whether or not you want to teach or just learn more about yoga and yourself, our welcoming training focusing on diversity, acceptance, and empowerment is the place for you unfold.
It’s been about 8 months since I completed the 12-day intensive during the blustery winter of January 2015. Every time I scribble the sequence I plan on teaching in my notebook (consequently the back of the same notebook I used for teacher training), I am immediately brought back to my training. In my head I hear the resounding words of advice from Kat and the teaching staff I had privilege to study under: “Each class is different”, “…every time gets easier”… “ be authentic and true to YOU.” Those words are almost my mantra of headspace before I commit my soul and energy into a class. And so I have taught about 25 “classes” since February. I use the term “classes” loosely, since currently, as I complete schooling for the US Army in Arizona, I merely offer myself to guide those who desire to practice, and many of them experiencing hatha yoga for the first time.
However, my first official teaching experience was like being thrown into the gauntlet! For 6 weeks, before moving from Baltimore, I taught a 90-minute hot yoga class offered to me by my dear friend and gifted Thai massage therapist, yoga teacher and acupuncturist, Theresa Lummino. She gave me the gift of an opportunity to teach not only at her studio, but a whole 90- minute class alone, and on a Saturday morning. Gosh was I so nervous and hesitant! I wondered and questioned if I could live up to my student’s expectations. While this is a common theme we spoke about many times in training, I just wasn’t sure how to shake it. But it was teachers like her, and those who make Yoga District a truly blessed yoga community, that gave me the faith and confidence in my abilities.
What both Theresa and Yoga District gave me was the solitude that if I remained true to myself, my class would just “flow” out of me. Coming from a more regimented, military background, where I was often constructively observed for directing my peer trainee’s to “BREATHE!” I must say, intertwining yoga practice in the military has been a sort of yin-yang relationship that I hope to continue to nurture, foster and grow more yogi and yogini’s from!
Thank you Kat, Marci, Hannah, Smita, Mike G., Patrick, Sara & Purnima (for being that daily support system and smile at the end of a long day!) and my wonderful yogi and yogini’s I had the pleasure of traveling down this journey of pure bliss & enlightenment that teaching has offered me! Most of all, thank you to the friends and students who consistently gift me the opportunity to lead them into a sacred space of practice.
-With love and gratitude,
Tasha
