I started yoga when I was in my early twenties. Back then, yoga to me, was simply an ‘exercise of relaxation’. After some stretching poses, at the end of the class, we got to relax and calm ourselves with the final relaxation pose – Savasana – The Corpse Pose!
Speaking from my own early yoga experience, I equated limber with being “good with yoga”. I enjoyed my practice more because I felt motivated to try more challenging poses each time. This encouraged me to stick with yoga practice for a few years.
Few years back, I stopped my regular yoga practice after I got pregnant, and instead enrolled in a Pre-Natal Yoga class. There they taught us the importance of breathing during labor and also some simple exercises that could aid us during our pregnancy. I guess I had made the right decision for this pre-natal class as my baby bump immediately flattened after I delivered! Well, that’s what I believe at least!
After my child was born, I basically stopped yoga practices completely. Taking care of the baby and being a FTWM (and eventually into a SAHM) totally tired me out! Who needed exercise!
Eventually I still signed up with a commercial studio to practice yoga, however the experience was not good. The instructors did not go in-depth on our postures or even try to improve the poses. It was more like a ‘systematic’ drill (however now I am thankful for such an experience as I do know that should I choose to teach someday – the kind of instructor I would like to be).
Just when I thought I was beginning to ‘lost touch’ with yoga, I came across “Children Yoga”, which got me interested. Hey I love yoga, I am flexible and I like children, I should be able to teach children? It would be interesting if I can teach my daughter yoga and share the same interests with her. Hence with the determination to teach children’s yoga, I search online for children yoga courses. Well, I was rather surprised that Children Yoga is not as popular here in Singapore.
One thing led to another, I chanced upon Tirisula Yoga and opted to sign up for their Children Yoga training course. However I was advised that to be able to be a qualified Children Yoga teacher, I need to be registered with yoga alliance, and to be registered with yoga alliance, I need to fulfill a 200-hours Yoga Teacher Training course!
And so… my 200-hours of training started on 3rd of May 2016. Oh boy! The training WAS TOUGH! Did I sign up for a boot camp or what! It was completely different from my impression of a yoga teacher training.
On the first week of training, we were made to build up our strengths and tolerance with all the endurance exercises. I swear I have never perspired this much in my life before! I was counting down each day, couldn’t wait for the course to be over!
Slowly we survived the 1st week, then 2nd week, then 3rd week… and finally into our 4th week now! I find that the tough training and theory knowledge is indeed very essential and important. So yoga is a lot more in-depth. It is not just about pranayama, asanas or body and mind awareness. Yoga is a lot lot more. Slowly, I began to appreciate the teaching and the practice more.
With all these knowledge, I am beginning to understand the importance of yoga in everybody’s life. I have friends or even strangers telling me that they cannot practise yoga because they are not flexible, but I explained to them that yoga is not just about the asanas. I hope, with my little knowledge of the practice, I could change their mindsets. It makes me more determined to pursue this practice further, especially given its importance on young children. Get them exposed to yoga at a very young age… and I believe the world would have a better future!!
Merisa
