Not everyone is going to be crazy enough to tackle their 200-hour yoga teacher training in 25 days. Not everyone is going to fly to another country to live in a bungalow while they do it, either.

But no matter what, a yoga teacher training is going to test you and bring up feelings you might not have even known you could feel.

I am currently in Nicaragua getting my yoga teaching certification from Bodhi Yoga Academy. It’s an intensive program and is truly testing me on every level of my life.

I know that everyone has their own journey, but I wanted to share some of the lessons I learned during the first week of my training with you, so hopefully you will have a better understanding than I did of what a teacher training entails:

1) Tears are your friend.

The day before I came to my teacher training, I lost a member of my family. He was only 14 years old.

I didn’t even have a chance to grieve or wrap my mind around what happened before I go on the plane. It wasn’t that I was holding everything in or even trying to hide what had happened, but it’s still hard to face.

Yoga forces you to look at the truth whether you want to or not, and the fifth day into the training I lowered down out of headstand in the last ten minutes of our evening vinyasa class and just started to bawl. It was a straight-up ugly cry. I finished the class and did all the poses while tears streamed down my face.

2) The bonds you make will be with you for the rest of your life.

Once I was finished crying, it was time for dinner, and I found out that so many other ladies around the table had experienced a similar tragedy in their lives. We cried together. We embraced. And we shared parts of ourselves until eventually we were smiling and laughing, remembering the good and using the pain and struggle to fuel our practice and our path.

You will meet your soul family on this adventure, because I don’t think anyone can really understand this journey unless they’ve gone through it themselves.

3) Sleep will be your savior.

I’m writing this to you from a hammock. We get one free day a week, and naturally it decides to rain on our day off.

I think it was the universe’s way of making us all slow down and rest. We had all these adventures planned, but honestly sleep, rest and hammock naps are going to keep us sane this month. It gives us time to recover from the grueling physical practice and also time to reflect over discussions.

The whole experience is going to be new and crazy, especially if you’re doing an intensive training.

I’m lucky enough to have two amazing women as my teachers who go out of their way to make us all feel supported, because on and off the mat safety is the most important thing to them.

My most important takeaway so far is to roll with the energy I’m feeling.

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Relephant Read:

Your Yoga Teacher Training will Destroy your Life.

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Author: Stacy Porter

Editor: Toby Israel

Photos: Courtesy of Author

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