My Yoga Teacher's Training Story
Did I dream about becoming a yoga teacher? No. Life led me here.
More specifically, Lyme disease led me here. Body broken and battered, every joint screaming in pain, I needed something to guide me back to the land of the living. I gave yoga a shot. I’ll share more on my yoga story here, but for now, just know it saved me in more ways than one.
During my second year on this incredible journey, I wanted to get my Teacher’s Training certification so badly, but due to health restrictions, I wasn’t able to travel to attend the workshops. So I continued doing what I love, practicing at home. But there was never a doubt that I would one day find a way to share the gift of yoga with others, knowing it could help reduce peoples' suffering and give hope where there might have been none before.
Then covid hit, shaking our worlds.
Despite all the misery and suffering, I was able to find a diamond in the ruff. For the first time in history, YTT opened online. While I had always believed YTT training was best served up in person, allowing you to bond with your fellow students and instructors, online training would still allow me to achieve a major goal...to spread the magic of yoga any way I could without feeling restricted. I enrolled in the first program I found, completed the intensive 200hr course in 32 days, and after a few months of completing my requirements to graduate, I received my certification in December 2020. Yay! What a great moment to end a catastrophic pandemic year!
It was a big accomplishment, having been through years of illness. My meditation practice improved, and I learned a lot about yoga theory, but I didn’t gain much when it came to my asana practice, which I found to be a bit of a letdown. While Yoga Alliance, USA, requires a minimum number of hours for each of the various categories, every school will approach the curriculum differently. I realized it is important to find a program that best resonates with your goals. That’s why, when I learned that @yogawithbriohny was offering YTT online training, I felt I had missed an opportunity. Her incredible teaching style had long made her one of my favorite yogis. I couldn’t believe I had jumped the gun on my school selection.
After a few days moping around the house, I decided to turn lemons into lemonade.
After a discussion with my husband—one where I informed him 2021 might be a busier year than expected—I signed up for Briohny’s 300hr YTT online, even though it had never been a part of the plans. Sometimes, you really just need to trust the ebb and flow of life. And let me tell you, I’m so glad that I did. After the first day, I knew this was like nothing I had gone through before. The amount of work and insight she had put into her course was amazing, and it was incredibly well structured. I really had high expectations with Briohny and, unsurprisingly, she didn’t fail.
For someone who doesn’t know how they are going to feel from one day to the next, online training has worked out perfectly for me.
Definitely a smart investment! If I’m down and out, body too beat up to train that day, I can just do more the next. It has given me the freedom to achieve my dreams, and Briohny has made the experience as close to “in-person” as one can with online training. You actually feel like she’s really talking in front of you in her videos. There are a lot of courses that have popped up, and it’s easy to guess wrong. You should take some time to learn more about what she offers by checking her website.
I was chosen to become an affiliate yay!
Lastly, I’d like you to know that when Briohny’s Aligned Yoga reached out to me to become one of her affiliates, I was ecstatic! Because I truly believe in her curriculum. Take this dissertation as my stamp of approval, not just for the information she provides, but also for how it is presented.
An affiliate means if you end up enrolling in her training with this link, I will earn a commission, so thank you if you use it. There is no additional cost to you, so you don’t have to worry about that. And if you know me, you know I would never share or promote anything I do not strongly believe in. So if you feel that I helped you decide if her course is right for you, feel free to thank me later! Because I'd love to hear from you! :)
