Ravings of a Textual Deviant

My yoga for seniors training was much more mentally comfortable than the prenatal/postpartum, as do hope to be old myself one day. I did find that the class might be appropriately titled “chair yoga” rather than targeting a specific age group, as anyone who has some of the physical conditions that result in impaired mobility or other physical effect we associate with aging would certainly benefit. In fact, I could easily see combining the prenatal/postparum with the seniors class into a two-day Yoga Modifications workshop. Taking the two in the same weekend made it sem like I was getting mre out of each workshop than I would have if I had them individually.

I can also see how it would’ve been very helpful to have had the class before my student teaching, as several of the people in that class either needed or preferred to stay in chairs the entire time. However, it’s not all closng the barn door after the horse has left, because several elements may be quite useful in the office-cubicle yoga seminar I occasionally teach.

The pace of the class was nice and relaxed as well, which is good, considering that I’ve got a much more physically demanding weekend comng up here. This time, I had that familiar my-brain-is-full feeling, but wasn’t physically tired. Next weekend is mostly retraining (except for the yoga with weights class on Friday evening), so it may well fall out that my brain gets a bit of a break while my body does the heavy lifting, as it were.

It did occur to me that once I’ve finished my training, I won’t be seeing some fo the familiar faces I’ve gotten accustomed to—Jenny from Chatanooga, Jenny from Kentucky, and Renee from Illinois, among others. I’d like to think that I’ll see some of the local and near-local people more often, but you never know. I’ve said many times that yoga teachers as a group tend to be really wonderful people, and my training cohort certainly bears that out.

I couldn’t help but notice that some of the language in the Prenatal/Postpatrum training manual, especially for the verbal cues for students, was, shall we say, overly sentimental. I’m not the only one who thinks so apparently, and it turns out that this particular manual was written not by Stephanie (THE master trainer), or Beth (who founded the company), but…Stuart, “the guy,” as the instructor referred to him. (This makes me think that he’s probably the only male trainer in the company.) I asked our trainer whether Stuart had kids, and the answer was no. I do think, however, that Stuart is frustrated poet, though, because the language kept getting more florid and practically Victorian in its sentimentality as we went through the book.

My first thought, upon typing that title, is “thank goodness Ortho Women’s Health & Urology I’m neither!”

The prenatal/postpartum class is required for my 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher certification, and is probably the only one I wouldn’t have taken anyway even if it weren’t required. (The only other option is Kids, and to be perfectly honest, I’ll be happy if I go my whole yoga-teaching career without having to deal with kids, either in utero or out of it.) I’ve never made any secret of the fact that I’m totally uninterested in being a parent. I’m somewhat less vocal about the fact that I’m definitively averse to being pregnant myself, to the point where I’m very nearly phobic about it.

Days like today do nothing to allay that feeling. Setting aside all the stories about pregnancy and its myriad discomforts…setting aside the course material about the postpartum period (bleeding for 4-6 weeks!?!?!? I had no idea, and was probably happier for it)…setting aside the fact that I’d feel like a complete fraud teaching a prenatal/postpartum class, never having been pregnant myself…when we stuffed out extra clothing layers into our yoga pants for the master class, and several women looked at me and remarked how realistic I looked, I very nearly wigged out right then and there. I was very uncomfortable, mentally, the entire class and couldn’t believe how relieved I felt as soon as I was wearing my t-shirt in a more conventional fashion again.

Setting aside my personal hang-ups, though, it was a good class. There’s plenty of material that crosses over nicely into another class I am very interested in taking, as well as ideas that integrate nicely into more general classes, especially the gentle, restorative ones. And although I am glad I took the class, I heard just enough about the Kids class (from both the instructor and other students who had taken it) to make me wonder whether it would’ve been a better choice. Logistically, it certainly wasn’t, but emotionally, I might have been a lot more comfortable. Still, sometimes it’s good to face things that make me uncomfortable, and any problems I had in the training were mine, rather than anything to do with either the class or the instructor.

Tomorrow—Yoga for Seniors class! I’m looking forward to that one, because it’s really more about modifications for various physical conditions than age per se. I suspect it’s also something that would have been very helpful to have known when I did my student teaching, so I’m keen on circling back to pick up that knowledge.

Tomorrow begins what I’ve been calling yoga teacher boot camp. Three of the next four weekends will be spent in yoga teacher training, and the fourth is a travel weekend—to yoga teacher training. I’m looking at 80 hours or so of seminars in just under four weeks. And heaven help me, I’m even looking forward to it.