Ready for a challenge?
There we all are, standing around in the studio, making small talk and tentatively rolling out our mats (our security blankets) unsure what to expect from the course.
After a short welcome from PYC co-founder Amelie and Christian Coelho (our lead teacher) we’re straight into our first practice. The nerves slowly start to dissipate as we move our bodies, each of us now in our happy place. We then get told that the sequence we just practiced would be the sequence we would be examined on. All the nerves come rushing back in again and I’m immediately thinking, what, how am I ever going to remember it?
Before I can fully process these thoughts, Christian is asking us to pair up and practice teaching. What…on day one?
Finding my flow
Thrown into the deep end in the best possible way, that was how our training began. And on our last day we reminisced about that first morning and couldn’t believe how far we had come.
I had impulsively signed up for the course a week before. It had been something I’d been considering for a while and when I saw that PYC had an upcoming course I could fit around my work, I knew I had to do it.
PYC is where my passion for yoga grew and is home to some of my favourite teachers. So while I knew the training would be of high standard, in reality it ended up exceeding my expectations. The teachers were all so knowledgeable and their individual styles complimented each other well, each bringing something unique to the training.
A life-changing experience
While I revelled in the physical, philosophical and anatomy modules – a particular stand out for me was Mona Godfrey’s session on inclusivity. It’s such an important and relevant topic that many trainings shy away from and it was great to see PYC addressing this.
As cliched as it sounds it was a life changing experience, equipping me with lessons that I’ll carry with me through life, both on and off the mat.
My advice for anyone taking the training – go all in. I did feel like that annoying person at the front of the class asking all the questions, but it’s the perfect opportunity to ask the stupid questions, learn from others and deepen your practice.
To all the people that I trained with, you are amazing individuals and I’m excited to see where our journeys take us. Thank you to PYC and also for the opportunity to teach community classes, allowing us to give back to the yoga community at the same time! My main learning from this experience, I’ll forever be a student on this amazing journey.
Natalie Smith is one of our Community Class teachers, follow her on Instagram here.
If you’re interested in training to be a yoga teacher with PYC, our next 200hr course starts 22nd April.