Hello beautiful people.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Take in the moment that your body is experiencing.

Accept right now as the only time you need to notice. Just be here with me for a moment. Let your shoulders relax. Unclench your jaw. Breathe at your own pace.

I signed up for a yoga teacher training course.

I have always seen myself growing old as the white haired deeply wrinkled yoga crone, and this week I chose-on impulse-to finally take a step in that direction.

My social media feeds have been filled with ads for the Breathe For Change organization, and upon more research, it was like, “where has this been all of my life? I need to do this. NOW.”

I saw the ads, and clicked the ads, and applied to be a yoga teacher. The next day I got my interview call and paid my deposit and got signed up.

I spent all of today immersed in that world in our online class via zoom.

Not only was this the best zoom experience I have ever had, but it was the best teacher training I have EVER HAD IN MY ENTIRE LIFE.

The training was so well organized. The pedagogy was so sound. The content completely research based. I felt a combination of grateful, validated and stunned during my whole-day class today.

Every new curriculum block began with some sort of body centering.

Each chunk of direct instruction was succinct and the trainer explained what the proficiencies were at the beginning.

I already knew that the mission of this organization fit my needs and personality very well, and I expected great things. But I never expected to be so authentically held and loved during a class with 400+ people that I left my training today with a light spirit, overflowing in gratitude.

I guess what I want you to know is, the more you are tapped in to your intuition the more it will guide you.

I had no idea that this is what I would embark on in 2021. I didn’t know I’d be taking two courses that cover most of the year. I am also enrolled in Reclamation through Stratejoy. That class has monthly themes for us to investigate. It has been hard and authentic work and the community of folx amazing.

Breathe for Change was started for teachers. The founder, Dr. Ilana Nankin, found that being a teacher was exhausting and so many teachers struggled with stress. She got her PhD in curriculum and instruction and the research she did for her dissertation led to the founding of the organization.

B4C’s mission is to combine social-emotional wellness, mindfulness and yoga as a vehicle for social change. I will not only be trained to be a yoga teacher, but also certified in mindfulness and wellness enough to teach workshops and classes on those topics. The organization is operated almost entirely by women, and women of color. My cohort is the most diverse group of humans I have done a training with in my professional experience.

I am ecstatic to make positive organizational change in my classroom by helping my students find their own paths to wellness.

People filled with gratitude spread gratitude.

I have been looking for what my next chapter of training as a teacher would be, and it came to me. It literally found me on social media and kept nudging me, over and over and over, to pay attention.

For the next 8 months I will be working with this beautiful group of humans online, learning how to better ourselves in service to ourselves and the world. Tomorrow, class 2/18 commences.

I am paying attention now.

In gratitude, Namaste.