About two years into my practice, I started thinking about how great it would be to teach this yoga. I read about the program online with excitement but thought I could never do it. How does anyone take nine weeks off of life to learn this stuff? How do people afford it? What about a ‘real’ job? Is doing yoga twice a day possible? I spoke with Pubali, our Studio Owner about it and took it all in. At the time, I dismissed the idea as unrealistic and continued practicing with teaching in the back of my mind.
Over the next few years I continued to practice with enthusiasm. I did my own 15 day challenge and then a 30 day challenge and kept my practice moving forward, strong and consistent.
Fast forward to the beginning of March this year, I was at a conference for work. Hold please (Burke!)…for those of you that don’t know, I had been working in Hotels in Sales and Conference / Event / Wedding Planning since I graduated college eight years ago. I love this career, and perhaps may find my way back to it someday.
With my hotel background, I think I’ll likely be in the minority of the group wondering about the transient / group ratio, the group rate, the ADR, the comp set, the room rentals, the break-out space, the overnight holds, the registration, hanging banners, rooming lists, and all the event planning details that go behind planning a successful event.
Anyway, so here I am at this conference, getting ready to hear from our afternoon guest speaker. He owns a successful Team Building and Personal / Professional Growth company. As I listened to his life story, his ‘why’, felt his passion for his work in his voice, I got to thinking…I’m not that passionate anymore about my work like he is. What happened? How did I stray and how do I get back? Immediately it popped back into my brain, I need to be teaching yoga. I decided that once I got home, I would email Pubali to see if she’d be willing to speak with me about it.
That night, we had a wonderful awards dinner, but my mind was distracted thinking about what I would say to Pubali. I had already approached her about this years ago, will she take me seriously coming back a second time? Will she be open to seeing me again? Will she think I’m crazy considering the training starts next month? When I got home and pulled up my emails, that very same evening, Pubali had sent out a mass email to the Bikram Yoga Manchester email list saying how much she loves when students approach her about becoming a teacher. What!? I wrote back, “Pubali, are you reading my mind?” It was perfect timing. We met a few days later, and I told her I needed to decide by the next day, as the deadline to apply was a week away.
So I did. I weighed all sides. I thought about all the advice my teachers had given me over the years. I had already asked around for their thoughts and not one discouraged the path of a Bikram Yoga Teacher. Not one! They said it would be hard, but I wouldn’t regret it. I was scared and excited thinking about it. I talked myself out of it, made excuses, made it easy in my mind to say no and avoid doing a hard thing, and then talked myself back into it. The very next day I made the commitment to Pubali to make it happen!
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