This is the home stretch. Books and notes are strewn across my apartment. I’m studying in every spare second I have – study which includes application in life, on and off the mat.

As I come upon the last two modules of my teacher training in October, I’m starting to get sad.

Which of course leads me right back to my learning on impermanence.

Endings happen.

And endings allow room for new opportunities.

I’m lucky to have quite a few friends in Frankfurt who are open to being my students throughout this process. I know I’ll continue to work with them even after my training is over.

I’ve also made new friends along this journey, and have widened my network to include not only people in London, but also Moscow, Helsinki and Norway. I know I’ll visit them in the future.

I took the training to deepen my own practice & awareness and I’ve certainly gotten what I wanted. I’ve grown so much, but also see the potential for even more growth – and that potential and possibility is so exciting.

I’m ready for new opportunities on the horizon.

Last week, we continued our study of anatomy, the physical body, and the subtle body. We dove deeper into the foundations of yoga and Hatha Yoga Pradipika.

I’ve learned that every module will include something where I have to dive right in, no matter how uncomfortable I am. My uncomfortable situation this time: leading a call and response in sanskrit.

It was liberating as much as it was scary.

My takeaways from last week’s module:

• The nature of life is challenge. Sometimes it’s bitter and sometimes it’s sweet. Being awake and alive is experiencing all the rough edges instead of trying to make it like a perfect polished stone.
• Embrace the anxiety we feel when we’re under pressure as much as we embrace the blissful feeling of happy experiences.
• Teachers don’t always teach in a direct way: they come in many forms. The good and the bad contribute to our evolution, and there is value in everything.
• The greatest impression you can make as a yoga teacher is that yoga is not separate from life.