So 1 November marked the end of the 3 and half years training for BWY Diploma in Teaching Yoga - shame that our final day was on Zoom! An emotional day and Lisa, my teacher, made it a day to remember, with a 10am start - a luxury we had not had before as we were usually on the mat often by 8.45am on a training day, Sunday (!). And the day was full of mysteries and surprises.
Mystery guest
Rhada Sundararajan, senior Vedic chanting teacher, tuning in from India. Chanting on Zoom all live? Seriously Rhada, no idea what it sounded like - I just hope Zoom covered up our (mis)pronunciation of Sanskrit words!
Last practice
A 2 hour practice with Lisa, which marked the culmination of the teaching, with breath work, alignment, pranayama, mantras during the practice.
Mystery card & present to Lisa
All students then proceeded to run through WWW (what went well) and WCBEB (what could be even better) - a process that we, as students, had to endure after each assessment - ah! those acronyms... this time it was Lisa's turn to be assessed! 😁 And our virtual presentation of a boxed picture of a tree with green shoots bearing our names and a (real) tree, to be planted in Lisa's wonderful garden, for growth. All organised by Meredith - delivery duly credited to her husband.
Mystery envelopes
Sent by Lisa earlier in the week with strict instructions not to open them until Sunday. They each contained a personalised card and mala beads, something to treasure for many years to come.
What next?
Lisa invited us to share our plans for the future. Good move Lisa! So many ideas remain in our head and it is not until we actually hear ourselves speaking or talking about them aloud that they synch in, are digested, accepted or rejected, and like affirmations, they propel us into action.
Surprise! ... It is Quiz Time!
Milestones of the course ended with ‘game quizzes' - so, this was no surprise! What DPP stand for? How many PLREs did we write? 33. How many weeks for the pranayama diary? 12. How many informal pieces of work? 133. Seriously?! that was a lot of work! Bracing ourselves, divided into groups, racing against the clock, scrambling for the points - who said that yoga teachers are not competitive, ugh?? 😂
Virtual Graduation
Our virtual graduation was marked with Lisa's chanting one of the first four Yoga Sutras, for each of us, in turn. Oh, and yes, the obligatory group photo, in Zoom thumbnails, clapping to each other.
As the final curtains came down on Zoom, one by one, I felt a sense of satisfaction with what we accomplished - perhaps with a tinge of relief at the prospect of no more essays or homework. At the same time feeling a sense of sadness, loss, witnessing the end of something that was part of my life for a long time. And to think that it all started in 2016...
With many thanks to Lisa Soede and all fellow yoga teachers of Class 2020.
"A good teacher sees the commonality of all human beings and helps each individual find his uniqueness." T. K. V. Desikachar