In one week I will depart for what I am aptly titling as “Flyaway from it all to fly into it all” where I am leaving everything at home for 15 days and traveling to Puerto Viego, Costa Rica to essentially practice yoga, meditate, eat fab vegetarian cuisine and live in the outdoors (not literally!). Along with this I will be assisting others to better learn about yoga for themselves and assist in developing their understanding of how to teach yoga to others in a class setting. After attending Marianne Wells Yoga School at Samasati this past December, I am thrilled to be going back to a beautiful, peaceful sanctuary of nature, yoga and jungle! And everything is the best part of Samasati.
Marianne’s training is 200 RYT, so over the course of 15 days this is a lot of yoga packed into each day. It is full immersion of yoga at it’s finest, in a location I found ideal for yoga retreat. Samasati provides everything a guest needs during a yoga retreat. Balanced meals and Marianne’s training follows a schedule and this really helped me schedule yoga in my daily life once I returned home. In a world where we spend a lot of time and positive energy taking care of others in life, Marianne teaches people how to take care of themselves. With focus on the physical, spiritual, emotional and also intellectual state of being, what more do you need? And really, through developing ability to take care of self, we not only become better yoga teachers, we become better people.
Meditation Hall Group Picture, December 2009
Some go to Marianne’s training with no intent of ever teaching a yoga class. They are yoga enthusiasts and they attend to deepen their own practice and understanding of yoga. Others have quit their jobs and moved their life to pursue a spiritual journey of asanas, meditation and travel. Those settled into their residential location return home as rejuvenated mothers, college students and caretakers, trained to teach yoga. In both cases, Marianne’s training is a stepping-stone for career change and income as a yoga teacher.
So why did I attend Marianne’s training? I decided to deepen my own practice of yoga by learning to teach. After five-plus years, going to yoga classes all over Cincinnati on a regular basis I was ready to discover the philosophy further and develop my understanding of how yoga came to be what it is today. My full time job is with Fit Bodies, Inc. and being a certified 200 RYT opens additional options for me to excel within my career. I also chose Marianne’s training because I do not believe there is another two week 200 RYT in existence. Well, there probably is, but they must not advertise much. I cannot afford, on so many levels, to take off and travel somewhere for a month of yoga teacher training. There are local trainings here in N. Ky and Cincinnati that I hear are really great, and I know many of the teachers who conduct these trainings so I know they are great, but, the idea of being in class one morning and then the office taking phone calls and emails in the afternoon was very unappealing. After being at Marianne’s site, I knew it was right for me. Two weeks; total immersion, total bliss, yoga boot camp (so to speak) in the middle of Costa Rica with mountains and waterfalls, monkeys and sloths…I would not have had it any other way. Thank you, Marianne. I am grateful for the opportunity to be back at Samasati, working with you and your August teacher training, starting next week.
“There is no road to happiness, happiness is the road.” –Dalai Lama