Hey there, beautiful people. My name is Donna Tillotson and today is my day for the Fraser Valley Yoga Teachers Blog Tour. #fvyogateachers Thank you Wendy, for all your efforts in setting it up, you're a dedicated creator of community! Wendyweymann.com Wendy is one of my most lovable teachers. Brings people together in real life too! I'm a relatively new yoga teacher, completed my YTT200 with Karen Waite at Red Door Yoga last fall. Another amazing teacher!
I was looking for a hobby when I enrolled in teacher training. A hobby that would help me be motivated to stay in shape, make a bit of money and allow me to be creative in some way. Three things some wise person said would make a hobby rewarding. I'd taken many yoga classes over the years, many styles, many teachers, but never really paid attention to what I was doing, never developed a practice. I just loved how it made me feel and that I seemed to stretch and use muscles I didn't know I had. It always felt good. I was a busy homeschooling mom of four. My husband and I started and successfully ran a tree nursery out in Agassiz, Treeline Nursery. We lived in the old Lake Errock School house which we had renovated into our home. My husband passed suddenly when I was 45, I let the business go two years later, our last child successfully launched into the world shortly after. It was a bleak time. Like I was in no man's land. I felt done. Everything I'd spent what seemed like my whole life focusing on, was finished. I needed a hobby.
Taking my yoga and meditation teacher training has been a bridge to a whole new world for me. I’m so grateful to the handful of regular clients who continue to show up. Helping people become fully tuned into their center, their core, their gold. That is incredibly gratifying. Watching bodies grow more supple and flexible is great but seeing the blissful look of deep relaxation on faces at the end of class fuels me up again, every time. And there‘s still so much more to learn! I love connecting with yoga teachers old and new, sharing a new found vocabulary for so many of life’s issues.
I teach out of my home, this wonderful old renovated school I've been so fortunate to call home for the last 27 years. I’m still in the process of naming it. Am leaning towards Old School Yoga. It's perfect for the space but was unsure if it suited my style of teaching. When I think of an old school teacher I think strict and regimented, that's not me. It seems a societal trend that yoga has been increasing in pace over the last decade or so, the fitness aspect pushing it that direction. I do love yoga for fitness but also deeply appreciate that it's an ancient practice based on alignment within the body. Within body mind and soul. I love it in life when I personally get the reminder to slow down and get centered. That slow mindful yoga class is the class I love to take and the class I love to teach. Does that sound like a match for Old School Yoga? Please weigh in below.
It's deeply humbling to really begin to comprehend what this ancient practice is capable of. For me, practicing yoga is very much like decluttering my house. It clears me up, lightens the load. Lifts me up and creates a higher vibe. The hobby I signed up for has me feeling like I can help change the world!
Many thanks again, Wendy. Your gentle nudging to the edge is so kindly appreciated.
If you missed yesterday's post, check out Tanya Marusech's post here: http://abbotsford-yoga-studio.com/fvyogateachers & you certainly don't want to miss tomorrow's post by Luisa here: http://www.wendyweymann.com/2019/03/17/fvyogateachers-3/