Reflections on Metta Yoga Teacher Training

Reflections on Metta Yoga Teacher Training

by Sarah Walter

I remember the moment very clearly. It was an afternoon in March 2021 after a hectic morning of helping my then first grader and fourth grader with their asynchronous learning assignments and dropping them off for their in-person PM cohort at Neil Cummins. This presented me with a glorious 130-minute break before I needed to collect my preschooler and then the older kids from school. I squandered this time with what has come to be known as ‘doom scrolling’ – mindlessly scrolling through emails on my phone because my brain was fried and I felt paralazed from the morning shuffle and residual stress of the past year of pandemic parenting living in 15-minute increments. So foreign was the concept of “me time” that I struggled to fill the minutes. Recently vaccinated (eligible as an essential school volunteer), I exhaled and thought about what life was going to start looking and feeling like once the children were back in school full-time and we could safely gather again. I had recently signed up for my first in-person yoga class with Anna and happened to notice an email from Metta advertising a 200-hour Teacher Training Info Session. I opened the email and was surprised to see a photo of myself from a few years back in one of Anna’s classes as the marketing header on the email.

Synchronicity or not, the email pulled me into the idea of signing up for the training. I read a bit more about the faculty (my favorite teachers from Metta) and more importantly - the hours. Two weekends a month for 4 months where I would be free of my role as the default parent and could dedicate time to the practice and study of yoga. Yes, sign me up now!! I attended the info session as a formality and immediately submitted my application.

I began practicing yoga as a college student. It developed into a more regular practice in my early 20’s as part of my own self-care to manage the demands of my career as a social worker. I would often slip away during my lunch breaks to the local studio around the corner from my office in Denver and enjoyed the reprieve I found in a focused asana class to ground me in my busy day. The more I practiced, the more I was drawn to the idea of teaching. When my husband and I relocated to Melbourne, Australia in the late 2000’s to work and travel I took the opportunity between jobs to enroll in a yoga teacher training program (YTT). Our time abroad was cut short due to my mother-in-law’s battle with stage IV colon cancer and we left to come back to the states to support her through her treatments in Washington, D.C. While I did not finish my YTT in Australia, I had completed enough hours to apply for my RYT-200 and began teaching classes at various studios in D.C. I became pregnant with our first child, started a new job with a non-profit, relocated to San Francisco, and set my teaching aside for “the time being”.

For the following 10 years I focused on my new role as a parent first to one, then eventually three children also setting aside my career in nonprofit management. After having children my yoga practice shifted a lot. I found it challenging to create the time and space to get to a studio for an asana practice unless I was pregnant. I attended classes at Pomegranate Yoga Center throughout the years when my children were very young and was elated when Metta opened just around the corner from my house during the spring of 2017. My first class with Jessie felt like I found my yoga home.

It felt natural to sign up for the YTT after finding a studio in Marin that resonated soundly with my own yoga practice. Signing up for this teacher training offered the opportunity to deepen my practice once again, reconnect with teaching, build community with the other teacher trainees and gain mentorship from the faculty. I was excited to learn new approaches to class sequencing and refresh my knowledge of asanas. It was a treat to revisit the other limbs of the yoga practice in-depth, especially after having 10 more years of life experience since previously engaging with the ancient wisdom tradition of yoga. We dove deep into the history and philosophy of yoga through study of the yoga sutras with weekly reflection assignments. We learned about yogic and western physiology and anatomy, pranayama, and meditation practices. We built close connections as a group through the training program, having informal lunches on the steps of the San Rafael studio during our afternoon breaks on YTT weekends, offering hugs and support as we all navigated various challenges that arose in our lives during our months together, and sharing many laughs and some tears as well. We still communicate regularly on a group text. Our yoga sutra studies inspired many of us so deeply that we continued on in a monthly yoga sutra study group with Jessie and her teacher Lisa Rapp.

As I come back into teaching, my YTT friends come to my classes and immediately put me at ease to see their faces and feel their support as I start on this journey of teaching once again. I feel grateful to have the opportunity to reconnect with my practice and teaching and build community with the other yogis in YTT and now as a teacher at Metta. The YTT experience with Metta fulfilled my desire to create space for myself to do something new and reconnect with my pre-mother identity. I have built community and connection with the other lovely yogis in the program - something much needed after 18 months of pandemic living. I appreciated learning from the array of faculty perspectives offered by Anna, Jessie, Bex, Kate and Charisse. These teachers’ styles deeply resonate with me. I find myself able to grow and embody what I want to offer as a yoga teacher through studying with them. Learning from these teachers aligns deeply with my values. I am excited to be able to expand and grow my knowledge and offerings as a teacher to the Metta Yoga community.

© 2021 Metta Yoga LLC