Yoga for First Responders Training: Day 2 Reflections

Day 2 of the Yoga for First Responders teacher training is complete!

Today got me thinking…

I realized that I’m ready to make some personal commitments with my own practice (both as a student and as a teacher).

1. I recommit to making breathwork a foundation of my home practice. I am committed to making pranayama a more conscious daily practice. Over the next week and extending throughout the month of October, I will start every day with at least three minutes of deep belly breathing. During training today, we spent a great deal of time talking about the three-part breath (breathing into the belly, ribs and chest) and I was amazed at how powerful this simple technique is. Time to make this a big part of my home practice!

2. I commit to deepening my awareness of my stress response and to researching the vagal nerve. Today during training we talked about heart rate and HeartMath technology and achieving a state of coherence— when the body, mind and emotions are in order and harmony, and little to no energy is being wasted. We also did a powerful exercise in tracking our breath and our heart rate without placing a finger anywhere on the body to check for a pulse— instead, just closing the eyes and using internal awareness to track the rhythms of the heart and lungs. This was such an insightful practice! I want to make this part of my regular routine, so that I have a sense of my own rhythms and can quickly and easily check in with what state my body is in, and to learn more subtle ways of controlling my own breathing. I also want to do more research about the vagal nerve because I believe that information could be helpful for bringing more healing to my digestive system.

3. I give myself permission to not have it all together. Not gonna lie— this training has been mentally and emotionally exhausting for me (and we’re only on day 2!). Being far from home, feeling lonely, being away from my routines, missing my friends, family and dog, experiencing aches and pains in my body… all of it adds up to a sense of not feeling like I have my sh*t together, which can make teaching and connecting with other people at the training more challenging. I’m out of my comfort zone. For the past few weeks, I’ve been experiencing a lot of changes in my personal life and my schedule, and have felt like I need to have a good cry to help process everything. Hopefully that opportunity arises at a time when I can sit by myself for a bit, but we’ll see what happens ;) For now, I’m giving myself grace and reminding myself that I should be proud of all the hard work I’m doing this week.

Have any of you been through a yoga teacher training, and experienced similar breakthroughs or revelation? What did your training reveal about your practice?

PS Read more about Day 1 of the Yoga for First Responders training.

Photos courtesy of Yoga for First Responders.