Trust in unfolding potential

by Becca Sprigg, Zuna Yoga 500 hour yoga teacher training graduate

I am sitting in my room at home in Louisville, KY, looking out the window, realizing the magnitude of what I just experienced over the past two months. Coming home from Cambodia after my 500 hour training has been difficult, but rewarding.

I started this journey in December, when I registered for just the 200 hour yoga teacher training, not really knowing what I signed up for. All I knew was that I was looking for something to connect to, that I wanted something more than just going through life unaware. I loved to travel and yoga was the one thing I had in my life at the time that made me stable, a safety raft in my chaotic life. I arrived on the first day of training and right away I knew I had made the right decision. On the third day, after my most powerful meditation yet, I asked Everett if I could stay for the 300 hour yoga teacher training that immediately followed as well. My soul was longing for me to continue down this path and I knew it was my time to listen. I was tired of being unconscious and living a life that did not follow my purpose. Everett gave me the okay, but did warn me that it would be difficult. I knew what he meant. I was going to finally have to deal with my demons. During those first few weeks of the 200 hour course, I learned how to connect to my body with my breath, to use my breath to release tension, to become lighter and more stable. Understanding that breath is life, you can tell a lot about who you are and your state of mind by the way you breath. I learned how to take a full yogic breath and to corporate it in my yoga practice. It changed yoga for me, I felt strong and masterful. I can hear Everett's voice still repeating, "you are what you practice" and "listen to your breath, breath leads the body." 

I learned a lot about myself during my 200 hour training. Coming into it, I was unbalanced and unfocused. However, I knew I had great potential to grow. My heart ached for me to listen and I just learning how to be still enough for a moment to connect back to it. After finishing the 200 hour course, I knew I had more to learn and experience, and I was ready for the doors to continue to open. 

After a week off that included a trip to Angkor Wat, I was ready to start another month of training as the 300 hour training kicked off. A new group of people and another chance for me to grow, to become more aware. Looking back at my journal, I wrote on January 9, 2016: "Arrived for another beautiful yoga training at the Vine Retreat. Open to stillness, listening, and growing into the manifestation that I already know is blossoming in me. Here is to another day and to seeing the world in the present moment."
That's all I wrote, and it fit perfectly into what I experienced during my trainings. The 300 hours were the building blocks for deepening my practice of meditation and pranayama, to know how to use my asana practice for more powerful meditations. During asana and meditation, I learned the use of prana to find space. I started to hear, see and understand more. My mind was settling, I felt calmer. When I became still, I could feel the energy all around me. It still brings tears just thinking about it. I would look at someone and see the beauty of who they were. Void of judgement and comparison, just being the observer. I was learning to become the observer of my life too, the habits that I have formed and my state of mind. I learned that you can create new patterns by new intention, by action. Finding an focus point, so that the mind can open to awareness. I started to feel lighter, my heart was opening up. My breath felt less disturbed. For the first time in my life, I felt more joy and happiness. I felt connected. Everyone around me inspired me, the relationships I was forming from my trainings were becoming my greatest teachers. The relationships we form and the moments we share with people are so important to life. I knew that the more conscious and aware I became, the more I can share with people around me, sharing the stillness of the moment.

Closer to the end of the 300 hour training, I started to understand my purpose. In order to live a purposeful life, I needed to become focused and grounded. My goal is to become the creator of my life and to know at the end of the day I am living an authentic life. So I am taking each day one at a time, working towards my path of growing the seeds I planted. To cultivate the power of intention, and become a masterful creator. After my training, it was difficult to say goodbye. I had just spent the most powerful two months of my life with some of the most amazing people I have ever met. My growth and experience is something that will forever stay with me. I am beyond grateful for the relationships I have formed, moments I have shared and knowledge I have gained. I will forever hold these within my soul.

I realize I have the choice to take this new knowledge and plant it in my life. Everett, our teacher, discussed the power of intention throughout the training. He told us to plant the seeds of what we want in order to cultivate this in our lives. For my intentions to grow, I realize I must become balanced and focused, so my intentions can manifest. To take in the knowledge I have learned and apply it to my life. To continue on my path of becoming a conscious being.

Bali Yoga Teacher Training Review by Fleur

200 hour Bali Yoga Teacher Training review by Fleur (Australia)

"Thank you Zuna Yoga for such a treasured experience. After only 21 days, you changed the way I see the world! 

In my search for a yoga teacher training course, I was looking for one which tied the principles into the roots of yoga and gave a holistic view of the practice. I loved every minute of the philosophy lessons and felt like a massive sponge!  It’s all still whizzing around my head in a very intriguing way, and now starting to settle after working my way through the theory component. Gaining insight into the origins and traditional ideals of yoga gave me a true understanding of its purpose. These lessons were very cleverly intertwined with the practical sessions which consolidated it all further.

As a Physio, I was very impressed with the anatomical knowledge and how it blended into our asana practical sessions. I feel confident that we will all come out as yoga teachers with awareness of body and posture, so that our future students are guided safely and optimally through their asanas practice.

Most of all, I have learnt so much about myself.  And this is what I can’t thank you enough.  The biggest thing that you have taught me is that divine light which lights up my own truth isn’t something that I need to go out in search of. It is within me. And for that I am forever grateful.

Thank you Everett, Katherine, Malaika and Anna."

Do you know how to breathe?

By Beth Mota, Social Media Manager, Zuna Yoga

Beth in Bali

Do you know how a Yogi breathes?

This was the opening question of my first private yoga session with Lead Facilitator/Creator/Founder of Zuna Yoga, Everett Newell. Just minutes prior, we had met outside of the Monkey Forest in Ubud, and was hitching a ride on his motorbike to his home in the rice fields. I was marveling at the peaceful surroundings: the green fields stretching as far as you could see, a gentle breeze blowing, and a lovely fountain with trickling water. All of which were compliments to Everett's calm, kind demeanor. 

Was this a trick question? "Of course I know how to breathe," I thought, "I only do it every second of my life!"  But, as I sat there contemplating it, I realized I had never actually given it much thought at all.  As embarrassing as it is to say, I had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how to breathe.  And now I was considering there might be something in the reference to how a yogi might breathe differently than the rest of us normal humans. For the first time, I realized that my breathing has been something I’ve admittedly taken for granted. It was then that I also realized the lesson with a real master yogi had begun. What followed was nothing short of profound.

First, Everett simply instructed me to lie down on my back with knees bent, and take a full breath. And so I did. There was a short pause.  
“Now relax and listen carefully,’ he said.  “Take a full and patient breath.” 
"Mm-hmmm," he said with a slight smile after my exhale.  
“What does that mean?” I asked.  
He simply remarked, “you can tell a lot about a person by how they breathe. More importantly, how you breathe will greatly effect the way you see the world.” 

He placed a yoga block on my chest, and then instructed me, "Now breathe without moving the block. You must learn to direct the breath into the lower body as well as the upper body. But for now, just concentrate on the lower body. Draw the breath down.” 

I found this to be greatly challenging. My breath was trying to fill the chest. Apparently, this is the type of breather I am. A chest breather.

After some practice and continued concentration, the breathing muscles began to cooperate and an elegant coordination of inhale and exhale ensued. Everett then instructed me to breathe more directly into the pelvic floor.  This was the most difficult, conceptually and physically, because I had never before in my life taken a breath and sent that breath into my pelvis.  The result was earth-shattering.  Immediately, body issues I have had throughout my life, namely my lower lumbar disc degeneration, came flooding into my mind.  "I have been neglecting to send breath here for so long. This feels amazing.” I thought, imagine would could have been possible if I had been consciously and actively been breathing like this my whole life?  I had been neglecting the most important and powerful resource I possess - my own life force, my own breath.  This was my "ah-ha" moment.  It was then that I truly understood what Zuna Yoga means when they say that they awaken the power to thrive. All these things were happening and we were only about 10 minutes into the class.

  

After having semi-mastered the breath in my pelvis, Everett asked me to breathe into my belly, and exhale fully, navel to spine. Next, directly into my chest, the thoracic region and feel my ribs expand ... and then exhale. Finally, into my collar bones, into the clavicular region and exhale.  He then shared that these were all just practice for the experience of a full yogic breath; every inhale drawing down into the pelvis and patiently filling through the body to the collarbones, and every exhale beginning with pelvic muscular contraction followed by abdominal contraction.  It felt so empowering to breathe so fully and patiently, to feel the awakening of the pelvic muscles and connecting them to the cycle of breath. I felt so connected to the tide of life moving through me. 

I remember thinking, “If this is yogic breathing, I don't know if I will ever be able to move at all in a yoga class again, because my every movement will be consumed with my conscious breathing."  He read my mind. "Imagine you are doing this type of breathing, going through an asana practice; it would be difficult to think of much else aside from the flow of your breath, would it not?”  I was thinking to myself, “ Yes. Yes it would be”.  But before I could answer he spoke, “It might be challenging if you were trying to breathe like this while finding your groove to an entertaining playlist and also listening to the quickly changing cues of a fast-paced class. But to really taste the power and deepest essence of yoga practice one must allow the breath to be the conductor of the inner orchestra of mindful intention and movement.  Otherwise we are simply practicing to do yoga rather than actually doing yoga. Which is sometimes quite necessary.  But do not confuse the two.”

I was then led through a serious of simple movements comfortably linked to the pace of my own breath.  With every inhale and every exhale, I was to lead my body movements like a surfer riding a wave.  I could immediately feel how the breath was informing the entrance and exit of every posture.  When the poses were held longer, I could feel how following this specific breathing technique the deepened the experience of not only my alignment but more importantly, of myself. 

The idea of how how movement should flow with my breath has taken on a much deeper understanding.  Many yoga teachers have offered me various pieces of wisdom in my practice, but ironically never before has any one of them fully explained that each movement should flow from my own breath, nor has anyone ever mentioned anything about a full yogic breath.  It is truly remarkable concept, and mind-boggling to me that teachers don’t actually share this.  It’s so profound!!!  I’m feeling for the first time that I know what it means to breathe in yoga.

The realization that I am in conscious control of my inhale and exhale; that “I” have control over my body and how I engage in any classroom setting, was an amazing revelation that I will have with me forever. I now take classes in an entirely different light. Even in daily life, when I have something that I am struggling with, just taking a minute to practice sending my breath to all areas of my body, really helps me to center and overcome any feelings of being overwhelmed or frightened.

If the very foundation of yoga is breath, why do very few schools and teachers teach us how to breathe? Everett says, “Learning how to use the body for a strong practice of yoga is very important. The body is a tool meant to expand our abilities and challenge ourselves on so many levels. How we meet and over come these challenges is the difference between any other form of physical exercise and yoga. In Yoga, the primary tool should always be the breath. The breath and how it moves through the body is a big part of what defines us and the gateway to the deepest most beneficial practices of yoga, such as meditation.

By the time we had come to the end of the class, after just an hour, I had gained so much more than I could ever thought possible. This was by far the most profound yoga experience of my life.  I can only imagine the insight to be gained by spending an entire month in a Yoga Teacher Training with Zuna Yoga.  I simply can’t wait to begin my training. 

Yoga teacher training: the ultimate confidence booster

by Lauren Hurst, Cambodia 200 hour yoga teacher training scholarship winner

As the one month mark approaches since completing my 200 hour Zuna Yoga teacher training, I am finally starting to put the puzzle pieces together as to what made this training so amazing.

Although this was not my first yoga teacher training and I was already teaching yoga, I had no idea just how transformational this teacher training experience with Zuna Yoga was going to be. I thought that perhaps it might change my views on my relationships, my job, my future and my life. But in such a short amount of time, I truly believe that this training allowed me to become an improved version of myself.

I used to be pretty painfully shy and really disliked speaking in front of big groups of people. Teaching has really brought such a shift in my ability to be okay doing this. However, after having completed the yoga teacher training with Zuna Yoga, my confidence levels just completely soared. Now, I stand with purpose in front of each class and I am fully present when I teach. I rarely second-guess myself when it comes to calling poses or struggle with my rhythm, the cues I use, or the words I say. This doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes - I do! But I’m actually okay with that. It allows my students to see that I’m authentic, I’m real, I’m imperfect, and I can laugh at myself. I’ve never felt so connected to my students and perhaps anyone else around me in this way. It feels amazing to stand in front of a group of people, completely being myself. 

I’m grateful for the opportunity I had to complete my 200 hour yoga teacher training with Zuna Yoga. The teachers and assistants really know how to instill confidence in their students and send them back out in the world with a better understanding of all the things that make a yoga class extraordinary. As one the Zuna Yoga facilitators described, we learned as teachers how to ‘throw little bread crumbs’ to make our students come back for more, to peak their interest in the really good stuff in yoga. Every detail from how we cue, to the language of teaching, to the energy and prana created, to the atmosphere of the class, and to assisting has been deeply embedded into the minds of these newly certified teachers to eventually become like second nature. Our teachers were thorough in ensuring that we understood how to effectively integrate our knowledge of yoga and teaching perfectly. 

When it comes to teaching, I can honestly say that I love it. I am 100% absolutely head over heels in love with it. I look forward to teaching each class, sharing new ideas, new asana, meditation practices, and simply sharing space with others. 

A month later, I am still overwhelmed with gratitude. Zuna Yoga really ignited a fire in us as teacher trainees to strive for nothing less than being an incredible teacher. They gave us the confidence to believe that we can be more inspiring and influential that we’d ever imagined. And that is so amazing.