Our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program finished at the end of May and we are still smiling with gratitude for the amazing experience and new Twist Tribe members. We thought it would be interesting to check in with some of the new teachers and see how post-training is going.First up, the beautiful, strong, smart Wanda:

What surprised you the most about Teacher Training?

EVERYTHING! And it's not because I had a low expectation, quite the opposite. I was probably one of the few students who researched YTT programs for almost a year before committing. Before I chose Twist Yoga, I had visited or talked on the phone with many other studios about their yoga teacher training. After signing up with Twist, I was still bugging Jennifer about a few things that looked different in the program or details about it that I just simply did not understand when compared to what other studios offered. I was not yet part of the Twist community, so I was very cautious as I was not only investing my money but my time, energy and opportunity as well.

I was pleasantly surprised with the professionalism that everybody had, but it was the other attributes that really captured my heart: the camaraderie, love, compassion, the readiness to help and support, to accommodate, inspire and explain were all truly above and beyond my expectations.

There are a few things though if you are considering this YTT that you have to be aware of. You need to be prepared, not only physically but mentally and spiritually as this training will not only teach you yoga poses, adjustments, anatomy or philosophy of yoga, this training may bring out many emotions that you had no idea were hidden. The training may also cultivate some wonderful friendships and bonds as and you will get to know people that are truly amazing. It's not only the teachers or Jennifer but the participants as well. You truly do become a tribe. What surprised me the most is that I came with the intention of learning asanas or yoga poses and I left with much more of an experience that words cannot even describe.

Lastly, what also surprised me, if you have a full-time job and are thinking to attend this program to just to expand on your own practice (not really considering teaching yoga as a career) as was the case with me, the experience may just change your mind! You will probably come out of it wanting to teach some classes and inspire people just like the amazing teachers in this training do. You'll have a desire to just to spread the knowledge and the love.

What is “yoga” to you? With the teacher training yoga has changed so much for me. When I initially started to practice about 7 years ago, yoga was just a way for me to get a whole body stretch. Yoga was purely just for stretching, it was a compliment for the other sports I was practicing, and back then it was also a good way to be in a heated room in those cold winter months in NY/NJ.

About 3 years ago I really started to make yoga part of my life, it started to go beyond just a few classes that I would take at a studio. I was living yoga on and off the mat. I was still practicing many other sports but always after a CrossFit training, a bike ride, a run or any other sport related activity I would do a few poses and try to get more relaxed and balanced. I dedicated a room in my house just for my mat and I would practice there a few times a week. My mat is always there on the floor, ready and waiting for whenever I have even a few spare moments to go thru some asanas.

Yoga now for me is what brings me back together. Yoga is teaching me patience, teaching me the love for myself that was so hard to find and it's really teaching me Karuna (compassion) for myself and others.

What are you currently most inspired to teach and practice?

I would like to help people like me, those that think yoga is not for them. I would like to inspire people that do not identify themselves as yogis. I am very inspired to teach those recreational athletes that think yoga is too slow or boring as I used to think of it a few years ago. I would like to inspire those, like me, that are not very flexible and those that find it hard to come to one place of stillness. I would absolutely love to inspire the people out there that think they need a power class, a super fast vinyasa class as I used to think before and inspire them to instead find a more balanced yoga practice that can channel all that energy that we have.

I would absolutely love to one day be able to teach that moving with your breath feels amazing, that not rushing to a pose feels divine and that staying all the way to savasana with your eyes closed and feeling your natural breath and being still is also yoga. Teach and share that these are all amazing feelings you can experience after you have been present on your mat and have done all the movements that serves your body in that moment, in that day.