I recently did something WAY out of my comfort zone. I golfed!! I am NOT a golfer!! Some of you probably remember when you were in college and you were required to take a certain number of physical fitness classes as electives, well I took a whole semester of golf. My dad was a big golfer and so I thought I would learn the sport and golf with him. Well, that never happened. In fact, over the past several decades I have probably attempted a Scramble for a fundraiser or a couple’s country club event 3-4 times. But when a friend of mine organized a girls golf “league” (aptly named Chicks and Sticks), I weighed my un-comfortableness with golf against my FOMO (Fear OF Missing Out) and of course my FOMO won. Even though we ended up having a blast, it wasn’t pretty!! I had to borrow clothes as there was nothing in my closet golf appropriate. Chris scrounged up an extra set of golf clubs for me to borrow and even brought me balls and tees (because somehow I had forgotten you needed to bring these items to play). The group was somewhat eclectic…some of us knew a few of the other gals well but not everyone were necessarily close friends. We drew names for carts and foursomes and I ended up with the 3 gals I knew the least. There were 7 of us and being in the “let’s hang out together girlfriend mode” we all attempted to golf together. Well, until we were yelled at by the guys working there and told that we were 45 minutes behind and needed to split up. So split we did, but we still took longer than we were supposed to searching for one errant ball after another. Telling this story to our husbands after golf, they scolded us for not understanding “pace of play.” Whatever?? Anyway about 1.5 hours in we all started losing interest plus several of the hubbies were calling to ask what’s for dinner…so we changed up our strategy. For a few holes we decided we would just drive…pick up our balls and then putt. Then we decided to skip a hole or two and 3 hours later on a 9 hole scramble we said our goodbyes and headed off to meet up with guys for dinner. The boys were all mortified by our description and were baffled that it took us 3 hours. But while this whole new experience was definitely out of my comfort zone on several levels, as I said above, we ended up having a blast and I’m really glad I said YES!!
This whole experience got me thinking about how we are often so reluctant to try new things or try things that maybe nudge us out of our comfort zones. But then in hindsight, we look back and are so grateful that we took that leap. So I’m going to take a sharp turn and segue to our Yoga Teacher Training program. I can’t tell you how many individuals I’ve chatted with over the years who are considering joining the training but are holding back for one reason or another. All the reasons, objections, concerns end up falling into the same category of being out of their comfort zones. Sometimes it’s the time or financial commitment…often it’s the uncertainty with what to expect but ALWAYS it’s that feeling that comes from trying something new. Now let me tell you that when we do our wrap up and everyone takes a turn sharing about their experience, I have yet to hear one person say they regretted taking the leap to join the training. Everyone thanks me or the other staff who encouraged them to join the training and raves about the impact the training has had on their lives. They also share that they are very grateful for the camaraderie the training creates amongst this little sub culture of BL. Yes they go in not knowing the other trainees and not sure on what to expect, but they graduate from the program with a deeper understanding of the practice of yoga and a few more friends - well worth the un-comfortableness of trying something new.
So there’s your nudge!! Here are the details. The Fall session of Teacher training kicks off Saturday, September 28th and ends before the holidays, November 24th. The Fall session is ½ the training. The other ½ will start the end of January and end the end of March. You must complete both sessions to complete the 200 hours required by Yoga Alliance. The 200 hour also includes some reading and practice. The training is Saturday and Sunday afternoons but if you miss any sessions, you can still receive credit for by watching the video of that session. No worries…all sessions are taped. There are several of your favorite BL yoga teachers who come together to cover a wide variety of topics associated with yoga. Many of us have degrees and/or years of experience in our areas of expertise which is very different from other programs where the yoga studio owner teaches all the sessions.
I will have a lot more to share with you over the next couple of months leading up to Teacher Training kick off, but let this just serve as your nudge. Maybe this message will just start you thinking!! Feel free to reach out to me directly at andrea.bodylanguage@gmail.com or find me in the Link at BL. I’m happy to chat with you about the program and answer any questions you might have. Would love to have you join us!!!
