I just completed a transformative 200 HR YTT with SYI at Mystical Yoga Farm in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. It was a challenging, intense schedule covering not only the art of teaching and asana, but spiritual lessons, the shamanic wheel, the ancient traditions and history of yoga, and anatomy and physiology. MYF is an off-grid, vegan permaculture farm that runs on solar power, so there are many things to learn just from the location itself. I wanted a challenge and I got one! The best thing about my training experience is that I gained a new extended yogi family of dedicated, beautiful teachers and friends. The MYF family is awesome and took great care of us, and the food is great, although a bit carb heavy.

The physical practice was challenging, as we work through two asana practices (one for hatha and one for vinyasa) that are quite advanced and rigorous. There are many instances where the poses are taught from the full expression rather than the foundation up, and I had to ask for modifications and basic poses. It is very important in this training to ask for what you need and not to push your body past what is healthy for you. While it is probably doable for all levels, be aware that the training is geared for highly athletic, younger bodies who have an advanced yoga practice. I came to this training at 40, and I'm a curvy lady, so if you're older or less experienced in asana, be aware that at this location in particular, there are minimal props and small bolsters and no furniture, so you're sitting on the floor the entire time, which could be hard for some bodies. I have been practicing for 15 years, but I don't do inversions or advanced binds, and was surprised that as new teachers, that was the base level of the instruction. Getting into difficult poses is not why I practice yoga. The curriculum and training itself was much different than what I expected, however the facilitators were responsive to my requests and helped me develop my own flow and get what I wanted from the time I was there. Because of the challenges I had, I left with a very strong and clear path of the kind of yoga teacher I want to be, and how to get there. I am grateful for the difficulty of this experience for that reason. The lesson for me was in the hard parts, and that was what I needed to grow in my own spiritual and yogic path. Namaste, SYI! read more