How I found Sivananda Yoga

My first experience with Sivananda was in September 2012 at the Yoga Farm in Grass Valley in northern California with my best friend Katie. She found a Groupon for a yoga vacation weekend, and asked me if I wanted to go. Vegetarian food, yoga, meditation, staying in a cabin at a gorgeous retreat in the mountains – and a good deal? Yes, please!

It was there that I found how both grounded and rejuvenated I felt after a routine of meditation, yoga, healthy food, sunshine, and positive people. It was not until 2015 when I returned to Davis, CA from the Peace Corps that I went back to the Yoga Farm to take a week long beginners course with two friends, and decided that I was going to do the Teachers Training Course (TTC). I knew for many years that I wanted to become a yoga instructor as it had become my favorite mode of self-care, and I wanted to share it with others.  I just didn’t know how or when yet – tuition for a 200-hour certification course was between $2,000-3,000 USD, and I had just come back from two years of volunteer service – but my intention was there.

Fast forward to October 2017 – when I hit “Register” for the Sivananda TTC in Nassau, Bahamas during February-March 2018. I had been researching programs all over, mostly in India, and just could not justify the cost or the travel to Asia at that time. At one point when it felt like I was just “shopping” for a yoga teacher course – I stopped myself and thought about all of the yoga I had done since my first class at the local YMCA in my suburban town of New Jersey. What did I feel the most connected to? And immediately I thought of the peace and well-being I had felt at the Sivananda Yoga Farm. Not only would I learn how to teach yoga, I would also deepen my own spiritual path – which for a long time felt nonexistent or confused.

Stay tuned for my next post detailing this yoga adventure and first steps on a lifelong path of learning, practice, teaching, and self-development.