How, and Why, I’m Training to Become a Yoga Teacher

You heard that right. Heading into my 76th birthday, I’m beginning a more than 200-hour training regimen to become a certified yoga instructor. Life handed me this surprise decision. Here’s how it happened.

The “How”

In January, my yoga teacher and friend, Nikki Costello, was teaching the first week of a 4-week yoga teacher certification course in New York. A few months earlier, she had asked me if my daughter Lollie might like to become a yoga teacher this year. Nikki knew Lollie was on her gap year before heading to university and had some time on her hands. I told her Lollie had planned some extensive traveling, and she was more of a gym person than a yoga person, even though she attends the occasional yoga class. However, as I answered the question, the phrase “What about me?” entered my mind. I didn’t say it then, but I brought up the idea when I saw Nikki in New York on the eve of her teaching work.

Nikki’s face lit up when I mentioned it over dinner. She asked if I wanted to attend one or two of her training classes to see what they were like, which I did. No surprise that I was the oldest person in the class! But it was a pleasant surprise that I held my own in most poses and actually excelled in some of the hardest poses, including handstand, which requires a good deal of strength as well as confidence. All this, despite being at least 20 years older—and in some cases up to 50 years older—than the rest of the class. I ended each class feeling great, despite putting forth a lot of effort, and it felt like one of the “rightest” things I have done in a long time.

I told Nikki I’d like to pursue her yoga training. She said she would like to tailor a training course geared for me, focusing on flexibility and strength for people like me who are getting older. We would push the limits of what’s possible, make adjustments where things started becoming out of reach, and design a course that would qualify me not only as a yoga teacher but one with a specialty in teaching yoga to older people who want to prevent age-related issues and are seeking good health and longevity. Her idea sounded great, and she began outlining a course, which I started a couple of weeks ago.

Beginnings

The first training classes, all of which are Iyengar based, have been online with some of her other students, plus we review a lot of archival classes she has recorded in her online studio at www.NikkiCostello.com. The classes cover breathing, healing, beginner practices, how to teach yoga, and many other topics in addition to specific instructions on how to do many poses correctly. The classes have been revelatory for me. I’ve been able to address some issues with my own body and my inner self, and I have a better understanding that every person has different physical capabilities, and some poses are easier or harder than others. Iyengar yoga uses lots of props, such as chairs, blocks, blankets, bolsters, and belts, to help iron out these differences and to deepen some aspects of every pose when you need to give special attention to a particular body part.

The hardest part, so far, has been learning the Sanskrit names for the poses, which she uses almost exclusively instead of the English translations I am used to hearing in the yoga classes I attend in New York and London. She also has given us an extensive reading list along with a self-study aspect, which I have started. I’m sure there will be more challenges ahead, especially when Nikki and I begin our one-on-one sessions in person in March when we’ll both be in London.

And Now the “Why”

I owe yoga, and particularly Iyengar yoga with its curative aspects, a large debt of gratitude for informing my health practices with so much wisdom. It also has helped me rehabilitate my right leg, hip, and knee over the past 2 years, which were becoming stiff, painful, and worrisome. In addition, over the past few months, things have been shifting in my life, especially given that my daughters are now young adults and leading busy lives of their own. I’ve been playing this time by ear, not rushing into any new plans, waiting for the universe to give me some guidance on how to handle this empty-nest phase of my life. My youngest daughter’s decision to travel abroad for a few months opened a huge swathe of time for me and coincided with my time to explore whether to pursue yoga training.

In his great book,Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar says something like (I’m paraphrasing here), “The aim of yoga is to find God within you.” This phrase always spoke to me as I practiced yoga in my own limited way for the past 30 years. The physical benefits of strength and flexibility are only part of what theIyengar yoga practice is all about. But it has taken on new meaning in my life now that I am moving in a more spiritual direction. As I have written about in past articles, it doesn’t mean I am becoming an ardent adherent of a particular religious or spiritual practice. Rather, I am incorporating what works for me and speaks to me physically, spiritually, and emotionally, in addition to what I have been learning and developing over the past 20 years since I began my later-life health journey. I am looking forward to what my great friend Nikki can teach me, what might come to awareness inside me, and how we can collaborate to push the envelope of later-life health and longevity. Stay tuned. …