CYT vs. RYT?

Yep, that's me.  RYT-200, a card-carrying "Registered Yoga Teacher"!  I got my card in the mail from the Yoga Alliance last Wednesday.  Considering that I have spent every Wednesday since September spending time on my mat in yoga school, it was only fitting that I received my card on a Wednesday.

But what does RYT mean?  Is it any better than CYT (which was the distinction I earned on May 8th)?  CYT means "Certified Yoga Teacher", and can be bestowed by a yoga school upon someone who has completed a training with that school.  The difficult thing, is that in the Western Hemisphere, teaching Yoga is a relatively new discipline, and as of yet, there is no legal regulation on what level of training is necessary for teaching yoga.  Basically, you can attend a 2-hour workshop, and receive a certificate saying you attended said workshop, and you can say you are "certified".  Obviously, this is not on-par with someone who has completed a 200 hour teacher training (such as the one my colleagues and I completed), and luckily, most yoga schools have rigorous 200 hour trainings.  Anyone who has spent 200 hours in training to do something should be fairly competent at it, so a CYT usually holds a fair bit of gravitas.

That said, it's worthwhile to point out that the 200 hours can comprise just about anything - perhaps it's 200 hours of chanting.  Or 190 hours of anatomy and 5 hours of asana and 5 hours of breathwork.  In order to be truly proficient, you need to have a good balance of History and Philosophy, Asana work, Breathwork, how to do modifications, know the difference between Pre-natal yoga and Restorative yoga, and more.  A Quality 200 hour program will offer that, but how do you know a program "measures up"?  That's where the Yoga Alliance comes in.

It is highly controversial, because yoga is a discipline that is hundreds, no, THOUSANDS of years old, and here we are, in the West, with our exposure to yoga in its infancy, creating an "alliance", trying to impose "regulations" and "certifications" on the practice of yoga.  However, as is the case with anything that becomes wildly popular, there is the tendency for people to "cut corners" and generate "knock offs" in an effort to meet demand.  The Yoga Alliance wanted to preserve the integrity of yoga teaching, and ensure that schools who were training yogis had a good balance of instruction; basically, the Yoga Alliance wants to make sure that people who were claiming to be yoga teachers really knew their stuff.  People who have been teaching for decades and DO know their stuff are among the biggest opponents of "the Alliance", as they may not have the CYT from an official school, but they do have years and years of practice under gurus and service in ashrams to their credit.  To an experienced yogi, those sorts of "qualifications" actually garner more respect than any certificate, no matter how many seals and curliques on it.  But for people who are newer to yoga, the RYT designation provides a sort of assurance that your yoga teacher knows his/her stuff.

I am a middle school teacher by day, and as a state employee, there were rigorous certification requirements for me to complete in order to hold a job in New York State.  At the end of my graduate schooling (I went to school in Boston) and administrative evaluations and student teaching, I was certified to teach. In Massachusetts.  In order to teach in NY, I had to go through it all again (except the schooling!).  Once I got my NYS certification, I knew I could pass muster with any public school in the state, and any hiring district knew that I met the minimum standard (once I began teaching, of course they realized that I EXCEEDED the minimum standard!).  With such importance of recognized certification in my day job, I felt it was just as important to seek a nationally recognized certification for yoga teaching, as well.  Being a RYT provides a level of competency for my students, an assurance that the teacher training I went through was "the real deal".  Besides, I'd already spent 200+ hours (my program also required us to be a student in 52 yoga classes, which were not part of the 200 classroom hours) and thousands of dollars earning my certification, so what was another $85 to get my RYT?

So, I'm Certified, I'm Registered, you can look me up in the Yoga Alliance directory, and find the link to my blog.  I'm "official"...now I have to start finding a place to teach!  Stay tuned...

One door closes, another opens

 So, this picture could have easily been me last Wednesday as I was sitting in the yoga studio with 17 of my cohort, frantically scribbling our answers to the written final exam.  We studied our Sanskrit, we memorized our sutras, we learned our anatomy, we freaked out a bit, panicked a lot, but it's over.

Today, we sit on eggshells, awaiting the results of, arguably, the hardest exam I've taken in recent memory.  That said, I don't regularly take exams (I'm usually administering them to my 8th graders!), but I think this was certainly challenging.  Is it because my brain is a bit older than it was the last time I had to take an exam?  Is it because the test was such different subject matter than what I do on a daily basis?  Who cares!  It was hard, and I know for sure that I didn't get a 100.  And I'm not done.  I still have my final Test Class to give this Wednesday.  I have been practicing this class with friends in my living room, colleagues at work, and reciting it to my kids at breakfast.  It's just 30 minutes, and on Wednesday night, I'll be teaching it to 6 students in an effort to *finally* finish the requirements for my Yoga Teacher Certification!  I'm a nervous wreck.

Why am I so nervous?  This is something I've been preparing to do for the last 8 1/2 months.  That's almost as long as a pregnancy, and I've done that twice!  I wasn't one bit nervous about giving birth.  I knew it was something I wanted very badly, and I knew it was something I was born to do.  I also knew that it was something where it was expected I would make mistakes, need to be forgiven, and sometimes need to "do over" (eg, that first diaper change...).  If becoming a mother didn't freak me out so much, then why is becoming a yoga teacher freaking me out so much?

I love doing yoga, I love learning about it, I love what it has made me, and when I think about sharing that with yoga students of my own, I feel so hopeful and excited!  I somehow still have cold feet about starting this.  And yes, I do mean "starting", for the teacher training is drawing to a close, but another door is opening.  I'm a bit intimidated by what I might find past that open door, and I'm approaching it with trepidation.

I have been through a lot in this training, I've learned things I never could have imagined learning, my perspective has changed on a lot of things, and I've met some really incredible women - friends I never would have made otherwise.  We are almost like a sorority, forever bound by this common experience.  I am not "besties" with everyone, but I still share a bond with them that I will value and treasure for a long time.  We've become comfortable, safe, and secure in our Wednesday night environment, and now that's all about to change.  We have to get out there and put our theory into practice; we have to get out there and do it.

I have many friends who have helped me along the way, with a kind word of encouragement, with a vote of confidence, with some time on the mat, or a glass of wine, and I am so eternally grateful for that friendship.  In addition to that, I am eternally grateful for and feel blessed by the friendship and fellowship of my cohort sisters, as well.  I truly couldn't have accomplished this without them.  Each week they were faithfully there, learning alongside me, and not knowing me prior to this training, still offering encouragement, support, and yes, even a vegan cookie or a glass of wine!  So, as one door closes, another opens as we take the next step forward on our journey. I hope our journeys' paths stay nearby so we can visit once in a while.  Thank you, Wendy, Debbie, Lisa, Charlotte, Danielle, Michelyn, Connie, Jana, Nan, Nancy, Elena, Susie, Sue, Jillian, Dawn, Terri, Jennifer, Hannah and Allie!  I would be honored to take your class anytime.  Namaste.