Amy Champ took the Wanderlust Voyager Immersion program at Wanderlust Squaw Valley and wrote about her experiences. To learn more about the Wanderlust Yoga Teacher Training program, click here.
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In the Wanderlust teacher training, we study, in detail, the many aspects of yoga: physical, mental and spiritual in an effort to help us think more deeply about the kind of yoga we feel drawn to as individual teachers.
When we open ourselves up to yoga, we slip gradually into a very peaceful, relaxed feeling. Living in this graceful state, we can sense a field of possibilities, a place oozing with so much potential. We are reaching up towards it with outstretched arms, and it is also lovingly reaching back towards us. This is the beginning of our journey.
We then begin to explore the pathway, inhabiting the phases of our very own life journey, towards the people and places calling out to us. In order to do that, we must make sense of all the various forks in the road.
This one is woodsy with evergreens and mountains in the distance, and that one over there, well hey, it looks kind of like a jungle with lush fruit and strange buildings. Maybe I will take the one lined with sunflowers that leads me towards a tiny cottage in a meadow.
Life truly is a gift, overflowing with abundance, but how do we walk bravely into that realm laying just beyond us, when we have never been there before? One of the greatest things you can do is literally pack up your knapsack and hit the road.
You have to be willing to get lost in the maze for a while. When you’ve never been to a foreign city before, you are so lost that you need a map. You can go to Paris or Rome and see so many interesting things that you just walk and walk until your feet are ready to fall off.
That’s the feeling that we need to grab a hold of when we are exploring our future. Exploring is messy and you can get your hands dirty here. There aren’t any rules–it’s your adventure, after all.
When you step out, get loose with it. It’s time to jump in and go for that AcroYoga you’ve been scared of, jump up on the DJ table and show us what you’ve got, or go some suspension yoga hanging like a fool on a silk rope. It’s okay, we’re nervous, too.
Exploring is not only wild, it’s also an inherently creative process. When you let yourself just dive in, then you can see the world as it is – a wonder to behold. Suddenly you are surrounded by the sea and all of its beautiful creatures and life forms.
Think about swimming with the dolphins and how much fun they have. This is what we are going for. Feel free to jump around and be silly. It’s time to let go and see what happens. You might find a few new things to like.
Learn more about the Wanderlust Teacher Trainings
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Dr. Amy Champ is a scholar, yogini and writer dedicated to all the simple things in life. Studying yoga and ordinary people, her work is motivated by supporting women’s health and bringing people together in community.