144
MLCM
FALL/WINTER2016
WELL
NESS
HEADDOWN,SPIRITSUP
words :: JuliaMcCabe
“This ring has an arrow on it. It’s pointing forward to remind you tomove
forward in life. I hope it fits you?” Sasha Pellow, a student inmy 30-day Yoga
Teacher Training in Pemberton, is handingme gifts on our last day. “And this
rock is a rose quartz to remind you to keep an open heart.” She places it inmy
hand. Her words are piercing, given that six months prior she lost her lifelong
partner to a fatal avalanche. Our ten-minute session turns into a teary eyed
exchange. I had woken up tired and doubtful that morning, but felt immediately
warmed (and schooled) by the kindness of her multilayered gift. So often,
students like Sasha, who arrive with the most pain, are the ones who give back
the most.
A typical training course registered through the Yoga Alliance includes two
hundred hours of asana (the physical practice), breath work, meditation,
history, philosophy, anatomy, teachingmethodology and self-inquiry. There are
thousands of courses offered globally and they vary in style and tradition. Most
are designed for prospective teachers, but Sasha represents a student profile
that is expanding each year and a reminder that the name “Teacher Training”
needs an overhaul
-
not everyone enrolled wants to teach. Sasha is grieving;
she’s using yoga to help heal the pain of her loss. And she’s not alone.
TheWorld Health Organization (WHO) warns that mental health is quickly
becoming one of our biggest global socioeconomic burdens. AWHO fact sheet
published inApril 2016 lists depression as the leading cause of disability
worldwide, with an estimated 350million people affected. In the 20 Teacher
Training sessions I’ve held since 2010, approximately three quarters of the
students arrive with a maelstrom of stress-related symptoms
-
mainly anxiety
and depression. This means senior yoga teachers like me walk a trepidatious
high-line over a field of holistic health still in the process of defining itself: we
aren’t therapists, but the nature of the teachings requires us to responsibly hold
positive space for others to heal.
“I remember feeling empty,” says Andrea Hellemen, another student. “I
remember not really caring if I lived or died. I felt like I had been spending so
much time around suffering and death that my light was extinguished.”
Andrea was in rough shape when she arrived at my 2012 teacher training in
Nicaragua. She had spent 15months, thousands of kilometres from her home
and friends, watching her mother fight and lose a battle with cancer. Andrea was
the recipient of my first Passion Project scholarship, a pay-it-forward initiative I
offer as a creative way to attendmy programs.
“There were a lot of laughs, tears and bigmoments,” she says. “My heart
caught up tomy mind. Every morning started with deep breathing, meditation
and yoga. I’m not going to lie and say life has been simple since then, but it
has become simpler. I breathe more. I move more. I feel connected.”
FACINGTHEPAINFULEFFECTSOFTRAGEDY,
ONEDOWNWARDDOGATATIME
ANDREAHELLEMAN
