I want to help spread yoga. I want to be a vehicle, a promoter. Recently I was traveling abroad and realized yoga can be done anywhere.

So I started doing it anywhere.

From rooftops in Nicaragua, abandoned studios in Costa Rica, to the streets of New York I realized all you really need is a solid surface to support you. I tended to station myself in a semi-secluded space; one with fewer interruptions and a sense of serenity. Different things kept me company; trees flowing with the wind, the crashing of the distant ocean, and the howler monkeys curiously observing.

Feelings also have the ability to be company; some of doubt or uncertainty, other times overwhelming joy or unexplainable tears. Yoga is a powerful practice. And as is life, it is our own journey.  It happens how and when we make it happen.

“…know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” –Buddha

In addition to its role as a personal journey, yoga is supported by our earth and the energy that flows through our environment.  There is a current we can hear if sensitive to its sound. It’s in everything from the colored leaves softly kissing the ground to the ocean waves, washing whatever they cross onto the sandy shore. And it’s in us, as beings energetically living in the world. Community and teachers help with the understanding of this process, and allow it to bloom and deepen.

During my independent escapes to yoga land, witnesses started to join.  The curious ones needed a leader.  I’d always accept the request—despite the mini anxiety attack. I didn’t really know what I was doing, but it didn’t matter. People were drawn to yoga just as I was to the rush of watching them come.

We can practice alone and allow our surroundings keep us company but be lead by a teacher—in a new way that opens us up to areas we weren’t able to tap into alone. Then I had a revelation. I can go deeper in yoga through teaching.

Spreading yoga will help me deepen my own practice, my inner instructor. Once trained, I can be more equipped to have an impact on the yoga’s growth, strengthening the practice of those already practicing and expose the unexposed to its beauty.

So I write this article in hopes to receive a yoga instructor training from Yandara Yoga Institute. Knowing nothing about Yandara, I chose them based off their logo—it’s pretty attractive. But after some research, the school is in full alignment with my vision of the ideal teacher training program. Everything about it, from philosophy to its teachers, is incredible.

As far as favorite teachers are concerned, I love all people that teach yoga. But James was my first love—a very dedicated and passionate yogi from Oregon. He’d practice in the back of the class.  Made me nervous at first to have a teacher in the back of the class… but soon realized yoga isn’t about watching the person in front of you, or behind you for that matter.  It’s about you in that moment. I’m grateful that James was strong in his moment. The environment, the sound, the people, and the animals all contribute to what already is happening.  Later in my practice, Kristy from India has been the most inspiring. There isn’t a wrinkle in her calm brow because she follows her heart and it shines through her instruction powerfully.

I’ve wanted to become a yoga instructor for years but there were always so many fears and questions attached.  Will teaching interfere with my practice as a student?  Will I lead with confidence? Can I even pronounce half of the billion terms? Such silly concerns.

Something changed—and now I know I will make a wonderful teacher.

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitation, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world… you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” –Patanjali

2012 Yoga Scholarship Essay

By: Kadi Driver

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