🌿 Becoming: Reflections on Graduating Yoga Teacher Training
I did it: I graduated from Yoga Teacher Training.
Even writing those words feels surreal. What began as a leap of faith, a curiosity, a calling deep in my chest, has become one of the most transformative experiences of my life.
Our graduation ceremony was beyond anything I imagined. Thoughtful, warm, intimate. Our instructors put their whole hearts into creating a space where we felt seen, supported, and celebrated. There was tenderness in the room, the kind that only forms when a group has moved through something meaningful together.
Teaching our final classes to one another was emotional enough, but nothing prepared me for the moment we each sat in front of the group and listened to what everyone loved most about us. To receive praise, encouragement, and genuine reflection from people who witnessed your growth week after week is overwhelming in the most beautiful way.
There is something sacred about being told who you are in the eyes of others and letting it land.
🌸 The Bittersweetness of Endings
Graduation brought a strange blend of relief and sadness.
On one hand:
I finally get my weekends back precious time with my family, quiet mornings, slow Sundays.
On the other hand:
I already miss the community I spent every weekend with.
It truly felt like gaining another family, a spiritual one. People who breathed, learned, struggled, softened, and grew right alongside me.
We’ll stay connected, I know that.
But nothing will quite replicate this season the long days, shared vulnerability, collective breakthroughs, and the deep knowing that we were all changing together.
As I get older, I’ve become better at recognizing special moments while I’m in them. When I was younger, I assumed good times were endless. Only in hindsight did I realize how precious some seasons truly were.
This time, I knew.
I felt the magic as it was happening.
Presence allowed me to savor it fully and that is a gift yoga gave me.
🌞 The Beginning of Something New
Now that I’m officially a certified yoga teacher, I’ve started applying for jobs and exploring the many pathways that exist in the yoga world. There are so many directions to go studio teaching, private sessions, workshops, retreats, online content, trauma-informed yoga, mobility work, meditation… the path is wide, and that openness is exciting.
I trust I will find my direction.
I trust the right opportunities will meet me.
I trust me, something I couldn’t have said with the same confidence before this journey began.
Talking with some of my fellow graduates this week, we all share similar feelings:
A gentle sadness for the ending of a beautiful chapter,
and a bright, buzzing excitement for whatever comes next.
Both feelings can exist together.
Both are true.
And both are signs of a life lived with a full heart.
🍁 A Thanksgiving of Deep Gratitude
This week is Thanksgiving, and there is so much to be grateful for but this year, yoga sits at the top of my gratitude list.
Yoga has given me:
Presence
Patience
Self-awareness
Embodiment
A calmer nervous system
A more open heart
A deeper understanding of myself
Being more present and more grateful has made my life infinitely more rewarding. It has made the simple feel sacred. It has made the ordinary feel like a blessing.
I’m not just grateful for yoga, I’m grateful for who I’m becoming because of yoga.
And I’m grateful to be genuinely excited about the future.
✨ Final Reflection
This was more than a training.
It was a rebirth.
It taught me not only how to teach yoga,
but how to live it
how to breathe through discomfort,
how to recognize the sacred in the present moment,
and how to trust the unfolding path ahead.
Here’s to endings, beginnings, the spaces in between, and the beautiful unknown that awaits.
I am ready.
And I am grateful.
