The second weekend of my MBody teacher certification has been quite a challenge - and I'm only halfway through! I showed up early and took the 5:15 class on Friday night, hoping to get a little extra exposure to the Mbody teachers and teaching style. When Mark showed up at 6:30, instead of taking a couple of hours to talk as we had the week before, he launched us into a practice the I am sure was intended to push all of us to our ohysical and mental limits. We held many many poses to the point of physical exhaustion when muscles shake and lactic acid burns so hard you think your skin is going to ignite. I did feel peaceful after the class, having burned through a lot of ego and found a small space of equanimity.

Saturday, we started by taking the morning class at the Neptune Beach studio, which was also kicked my butt. Again, instead of taking some time to talk as a group, we broke into two groups and launched right into practice teaching. We are now teaching the whole awakening and integration series, so this meant another 2 hours of sun salutations. Just when I thought we would get some time to review and sit down Mark had us come together and teach as a group and this time he did the critiquing/coaching. When it was my turn, he spared no time in trying to coach me out of my head and into my heart. Ironically the more he coached the harder it got for me and I sensed the students were visibly uncomfortable on my behalf...which nade it even harder since my ego is apparently stronger than I'd like to think.

The afternoon practice from 4:00 - 5:15 was tough too. I was so out of my zone in the practice that I knew that I would need to modify and simplify the poses so that I could get through without hurting myself. Luckily we had a mellow evening, watching Yoga Unveiled as a group.