Explanations and reflections on how I worked with my learning objectives
Hey again. So finally - here’s my blog post about my learning objectives. This post is a bit late because I had to make new ones for my new internship in Costa Rica, and they recently just got 100 % finished. I am home now, and therefore can probably reflect even more on how I worked with these objectives. I was suppose to stay a week more in Costa Rica and travel a bit, but since I broke my foot running in the ocean and tripping on a rock, my insurance flew me early back to Denmark because the x-ray showed that my bone was broken, and I needed surgery ASAP. I had let my foot heal a bit on it’s own for about 1 1/2 week, icing it and taking good care of it, walking more and more as it quickly got better - BUT.. the scan showed that I needed surgery, which I wasn’t expecting at all! So now I’m at home, trying to find peace with not being able to do a lot, and just hopping around with my cast and crutches for a few weeks. But of course I’m still doing yoga, fun stuff.
Back to the objectives...
My first one is to teach private yoga classes to an inexperienced target group, designing routines to fit their personal needs in order to improve health and well-being. I was really excited to do this! But at the same time nervous, because yoga is something so dear and delicate to me, and the last thing I want is to be one of ‘those’ teachers that I have tried, that just don’t ‘do the trick’. I know it’s very subjective, but I always just want to give everyone as great and inspiring experience as possible. Luckily, I was teaching private classes, which I intentionally made my goal, since it’s much easier to have focus on one person and make yoga sessions to fit that one person as best as possible. I really enjoy this one on one teaching, and I especially enjoyed teaching people who don’t have any experience, building everything up from scratch and watching not only their progress but also their increase in motivation when they feel the amazing benefits on their own bodies. I had a slow start, and wasn’t teaching until after a weeks in, since I was a bit hesitant and doubting my skills. But it helped a lot to accept this feeling and do something actively to feel better. So I went to a lot of yoga classes with my teacher Joe (who is also my internship host), and also talked a lot with him about how he teaches and why, since he has a TON of experience and has ben doing it for a living for many years. He inspired me a lot, and also gave me yoga books and other books to help me, which I really enjoyed. I even recorded some of his classes and transcribed them, so I could practice more. The first time I taught was actually for two travelers who were just looking to try it out one time - one had a little experience and one none. It was a great and spontaneous way to break the ice for me and get started with teaching, and kind of nice for some reason, that it was a one-time lesson. It went really well and prepared me to teach more, feeling more confident, and enjoying how much they appreciated it. My second client became a regular, and I really enjoyed working with him over a long period of time and watching his progress - not only physically, but also his attitude! I worked with him for about 4 weeks, and what began as some exercises to help the pain in his shoulder, turned into regular yoga, and even a healthier diet change. In the outdoor kitchen at the hostel, I helped him prepare meals, taught him about nutrition and gave him advice about simple changes with a great impact. In this case, it wasn’t so important to make a strict plan (which wouldn’t suit his lifestyle anyways), but it was more important to make sure it was manageable and easy for him, so that he would stay motivated. This was, more smaller changes can be made over time accordingly. I’m a strong believer in ‘slow and steady wins the race’ and ‘There should be no end, just a way’. Especially this guy showed me the meaning and importance of this, and I appreciated his honesty and openness. He is a Tico (from Costa Rica), and has a very different lifestyle and has a different culture. This made my work so interesting and I enjoyed learning so many new things and get some insider information about the town as well. Some things could get in the way of his healthy plan, like not having any money, or working at night. But we worked around it, and I helped him find his motivation as well, using elements from coaching. It was so cool to see everything fit together - yoga, coaching, nutrition, and physical activity - and see how closely related everything is. Later on, on his own, he even began running on the beach some days.
I used most of my strategies I wrote down, but one of my key strategies was to create my own yoga programs and create my own style of teaching. And this one I had to try not to focus too much on, because I found that when I spent too much time trying to make ‘the perfect class’, I always felt stressed and could never really finish. Instead, through trying to teach in practice, I realized that it went much better when I didn’t try to strictly stick with theory, but instead brought an open mind to the class and adjusted/created the class on the go, according to who I was teaching, their needs, and how the class flowed. After all, it’s impossible to predict what direction a class will take, and therefore you shouldn’t prepare too much beforehand! It reminded me of when we had our first coaching clients at GNH - here it was also very important to just be fully present and feel the situation/session, instead of over-thinking and trying to come up with ‘the next right question’. So I learned a lot about teaching by doing it - learning by doing! It’s just one of those things, where there’s no other way - than stepping out of your comfort zone and taking action. Letting go of the fear of not being good enough, and instead tell yourself that you have an amazing gift that you simply just want to share with others. It helped me a lot to step into the mind of them for a bit, and remember that no matter what, this is most likely a cool and unique experience for them, where they will learn something new and feel good in their body. And, they also chose to be here themselves! :-)
My second learning objective was to conduct coaching sessions with at least one person. As I mentioned earlier, I also coached one of my yoga clients. I also had another client, where it was ‘only coaching’. We met three times, regular coaching style, where we sat down and had our sessions. I knew the guy already from the town, and he was very open to trying coaching, so lucky for me, it didn’t take a long time to find someone. I refreshed some theory before we met, but also remembered my thought from teaching yoga, and how I wanted it to be very natural, and focused more on a good natural flow this time, than remember all the right questions in the right order etc. I remembered that this was one of my refections after coaching at GNH - I wanted to be less in my head and more present. The first session was a little nerve-racking, but no too bad. And the last two felt very natural and I enjoyed it a lot. The relaxed setting of being outdoors in the beautiful nature helped a lot as well I think. I didn’t record the sessions like I wanted, but I wrote down notes about how they went immediately afterward, which I also think is very helpful.
My third learning objective is to gain insight into how starting your own health business works, and get a clear idea of what goes into the initial beginning phase as well as the maintenance. I was excited to learn about this, since it is very relevant for my future plans, and something that’s hard to get insight into, unless you know someone who has been/is there. I observed and asked many questions about everything, feeling very comfortable with Joe, which helped a lot. I appreciated his openness and took it all in. I quickly learned how big a part promotion and advertising plays - I was a bit overwhelmed at times, since I am not used to this way of thinking or doing this kind of work. Wow, it takes a lot to not only make a good product to sell, but ALSO to get people to buy it! Joe showed me how to get online, and I helped promote his business online. This was very new to me, and I had to just try out different things, typically working on it mid-afternoon in the shade, during the hottest time of the day, when it was impossible to do anything else than sit and remember staying wet to enjoy the breeze every once in a while. Also, every evening around sunset, I walked on the beach and talked to people about what we offer and seeing if they could be interested. I struggled with this in the beginning and don’t like the idea of talking to people with a sort of ‘hidden intention’ - but I talked to Joe a lot about it, who has been doing it for many years, and he is a pro! It comes so natural to him, and he really helped show me how to keep it simple, without pressure, friendly, and casual. I slowly got the hang of it, and began seeing it more as small-talk with others, helping them out by giving advice if they were new to the town, and just filling them in on what we offer if they should be interested. I don’t think I will work too much with this in the future, since it’s not my favorite thing, but the fact is that I really learned how big a part it is in a business and how much it affects everything. No matter how good a product you have, you have to get it out there, have customers, and sell.
My fourth learning objective is to assess the lifestyle of yoga as a whole and discover different perspectives in order to investigate if personal experience backs up the scientific evidence I have found about the benefits of yoga. First, I wanted to actually find real evidence, other than just from online articles promoting yoga. It was really interesting to read actual review articles from PubMed on the topic and get more insight. I also talked to people after yoga classes about what yoga gives them. I made sure to write it down, as well as write down a lot of my own reflections throughout all the weeks. I learned so many interesting things, way more than there is room for here. Looking inwards and working from there is such a rewarding journey, allowing you to discover that it’s rarely the outer circumstances that need work, but that so much can be fixed if you start within. Acceptance of what is, and allowing it, fully understanding the gift of it, no matter what it is, leads to a huge sense of inner peace and relief, allowing for the mind to relax and the heart to open, giving and therefore receiving more and more love. And what can be greater than that?
I’m so thankful for all the incredible things that I have learned above and beyond my learning objectives as well - about myself, life, people, culture, my dreams, goals, visions, future, etc. What a gift - something I will have forever, and only build more onto from here - on my never-ending loving journey.
