It’s Official: I am a Certified Yoga for Scoliosis Trainer!
By Theresa Shay
A few days before heading back to Pennsylvania from a trip to Colorado to visit my parents, Glenn and I visited a new favorite state park to take a long hike. The Staunton Ranch Trail seemed the perfect length with less elevation gain than the other options. We set off under sunny Colorado skies.
Not long after crossing a creek near the parking lot, the trail started rising. The switchbacks began. Our lungs, challenged by the altitude, required slow going, step by step. We paused for a water break and marveled at the view.
Down the hairpin curve came a fit woman in spandex shorts, moving like a scampering mountain goat. “Everyone’s going the wrong way today,” she announced. We raised our eyebrows from behind water bottles. She’d already covered miles of terrain, we learned. She whipped the trail map from her fanny pack to show us. Her finger moved way out on the map, over, down, back around, then pointed to where we now stood. “It’s so much easier to go the other direction,” she informed us. “Then all you have is this quick descent at the end.”
Glenn and I didn’t have to say much. Never mind. She was already through the next hairpin turn, quickly dropping down the mountain toward her car.
We set off at our steady Lowlander pace, honoring the work of our lungs at 9000 feet above sea level. When the path leveled off, Glenn sat down to respond to a text informing us that someone we knew had just passed. I checked my inbox and noticed an email from my Yoga for Scoliosis Trainer, Elise Browning Miller.
“Should I open it here, or wait ‘til we’re home?” I asked.
“Read it now, definitely,” Glenn replied.
Dear Theresa,
I have read through your practicum once and know that you did an excellent job and you have passed and are now a Certified Yoga for Scoliosis Trainer.
I still want to read through it a 2nd time and make a few more comments. I am headed to Feathered Pipe Ranch in Montana tomorrow to teach a Yoga for Scoliosis and Backcare retreat. There will be teachers there completing the 20-hour requirement before doing the practicum, and I would love to show them your practicum as an example. When I return from Montana on the 15th, I will send you the certificate and practicum back. Let me know if it is ok to share your practicum.
Warmly,
Elise
I felt my scoliosis mentor’s encouragement. Glenn gave me a big hug. I stood up on the bench with the long view of the Rockies behind me so we could mark the moment with a picture. Then we headed off in the “wrong” direction to enjoy a glorious day of hiking.
In June I wrote about the three big reasons I resisted, for a long time, pursuing certification as a Yoga for Scoliosis Trainer. (Read about the resistance here.) I’ve met those obstacles head-on and earned this certification that means as much to me psychologically as it does physically.
Now I stand on a curvy path and take in the view. The terrain suggests some glorious views ahead. Interestingly, no one has gone this way before.
Which is exactly why I need to.
I love how TriYoga has taught me to connect with breath and Universal wisdom to calm my mind and trust the inner guidance. I love how Yoga for Scoliosis has taught me to support my scoliosis and repattern my body. In my tender heart, nestled next to my curvy spine, I know these teachings belong in a loving relationship. I am the matchmaker, ready to provide introductions.
I have always described myself as one who likes to follow directions. Tell me what to do. I will execute. This time, however, there are no instructions.
There is no president to ask about this merger. There is no guide who has done this before whose steps I can follow. There is not a map or a trail guide. There is, however, a Universe that speaks in wisdom, two brilliant teachers who support my effort, and many loved ones offering encouragement. Most of all, there is this one body which loves the Flow and knows scoliosis; and there is this one mind which tunes in to listen closely to Cosmic Energy and feel Universal Consciousness. From this, the service will flow.
We all meet people on our path who like to say we’re going the wrong direction. When you know your way serves you perfectly, you are responsible to keep going. There are friends you haven’t yet met who are waiting to find you. Those meetings will never happen if you turn around now. Off we go!
Theresa Shay is the founding director of TriYoga of Central Pennsylvania, where she teaches weekly yoga and meditation online and trains others to teach TriYoga®. Each week, she shares wisdom cultivated from decades of TriYoga study and practice.
Learn more about her here. Theresa can be reached at Theresa@PennsylvaniaYoga.com. Find her on Instagram @theresa_of_triyoga for more inspiration and light.