by Kat Hill, Certified Ma Yoga® Instructor
My yoga practice started more than twenty years ago, and it has taken many different forms since then. I’ve done Bikram, Vinyasa, Hot Power – pretty much any class where I felt like I was getting a good workout. Some seasons I practiced three to five times a week; other times I didn’t step into a studio for a year. But no matter how much time passed, I always came back to yoga.
As life got busier, first with career and travel, then with starting a family, I kept thinking about doing a Yoga Teacher Training. I wanted to strengthen my practice, but with two young kids and two full-time careers between my wife and me, I eventually gave up on the idea. There just wasn’t space for it.
Then the pandemic happened. My wife gave birth to our third child (I carried the first two), and suddenly we were both working from home while our kids tried to do school from home, too. It was chaos. In the middle of it all, I had a huge realization: I wasn’t happy in my marketing career, and I didn’t want to put our kids back in daycare. What I wanted was to be home with them while they were young, and to finally pursue the things that made me happy. One of those was yoga.
When I finally stepped into Yoga Teacher Training, I thought I was just going to deepen my own practice. Instead, it completely transformed me. Yoga stopped being a workout and became a way of life. To my surprise, I didn’t just want to learn for myself. I wanted to teach and share this knowledge with others. After two years of teaching in my community, I was ready to keep going.
That’s when my prenatal and postnatal journey with yoga began. During my first and second pregnancies, I only practiced here and there, maybe checking out a prenatal class or two. But my third pregnancy was completely different. I taught classes right up until my third trimester and kept my own practice going until my fourth baby was born. Even after my c-section, I returned to my practice as soon as it felt right and was teaching again by the time my baby was nine months old. Yoga and breathwork carried me through that time, both mentally and physically. It turned out to be my smoothest pregnancy and recovery, and I knew I wanted to share that gift with other mothers-to-be.
Ma Yoga prenatal yoga teacher training gave me the opportunity to do just that, with a prenatal and postnatal certification I could complete at my own pace. It took me longer than I expected, but I felt supported every step of the way by Jessica and the other instructors. The mentorship, especially, helped me grow into a stronger teacher. Now, I’m excited to bring what I’ve learned into my own practice, into my classes, and eventually into offerings specifically for pregnant and postpartum moms.
The Ma Yoga prenatal yoga teacher training centers around the Five Sacred Steps – Space, Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. These steps aren’t just for yoga poses. They can guide us through pregnancy, birth, the “fourth trimester,” motherhood, and even the ups and downs of everyday life. In every breath, every pose, every challenge, and every success in life, we can embody these five elements.
