Discovering the “Ma” in my prenatal yoga teacher training journey.
I recently embarked on my journey to become a Prenatal Yoga teacher with Ma Yoga, and participated in the Yoga of Pregnancy and Therapeutics for Mamas teacher training programs. Throughout the course of both of these beautiful weekends, I uncovered several truths.
I discovered truths about my yoga teaching and my role as a yoga instructor. Truths about my understanding of pregnancy as someone who has not yet had children but hopes to in the future. Truths about the importance of a kula, or spiritually aligned community. All of these truths are leading me toward the ultimate gift that I received from this training: uncovering the Divine Feminine within myself.
For me, finding this truth was not only about being empowered as a woman living in the world (although there was definitely quite a bit of that), but it was also about our connections with one another as human beings and with our Mother Earth.
This very truth is woven through the 5 Alignment Principles that encapsulate the Ma Yoga model, or “Five Sacred Steps”. Ma Yoga approaches prenatal yoga as a practice of empowerment and strength rather than a list of dont’s and cant’s.
“Ma”, or the Divine Feminine Flow of Wisdom, Power, and Nurturing Energy
This powerful approach towards pregnancy, birth and motherhood is critically important for us all. We are each born from a mother and we each possess both masculine and feminine energy. The more masculine side of us is the more linear thinking, independent and achievement-oriented side, which is great for organizing external resources. The more feminine side of us is more feeling our way forward, sensing, needing each other and learning from the process.
We all exist on our planet, Mother Earth, together and in community with one another. The Ma Yoga practice teaches us to ground ourselves to the earth, find our steady center, tap into our playful spirit, reconnect to our true power and share our gifts with the world.
Our practices on our mat echo our practices in life. How lovely would it be if we could all apply these principles in support of one another and in support of our planet, our mamas, our mamas to be, our babies, our children, our peers and our elders?
Ma Yoga Living
Ma Yoga is not just a yoga teacher training program. It is a model for living in a beautifully intricate and complicated world. It is a way to return to a balance between the feminine and masculine energy, the yin and yang. We learn to value the traits associated with the feminine that are often undervalued in our Western culture, such as energy, strength, intuition, and warmth; and balance this energy with the masculine attributes of consciousness, logic, structure and rigor.
Digging Deeper into the Divine Feminine
I thought I was coming into the Ma Yoga Teacher Training Program simply to learn how to teach prenatal yoga. I certainly did, but I left with so much more such as a deeper connection to my yoga practice and my yoga teaching. I developed a deeper connection to the wonder that is motherhood, to my divine feminine spirit and to the world around me.
I experienced a rebirth through the Ma Yoga Teacher Training Program as a more connected version of myself than I was when I began. I am humbled, grateful and ready to radiate this power, wisdom and love into the world around me.
