3 continents, 3 years

A year ago I was doing yoga at Seoraksan National Park in Korea.

Now look at me! Getting certified to teach it.

And 2 years ago I was in Africa going through my flows. 3 years, full circle!!

3 different continents, 3 different stages, same love.

Snow Weekend!

Meditations, lecture, and vinyasa flows over conference call while we were all trapped at home! Thank you snow, I didn't mind!!

When It All Falls Into Place

Yellow slug bug!! A good sign!

Day 2

February 3, 2019

Woohoo, day two! I slept like a freaking rock last night. We got home from training, read our anatomy textbook homework, ate a delicious beef and green beans dinner, and went to sleep! Thankfully I'm doing this with my mom because I didn't even hear my alarm this morning!! I was seriously in a coma-- yesterday kicked my booty!

Today's class in Bellevue started at 8:30 unlike yesterday's 10:30 so we had a much earlier day today. I kind of went in to class feeling groggy and my muscles were a little stiff from yesterday's workout but I was hydrated and ready to go!

Thankfully somebody turned off the heat at the studio overnight so the room this morning wasn't nearly as hot!! However, the instructor took us through the fastest vinyasa flow that I have ever done with more side planks and crunches and chattarangas than I could keep up with! It was freaking intense.

And he didn't give us a single water break! Wow. Crazy start to that day.

During our lecture we learned about some hydration tips, himalayan sea salt, hydrogen-infused water, super alkaline water, some muscles that help in breathing, and some more pranayama breathing techniques.

We ended up getting out of class early because it started to snow!!!! Like actual flurries covered the cars and grass and stuff! It was beautiful and super unexpected.

Yay for day 2!

P.S. One of my classmates tricks to remembering my name was "Julia with the braids" so now I have to wear braids to class everyday! Hahaha

Day 1

February 2, 2019

Wow. We show up to the Bellevue Hot Yoga Inc studio and start meeting other teachers-in-training which made us both a little less nervous for this journey! Everyone seemed to have similar apprehensions considering we are training to be POWER teachers-- not your average hatha/yin/bikram vinyasa teachers. Oh, no. We went all in.

Something we did not know was that Bellevue's studio is the hottest in the business. 

Literally. Not figuratively. Like, it is literally 118 degrees Fahrenheit and FULL humidity. (Not to mention we had 50+ people in our first class on Saturday morning which added to the heat). 

I sat down on my mat about 20 minutes before class started and started dripping sweat BEFORE the instructor even came in the room!!! Not a good sign.

But thankfully we had both hydrated well, I had experience with a Korean summer, and we were new to power yoga which meant we didn't have any set expectations that interfered with our practice. We just dove in and expected the worst. Well, we got it!

Miraculously we walked out of that 60-minute class feeling great and looking forward to the rest of the training! Our other classmates felt "defeated" and a little freaked out by the intensity of that class but thank heavens it seems to be a little more downhill from there. 

Starting with the hottest class was quite literally baptism-by-fire for this course. Well, here's what the JCrew has to say:

Bring it on.

At the end of class with most of our people! Thankfully we got showered off and ate some food after that class from Hades.

We are the JCrew!

Here we are: mom and daughter; embarking on a crazy yoga journey together.

In a class of 24 teachers-in-training, we are the dynamic duo that brought the "JCrew" to hot yoga this year. Our incredibly talented instructor, Ivan, agrees that it is such a big blessing to embark on this yoga certification journey (and beyond!) together as mom and daughter who almost perfectly 'sandwich' the age range of our class.

We were told that we will laugh together, cry together, and our bond will become more of a sister hood. Ya know, I can catch that drift. Whatever happens in these next 8 weekends, I'm grateful I have my mom at my side!
Power yoga-- watch out! The JCrew is here.

Oh and let me just put this one out there:

We did our first hot yoga class 2 weeks ago since high school for me! Or was it before the mission?? Anyways--  Daaaaang. Not to mention our first day of class was only my second power class in 4 years. Hahaha. Oooops.