Program Evaluation
Advanced Anusaraâ Yoga Teacher Training Intensive with Todd Norian and Ann Greene
Location:____ Toronto ____________ Date:__Nov 24________________________
Thank you for sharing your feedback on this training program. Our intention is to serve you in the best way possible. Your honest feedback helps us assess the effectiveness of this program and grow as teachers and staff.
1. What is your overall evaluation of this program? (please check one)
x Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor
If your experience of this program was less than excellent, please tell us what was missing for you or what would have made it an excellent program.
2. What specific experiences were the most meaningful/powerful for you?
I felt so uplifted both as a student and teacher of this powerful training. As I student I felt that I was honored and respected, and I am so appreciative of your particular attention to helping me work with my SI and psoas. Your sharp vision and your kind way of communicating how I can better align to help me get out of pain are very important to me, and I’m learning to be steady in moving into that more optimal alignment, while honoring that it’s a process that will continue for years and years to come. Being seen in such a kind and loving way was a huge first step in my healing and a huge inspiration how to hold presence as a teacher and convey the highest to my students.
As a teacher the power, attention and intention to words was really meaningful to me- It really came through in your teaching. I will never forget when you were working with me, Todd, to help me not bind in my psoas in a standing pose and you said, “open to grace then hug in sweetly.” That last word, and the care and intention behind it, made all the difference- all the sudden muscle energy took on a whole new meaning and shifted from gripping to nurturing stability. This was just one of the many examples of how your conveyed the power of matrika through the training. I found the sections of matrika, heart language, making themes accessible and streamlined with action to be particularly powerful for me. I really appreciate the way you broke things down and gave us a formula to help what starts out as a broad, rambling theme idea for themes become clear and powerful. A big revelation for me was linking the theme to the universal through chit or ananda or both in a pulsation theme. No one had ever made this clear for me before, and I know some certified teachers don’t make this clear in their classes, so I think the model needs to be incorporated into the whole system of Anusara more- contextualizing and the universalizing really make a difference in how much a student can connect to the heart! Maybe you could suggest to John that he make this a little more explicit in the next Anusara Teaching Manual.
I also appreciated the times for journaling and reflecting in small groups, or as an entire group- especially the light-hearted and fun times. These moments help the teachings to solidify for me- settle down from my brain and into my heart. Overall, the training was really well balanced.
3. Do you have any suggestions for improving the content or presentation of this program?
Everything taught was incredibly valuable, yet at some points, it felt like so much was being covered that things got a bit diluted, or went too quickly. It would be good to narrow the focus of the training a bit and really go deep into the subject matter you’re going to cover. I know it must be hard, because you have SO much to offer! Also it would be really nice to have at least one longer, uninterrupted asana class. All the asana pretty stop/start- which was great and really useful most of the time, but at least one more flowing practice would have been really nice to replenish our bodies and hearts and get out of all the headiness for a bit. It would be of course useful to break it down afterwards and investigate how you were teaching.
4. Please give us feedback on the staff and guest teachers. (Please list by name if possible.)
None
5. What have you gained from this experience?
The training brought a new level of clarity and meaning to my understanding of the art and science of teaching, the more I learn the more I discover I have SOOO much more to learn and practice- it is certainly humbling and is also exhilarating! I just finished typing up 20 pages of notes and transcriptions from the training- I will be reviewing them and be fed by them for months and years to come. It’s big delicious meal to digest! Ann, I particularly appreciated your class/theme on steadiness. That has really inspired me post-training to remember and stay focused (and take the time to type up all the notes!). It’s easy to come out of a training and go back into old patterns, but I keep thinking of that class and how I have to be steady to stay connected and follow what I want in life and who I want to become as a teacher.
The training was also a wonderful opportunity to be inspired and feel connected to the kula, I really noticed your emphasis on that through little gestures such as saying namaste to each other not just the teacher, and through the way you had us work in groups and share together. Thank you for such wonderful group facilitation.
