Jessica Young

The girl behind the counter declared, "When I grow up, I'd like to be a yoga teacher." My heart smiled as I said, "If you want to grow up, start teaching yoga."

I was lucky enough to be tossed into the position of teacher after making a very similar statement. As a student I heard myself saying to friends, "five or ten years from now I hope to know enough to teach yoga." Well, the universe had a different plan, and I was asked to substitute for a teacher while she traveled to help her mentor - a man whose name I was not yet, but would soon become very familiar with, Baron Baptiste.

Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga brought a freedom and joy to yoga like none I had ever encountered. I wanted to teach the Baptiste flow because of my love for the practice. After only brief experience on the other side of the practice, I headed down to Maya Tulum in 2001 for the first Level One Teacher Training Bootcamp. So many seeds were planted over those eight days. Words of wisdom were hot-wired into my memory as I was physically and emotionally brought to an edge in my life that I had never known was out there. Armed with as much of this new information as I could comprehend at the time, I returned to Dallas and opened a yoga studio.

I had been given wings!
I taught from my heart.

Dropping many of my preconceived notions that a yoga teacher had to "be" a certain way, I simply shared my journey through the practice with the people who came into the room. And what a journey!

Each day those seeds that were planted in Mexico continue to grow. Like any garden, giving love and attention...there's much weeding to be done, fertilization, and water. Becoming a teacher is a true commitment to the practice. It is a commitment to life. Yoga is life, and the process of growth is only a natural aspect of life. It's no longer a matter of when I grow up, but simply if I'm ready and willing to grow ...up, out...get over, dig under and bring into light all that connects me to this journey so that the experience can be shared. It's all a process. As Baron often reminds us, "The prize is in the process."

Over the past four years the process has continued to unfold. There was the Level Two Teacher Training which sparked yet another light inside to illuminate the garden's growth. However, it's been through the gift of working alongside the Baptiste family that I have really seen these flowers explode in bursts of color. Since the summer of 2003 I have assisted Baron and his amazing team of teachers on Open Level Bootcamps, Personal Revolution Weekends, and Level One Teacher Trainings. I have been fortunate to work alongside people who helped guide me through the process back in 2001. This feeling of family in the Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga Institute is important to the process. To realize that we are not alone on the journey. We are all trying our best to grow...up...out....just grow beyond the boundaries of our mind!

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