How not to study 🐾
For someone who looks after yoga studios, I didn't do so crash hot in my actual yoga teacher training.
I used to sit in the back of the classroom during philosophy lectures and hide behind my textbook to sneak in a cheeky nap.
At one point, I put all the teacher training books over my face and laid on the ground and told my classmates that was the only way I was going to absorb this knowledge.
Promising right?
I was in my twenties and in India, the birthplace of yoga. It was a total honour to be there, but with the 200-hour and 300-hour courses condensed in 30 days, so much of the training was completely over my head because of how new I was to yoga at the time, how distracted I was by all the pretty things surrounding me and just the exhaustion from 12-hour days.
I had already taught some yoga in the past, but not traditional yoga. It was aerial yoga, and I specifically remember telling my teacher trainers in India that when I arrived, which they shunned, saying that doesn't count and to forget everything I know 
Now, it was time to learn "real" yoga.
And heck, I did my best. I learned all things "real" yoga, and I still do to this day.
And even though I didn't pass all my exams (anatomy is hard the first and even second go, okay! I'm sure our current teacher trainees can support me on this!), I still graduated, and I took a lot from my trip that I feel like I implement every day within the business.
I learned to serve without asking for anything in return(sometimes this is known as "Karma Yoga")
And you know what I love just as much as yoga?
Doggos.
I love them!
Like, I am ok if your dog felt inspired to lick my face. I would let it happen.
And if you have ever been to India, you know that street dogs are everywhere (I wouldn't recommend them licking your mouth tho).
So even though I was in Rishikesh to do my second round of yoga teacher training, I spent every spare moment with the dogs.
I brought tweezers to remove ticks and turmeric cream to help with mange, and I would walk buckets of water from my hostel bathroom to their hangout spots to keep them cool in the 50-degree Indian summer.
I went as far as updating my Facebook status daily to ask for money from my friends to pay for de-sexing (around $47 AUD a dog at the time).
I'm not sharing this story to discuss how I would skip study time to hang out with dogs (even though that is exactly what I did).
I'm sharing it because helping animals somehow feels like part of my yoga journey.
And maybe I'm not in Goa sneaking the beach dogs into my room, but I am in Western Sydney, Australia, where every single animal holding facility is currently over capacity.
So, like last Winter, we are once again putting together a Restorative Yoga workshop to raise money for the Animal Welfare League.
This one, however, in the slings!
Restorative yoga teacher Katie Hathaway feels the same about animals, especially cats. She will probably hate this when I tell you all, but she spends each weekend feeding and desexing street cats around the area. She does this because it makes her feel good, as it did for me, too, and the cats have, of course, fallen in love with her, too 
Whatever inspired Katie and I to adore these domesticated animals so much doesn't really matter. Most humans have been touched by a very special creature at some point in their lives.
So, this winter, Katie, her friend Jennifer, and Nin Yoga will collaborate to bring together a very special Restorative Aerial Yoga Sound Healing, with all profits going to the Animal Welfare League.
Its on August 9th, 7:30 pm - 8:45 pm and there are already only 5 spots left.
Donations are $77 a spot and can be reserved by clicking here.
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