Yoga Teacher Training Graduate Feature: Fiona

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Meet Fiona, our 200-Hour Teacher Training graduate from our 2021 training in Queenscliff, Australia. Fiona currently teaches at Upstate Studios in Geelong and Makai Yoga Collective in Ocean Grove.

Fiona shares her yoga teaching journey and what she has learned along the way.

Why did you do your 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training?

I had become disillusioned with my corporate retail life and started to feel my passion waning and was questioning my existence. I was so connected to my ego and felt every painful moment of it. So I sold my house, quit my job and intended on taking a few months off before thinking about what was next. The our tough teacher Covid19 arrived and I was suddenly faced with no job prospects (retail sector wasn’t hiring) and lockdown life (social butterfly was trapped). A little depressed and distressed, I turned to the one practice that had supported me through the previous few years - yoga. I utilised my practice into lockdown and then started to think - maybe I could be a yoga teacher? I brushed it off as a dream because I’d only started doing yoga at 40 years of age and I was 43 when Covid hit. Fast forward a little bit and I saw saigon om advertising their YTT in Australia for the first time (Hang and Sarah were also contained in Australia until the borders opened!). It was my sign, my once in a blue moon opportunity to do my Yoga Teacher Training with two people who live their practice and who are just divine humans. And the rest as they say ‘is history’. I started yoga at 40, graduated YTT at 44 and have been teaching for over a year now. I guess its never too late to go after your dreams.

Which practices from the training have supported you most in life?

  • Breathwork, Pranayama, and enjoying my every breath.

  • Qi Gong - the simplicity of movement to breath and listening to my body.

  • Yoga -  the embodiment process through yoga was the ultimate healing tool for me to over come my negative feelings/emotions.

  • Mindfulness - becoming mindful has positively changed my interactions with people daily, improved my relationships with others (and myself) and made my life much more peaceful.

What are some of the things you've discovered as a practitioner and a teacher?

  • Nothing lasts forever. Everyone makes mistakes, even yoga teachers!

  • Laugh at yourself. No one likes an uptight yoga teacher.  

  • Non-attachment (still a work in progress for me).

  • The practice truly does meet you where you're at.

What are some of the lessons you’ve learned on the mat that are supporting you to meet the challenges of life?

  • It’s ok to fall out of balance. It’s the same as life, its ok to come in and out of balance, so you find even better balance each time.

  • You are stronger than you think. Using the breath to hold in poses, balancing etc teaches me that I can do hard things. ‘One more breath here in Crow Pose anyone?’

  • Non-waiting. This has translated into me being super zen at the supermarket, in traffic, when the kids are going crazy. This one is my favourite I think.

  • Noble silence. I am a talker, over talker, over thinker, over everything. Noble silence offers me the time and space to just be.

What do you love about teaching yoga?

The students, the people I’ve met through teaching yoga, and sharing my ‘Hang-isms’ and ‘Sarah-isms’ (Hang and Sarah jokes/snippets of wisdom weaved into class).

How has your yoga teaching journey unfolded?

I jumped right into teaching unintentionally. I got asked to step into a yoga teaching gig at a friends gym Lucefit Australia as they needed someone straight away. I didn’t want to do it because I was so scared to actually teach, but I was even more scared to say no to this friend. It ended up being the best thing I ever did. If I waited for the perfect studio, perfect class, perfect time - I wouldn’t be teaching today. I was then so connected to teaching that I did my Qi Gong, Restorative and Yin teacher training. Once I was qualified, I applied to Upstate Studios, where I had practiced most of my yoga life and was accepted as a yin yoga teacher! Dream come true. And I was then also then lucky enough to join the collective at Makai Yoga Collective and teach Qi Gong and yoga. I also taught at a few workshops and retreats which were by far and away my favourite.

I feel so grateful and blessed to have each of these opportunities to learn and find out which classes/times/studios/styles suited me best. It’s not always the right fit and that’s ok.

Top tip: maybe just take on 1-2 studios in the first six months of teaching. I did get a bit overwhelmed with the admin side of each studio. They all had different check in systems, different passcodes/keys, different music systems, different class lengths and styles. And it’s nice to remember the students names - remembering the students names from three different studios is almost impossible.

Interested in taking your YTT this year?

Join us in beautiful Mui Ne, a peaceful and quiet fishing village on the southeast coast of Vietnam. Our unique yoga teacher training is a 22-day immersive journey of yoga, mindfulness, and self-discovery by the ocean in Vietnam. The training runs from November 24 to December 15, 2024. Learn more.