"You Will Hear When You Are Ready to Receive": Alena on Her Journey from Student to Yoga Teacher
She came for the asanas. She stayed for the transformation. A year after completing her 200-hour Vinyasa teacher training at Yoga Moves, Alena from Germany shares the moments that surprised her most, and why teaching Surya Namaskar took her from fear to flow.
"I actually just wanted to dive deeper into my own practice," Alena begins. What started as personal deepening grew into something much bigger. She now teaches community classes at Yoga Moves, free and accessible classes for everyone. "And I'm enjoying it very much."
The Surya Namaskar Test: From Autopilot to Awareness
One of the first assignments during the training? Teaching a Surya Namaskar to a fellow trainee.
"When you've practiced so and so many Surya Namaskars as a student, you can really move through it without really using your brain much," she explains. "You can really immerse yourself, really flow. But if you teach it to someone, you have to think about the practicalities: the length of the inhale, the length of the exhale, the timing of your words. It's a completely different situation to put yourself in."
Those first times were confronting. "It was very scary, very challenging," she admits. It has now become one of her favorite things to teach. "Your words and your pacing can have such a big impact on how someone experiences that sense of meditation."
From Basics to Authenticity: The Real Challenge Begins After Training
Alena discovered that the real growth begins after getting the certificate.
"I'm still at the beginning of my teaching journey. In every class that I teach, I learn a little bit more about how to use my words, how to use my presence," she says. But something has shifted. "Now I can already feel that a lot of it comes from intuition, just from a natural flow, from observing the room, from having taught this already many times. It comes a lot more natural, it feels a lot more authentic."
The current challenge? Finding her own style and working more consciously with intentions. "Beyond just teaching a basic sequence: what do I want my students to gain from a class with me? How much of my own personality can I bring into the class? How do I connect with students in a way that feels authentic for me?"
Sequences as Creative Process
Crafting sequences has become one of Alena's favorite aspects of teaching. "You really get to listen to yourself. What do I actually want in this room beyond teaching Surya Namaskar? What do I actually want students to feel like when they leave the room? What do I want them to take with them? What do I want them to learn about themselves?"
Those conscious choices make her grateful. "It makes me feel very grateful that I can hopefully help people to discover even just 10% of what it is to them. If I can make a difference, that's amazing."
Community: The Unexpectedly Essential Core
"A very special part of the teacher training is the community aspect," Alena says. "What really surprised me and what really made me very happy is that it is a lot more community based than you would think at the beginning."
The moments that stuck with her most? "When someone got vulnerable, people shared their emotions, I shared my emotions, my thoughts. It really makes you grow very close in a very short time span."
The Quote That Changed Everything
There was one sentence during the training that Alena carries with her to this day: "You will hear when you are ready to receive."
"You come here and there is so much input in this teacher training, almost more than you could ever digest in this amount of time," she explains. It was a liberating thought. "You can allow yourself to take what you are ready to take and to give it your best, but accept that you are not going to be able to take everything with you, to remember every little thing."
Instead? "Really just see it as a part of a bigger process, as the beginning of a bigger journey and process."
For Those Considering: This Isn't a Course, This Is a Beginning
A year later, Alena looks back on her decision to do the teacher training. She didn't come just to dive deeper into asana or meditation, but to "really get a more full picture, to dive deeper into the practice."
The question she asked herself: "How can I apply it to my own life? And then how can I apply it to other people's lives as a teacher?"
She keeps asking herself those questions. And that, it turns out, is exactly the point.
Want to follow Alena's journey? Find her on Instagram @alena.onthemat
Interested in the Vinyasa Teacher Training at Yoga Moves? The 200-hour program offers not just technical skills, but a community that challenges you, supports you, and takes you on a journey that goes far beyond the mat.
Upcoming 200-Hour Teacher Trainings:
Thursday program: begins September 24, 2026
Weekend program: begins January 22, 2027