We are sincerely honored to announce that we graduated a group of incredible new yoga teachers this Spring!

Cohort one of Boreal Bliss Yoga Teacher training graduated May 20, 2021.

This beautiful group of humans signed up for a 200-hour YTT during a global pandemic. For that alone, they will always have a very unique collective experience.

How it all started

The leadership team at Boreal Bliss had dreamt of leading a yoga teacher training for many years. We invested in our own training, practice, and experiences. We created and led smaller trainings, workshops, and continuing education content. In summer 2019 we got serious about the full 200-hour yoga teacher training curriculum writing and application process with Yoga Alliance. After 6 months of researching, creating, writing, editing, re-writing, and submissions - we were ready.

Then we wondered….how will we fit this into our already busy schedule of retreats? Not to mention our personal lives and other professional commitments. We all wear many hats.

Cue covid-19

With the idea in a bit of a stand-still, suddenly the decision of how to make it fit was made for us….BOOM: Coronavirus. Shut downs, group size/mask/social distancing mandates…. Retreats were completely off the table as we struggled to know how to navigate this new world.

We wondered, could we still host a small and safe yoga teacher training that took place largely in outdoor spaces? With much preparation and planning, we felt we safely could. Now the next question was - would anyone really want to venture on this journey with us during a pandemic?

Yes, 9 women did. They are adventurous, curious, smart, bold, and spirited women. All unique. All with their special talents and gifts.

We moved forward in the most amazing, yet oddest of times.

From our August and October in-person sessions that happened mostly outdoors. To our winter virtual sessions through the confines of winter and covid isolation, our meetings were a welcomed breath of fresh air through the fog of new territory and lifestyles in the pandemic. A time to explore personal connections with yourself, and to build community with like-minded others never seemed so needed. A deep dive in the study of yoga was time well spent. We relished in exploring the history, philosophy, ethics, lifestyle, real-life application, anatomy, instructional technique, and more.

Then maybe the oddest of all things happened: the mask mandate officially ended on the very first day of our final in-person week-long immersion session in May. It felt very freeing to be vaccinated and maskless at Camp Olson with this crew. We learned together, practiced teaching, celebrated, analyzed and inquired, played, laughed, cried, embraced, and made the most incredible memories.

The final days.

Our final days of training with this group was so beautiful. Book-ending lectures and discussions, our new teachers shined brightly as they taught carefully curated classes for each other. We learned so much from one another. We celebrated. We beamed with pride.

A joyful graduation celebration!

We ended our time together with laughter, tears, and DANCING! So much of it. It felt freeing, powerful, and oh, so, right. Amanda decorated the graduation dinner table with love and care. We treated the group to delicious food from local Green Scene Organic Market. Bryana, Joella, Stacy, and Amanda surprised the group by dancing and singing into dinner to the Hall & Oates’ song “You Make My Dreams”. Then we got everyone up to stand in two lines as each individual boogie’d down the makeshift catwalk to Pharell William’s song “Happy” to retrieve their graduation certificate. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. I think the photos speak for themselves.