The Practice® Sacred Leadership Training

Starts January 31, 2019

A 6-month immersion into the teachings and philosophy of The Practice® – a combination of sacred circle, feminine leadership, and embodiment.

For too long we’ve been quiet. For too long we’ve been “good.” For too long we’ve been hiding in the shadows and living by someone else’s rules. For lifetimes and generations, we’ve ignored that calling nudging at our bodies and souls, begging us to listen and to do what we need to do. For too long we’ve tried to be equal, or better than, rather than just accepting ourselves in our wholeness. For too long we’ve avoided our true essence and power as women.

Now is the time to stand up and let our voices be heard. To step in front of fear and finally live our lives out loud. Now is the time to stop hiding and live undefended as the women we are called to be. It’s time to awaken through connection, through our bodies, and by taking back our power. It’s time to lead and to heal by bringing women together, putting back all the broken pieces, and remembering who we truly are.

This is why I created The Practice®. It’s a powerful journey that provides women a path back to themselves. This training is for 16 women who are called to deeply learn and embody this new way of living and leading.

It’s time to stand up and let our voices be heard.

You

Crave to connect with other women and follow a calling that beckons you.
Know you have more to do here but you struggle to find your voice.
Understand that you are a leader and you have something to give.
Desire to serve and live a more fully-aligned life, out loud.
See and feel how collectively women are hurting, yet at the same time, feel ready to put back the broken pieces, and roar.
Love yoga but you want something different—something that feels more like you.
Feel the call to lead women in a new way through embodiment, connection, and conversations.

Want to take your yoga and spiritual practice to the next level, and love what The Practice® stands for.
Feel a desire to connect, for real—beyond superficiality, and beyond the veil of perfection.
Have had a deep sense of intuition and inner knowing that you’ve been scared to follow.
Crave to move your body wildly and with a sense of liberation, but you meet fear going there.
Crave a sisterhood and community that you can keep forever.
Want a feminine spiritual practice that speaks to you as a woman, that allows you to move freely, that leaves out judgment and pretentiousness, and that leads you back to your true voice.

It’s Time, Sister.

It’s time to liberate the gifts in your heart and start speaking your voice. It’s time to open your soul and connect on a new and higher level. It’s time to connect fully with your feminine wisdom and shine as the leader that you are called to be.

This is a personal invitation for you to join me and 16 other women in pioneering a new wave of feminine leadership. I see you and would love to have you be a part of this sacred vision.

Now is the time to enroll and save your spot.

The Call

Many moons ago I was sitting in a yoga class with a group of women and a renowned female teacher. We were studying an ancient yogic text, which was talking about how, in order to deepen on our spiritual path, we need to avoid toxic people. Now, I completely understand this—saying no to people that don’t support us in being the best version of ourselves is important. But the text went on to say (and the teacher read this out loud to the class) that we must also “avoid women.”

Avoid women.

The teacher paused, I could see her processing what she just read, and I waited for her to address the words that had tumbled out of her mouth to the group of women staring back at her, but instead, she just looked up at us and said, “Well, we need to turn our cheek to that because it was written a long time ago.” And she went on to the next lesson.

But the words “avoid women” continued to echo in my heart and in my bones. I felt them move through my mother, my grandmother, and the generations of women before them. It was as if, in that short moment, even after practicing and teaching yoga for 17 years, something in me woke up for the first time, and I was pissed. I felt a rage boil inside of me and I felt like shouting, “NO! I cannot turn my cheek to this. You are talking about avoiding me!”

The reality hit home hard. Yoga, the way it was written in those ancient yogic texts, and the way it is still largely practiced in our mainstream culture today, was designed and written by men, for men. At the time, men thought of women as a distraction from their spiritual path. Women are sensual, sexual creatures who could deter them from enlightenment. We were considered to be “toxic.” And the irony in my yoga class was that we were a circle of women, being led by a woman teacher, reading 2000-year-old rules written by men and turning our cheeks to their thoughts on women. Not even questioning them. None of it made sense to me anymore.

The question came to me that, at the time that those ancient texts were being written, what were the women doing? What did our yoga and spiritual practice look like? Where was I in this story? I had a vision of women in a circle, moving their bodies intuitively, connecting, supporting each other, laughing, sharing, crying, communing. They were raising families, managing the homes, lifting each other up and dancing their way through life. They were the quiet humble leaders guiding their communities back to love.

The vision held a sense of wildness, rawness, mystery, grit… of feminine truth. I suddenly yearned for a practice that understands who I truly am.

To me, “yoga” is connection. Connection to our highest selves, to our inner truth, to our inner knowing and intuition. It is connection to the whole, to the collective, to the planet, to our communities and to each other. Yoga is love. But how do women connect? How do we commune with and lead from our highest wisdom? I started to see that in all my years of practicing and teaching yoga, these questions were never asked. I craved a spiritual practice and a way to lead my life that felt more feminine, that felt more like me.

Women are voluptuous, wild, messy, complicated, wise, intuitive, deeply connected to source, and anything but perfect. Collectively, we are wounded, and have been for centuries. We have wounds of shame, of self-doubt, of being ostracized and quieted, of being objectified, used, and taken for granted. We have wounds from being avoided.

We need a spiritual practice and a new way leading that our embraces our wounds and no longer avoids who we truly are. We need a practice and community that holds us in our wholeness and celebrates our strengths. It’s time we have conversations and feminine leadership to guide women back to who we truly are.

New Possibilities

What would happen if there were communities, work places, women’s circles, and yoga classes that invited women in and celebrated them for who they are? What would happen if we created spaces and experiences that hold us in community so we can move through life together instead of apart? What would happen if we went to yoga or dance classes that were about sharing—opening in vulnerability with ourselves and each other? What would happen if we started to move our bodies in ways that felt naturally good, and followed our rhythms as women? What would happen if we reclaimed leadership styles that are intuitive, sensual, free, and open?

And what would happen if we started to live our lives from this deep sense of feminine wisdom?

What I’ve come to understand is that women need each other. We need each other to rise, to heal, to see that we are not alone, to love, and to awaken. We need each other to remember our own power. We are not meant to go through this life alone, and at a time when our world is plagued with disconnection, we need leaders that bring us back together. Women need to be those leaders.

We’ve lost sight of our own creative nature, our sensuality, what it means to be feminine and to live in a woman’s body. We’ve forgotten how to ask our bodies what we need. We’ve given our authority away. Our minds have been caught in endless circles of should’s and have to’s, constant judgments, and paralyzing fears. It’s hard to find space to simply be quiet and listen to our own voices.

We need a new kind of practice – a practice just for women. We need a practice that is responsive to what women need. One where it’s safe for us to show up just as we are. Where we get to make the rules, move our bodies in ways that feel good, connect, share, and heal together. We need a practice that honors us completely. One where soft is the new hard, where we can practice receiving instead of giving, and where we can learn to surrender instead of to push. It’s time we start listening to our own bodies and our deepest wisdom and ask what life could look like through this new paradigm of feminine leadership.

This is The Practice® — and it is magic.

Cards and Candles My journey has been about really understanding feminine spirituality—looking closely at women’s desires, our bodies, our wounds. I’ve worked with female mentors and spiritual teachers who have shown me how we can be taught in ways that meet us as whole women and acknowledge all parts of ourselves. I’ve gotten to know thousands of women, asked deep questions, and studied who we are collectively and individually. And I’ve brought this wisdom back to my yoga teaching and leadership.

At The Practice®, I’ve been leading and teaching from this place for more than seven years. Women are waking up to themselves and seeing that we are not that different and not alone. They are recognizing their own power, hearing their own voices for the first time, releasing old stories and patterns, and living more aligned lives. They are finding their divine wisdom and making changes in their lives that have been waiting for years—decades—generations. What is happening is what I believe we need in order to begin to save the world. Today’s woman needs a space, a community, and a practice to help her remember who she truly is. At The Practice®, she finally has a place to call home.

And because you are here, I trust you are ready to live and lead from this source of wisdom.

A Sacred Leadership Training by Women for Women

I have created a 6-month Sacred Leadership Training based on the principals of The Practice®. It is not a yoga teacher training. It is a feminine spiritual and leadership training that can applied to all aspects of your life. It will take you on a deep dive into yourself so that you can navigate your dark shadows and find your own wisdom, honor who you really are, and bring your gifts into the light so that you can serve and lead from your own experience as a woman. This 6-month training is about remembering who you truly are, and then learning to lead from that place.

I’ve taken part in multiple yoga teacher trainings over the years, and while I was taught how to do the poses and how to teach them, I was never taught how to lead, to facilitate, or to hold space. That part was missing and I had to learn it outside of the yoga world. In this training, the principals of leadership will be our focus. We will work on authentic connection, vulnerability, and using personal experience as a way to transmit your wisdom.

We will learn how to lead from a place of intuition and personal expression. We will explore feminine spirituality and wisdom and learn how to translate that to support other women in their own journeys. We will deepen into the body and tap into its wisdom. We will expose the inner critic, our wounds (both personal and collective), and the difficulties we face as Western women so we understand what is needed to heal. I believe that in order to truly teach and serve, we have to know ourselves intimately, and know who we are teaching.

This is a university-style course with university standards. We will go deep and come out strong.

Feeling the call? Here is what our journey together will look like: The 6-month course will be divided into three parts. (1) Remember. (2) Deepen. (3) Lead. Throughout each trimester we will spiral deeper into the understanding and wisdom behind The Practice®. If you desire to continue on to be certified as a teacher of The Practice, there is a separate week-long intensive in July, after the leadership training has concluded.

Trimester I: Remember

During the first two months we will work on remembering who we truly are. You will be initiated into the depth of The Practice® wisdom and we will spend time experiencing and reflecting. This will be a deep dive into personal development, as well as the psychology and inner workings of women today. We will look at our limiting beliefs, our inner critics, our deep collective wounds, and what holds us back from living as our whole selves. We will learn how to shed our fear and get comfortable being uncomfortable, all with the intention to grow and lead. We will remember our gifts so that we can bring them into the light.

We will also focus on understanding the woman’s body. We will explore our wounds and inner trappings through embodiment. We will study the cycles and rhythms of a woman’s experience, and how through the body we can access wisdom, intuition, and a deep inner knowing.

We will explore connection and vulnerability, and how we can use these to heal and awaken. We will study how, as a society, we experience feeling disconnected and how we habitually see others as different from ourselves. We will seek to understand how constructs in our mainstream society inadvertently keep a woman from experiencing her full range of femininity. We will get to know you and the women we will be serving

Trimester II: Deepen

In the second trimester, we will continue to deepen on our pilgrimage into ourselves and our “learned experience.” We will explore what yoga and sacred movement look like through a feminine lens, and discuss the meaning and purpose behind the structure of The Practice®. You will get to sink into your body and explore how the movement affects you. You will learn the “why” behind the poses, how to lead from an embodied experience, and how to translate your personal experience in a way that can serve other women.

We will also explore how to hold space, how to lead circle, and how to tap into our intuition as a way to lead and guide women. You will get practice deepening into your “wise self” and following her guidance.

The second trimester will be quieter. You will be learning from experience, writing, and beginning to understand the healing potential of The Practice®. You will be retreating deep into yourself, preparing to come out and bloom in our third trimester.

Trimester III: Lead

During the final two months, we will deepen into leadership. What does it mean to be woman leader in our world today? What blocks you from expressing your truth and leading from your heart? How do you want to show up and what gifts do you want to bring to the world?

We will discuss how to facilitate circle, how to hold space for women as they process and transform, and how to set energetic boundaries for yourself and the group, so that you can keep yourself open and able to serve without getting attached. We will explore how to lead The Practice, and how the skills you have gained can be taken back into your work and offerings. You will practice leading. You will learn how to use your voice, speak from your gut, and guide from your intuition. You will learn how to witness bodies and teach to what a woman needs in the moment. You will learn to lead from your heart.

In this final trimester you will have the opportunity to bring your unique gifts out into the light and practice shining in a safe container of women who want to see you thrive.

What You Will Get

Sisterhood. You will be immersed into deep self-reflection with a small group of women for 6 months. These women will become your cheerleaders, confidants, and sisters. This circle of women will stay with you forever.
Experienced mentorship. I will be your guide and teach you everything I know during our 6 months together. I will journey together with you on this expedition. You will be safe to explore the depths of yourself.
Graduate-level instruction and inspiration to open you to a new yoga and leadership philosophy for women.
The skills and knowledge to begin leading The Practice®, a combination of sacred circle, feminine yoga, personal development, and meditation.
Leadership skills that you can take with you to any area of your life and career.
The skills to lead a woman’s circle.
20 classes of The Practice® over our 6 months together. You will learn to understand The Practice® deep in your body, so that that teaching come easily and you can translate its wisdom to others.
Inspired talks with feminine spiritual teachers, authors, and leaders in our community. I will bring in guest teachers and speakers and you will gain their wisdom too.
A new understanding of what it means to be a woman in this time of awakening.
A reading list of books to wake you up and whet your appetite.
A new understanding of yourself and your unique gifts to the world.
The ability to lead The Practice®, if you feel called, and take it out into your community.

Certification (optional)

After completing all three trimesters…, you may feel called to enroll in the additional certification class to become licensed as The Practice Facilitator. Certification will require attending the Intensive Training (sold separately), which is a week-long immersion and four small group practicums with Michelle. Here we will deepen into asana, movement, and how to lead the structure and flow of The Practice.

You will learn the why behind the structure of The Practice, how to instruct the poses, how to teach to music, how to hold space, and how to use your voice effectively. You will be ready to lead.

The next Intensive training will be offered July 22-26, 2019. If you are interested in certification, further dates and details are on the application. The Practice® certification gives you many benefits:

You will become a part of The Practice® Family and have access to our private online forum and resource library.
You will be supported in finding a place to offer and teach The Practice® in your community.
You get to use our trademark and marketing materials, and add the certification credential to your name.
Your name, photo, and bio will be celebrated on The Practice® website.
You will be a part of our ongoing conversations about business, marketing, and how to build your own tribe.

You will get to take part in our monthly mentoring calls with Michelle and other leaders in the field.
You will have access to The Practice® curriculum and receive quarterly workbooks to share with your students.
You will get to be a pioneer in a new yoga movement and spread the love to thousands of women in studios, community centers, and corporations.
You will have the opportunity to triple your earning potential as a yoga teacher, and make up to $6,000 per quarter, per program you offer.
You get the opportunity to be a part of something meaningful that changes lives forever.

Teaching and leading is a privilege. It comes through devotion to yourself and enables you to unlock your unique gifts. Effective teaching and leadership is part of a lifetime of practice, mentorship, and ongoing learning. Certifying teachers is a responsibility that I take seriously. This is no quick, over-the-counter teacher training. It involves showing up, opening to yourself, stepping out of your comfort zone, and taking the time to ground yourself and get ready. In my opinion, too many yoga teachers are sent out into the world prematurely, and it does yoga and our communities a disservice.

To stay in integrity with the depth of the work of The Practice®, and to be certain that this special experience is upheld by our community of teachers, should you decided to be certified, I will take time to honor you and work closely with you to make sure you are ready for certification. This is the purpose of the Intensive Training at the end of the 6-month immersion. The certification process will also include an application, a private session with me, and community offerings of The Practice®.

Our vision is to take the magic of The Practice® to women across the country. To build a community of facilitators committed to helping women awaken through connection. What we are building is unique from other yoga or fitness expressions, because as a community of facilitators, we will grow and move together. The power of having hundreds and thousands of women across the globe, sharing in the same conversations and dropping into circle together is a force. Once certified you will become a facilitator, a pioneer, and a catalyst for this movement.

Of course, woman may choose to attend the training without the intention to teach. This is perfectly okay and I welcome all who feel called to this work. This training will give you skills that you can take into any area of your life and career. It is a personal and transformative yoga and leadership training, meaning you will grow and deepen into yourself in ways that will enrichen all parts of your life. You will have a new lens through which to understand life, and a deeper understanding of how to celebrate your wisdom as a woman. You will have have skills to lead in a new way, to offer circles, or to bring deeper conversations into your fitness classes, or workshops.

Meet Our Guest Teachers

[guest_teachers]

This Training Is Perfect for You If

You crave to work with women and feel a deep longing to serve and lead.
You are interested in honing in on your own leadership skills and accessing your unique gifts.
You love and or are interested in holding space and facilitating circles for women.
You have been practicing yoga for at least two years, and you want to deepen into your understanding of yoga from a feminine perspective.
You are a yoga, fitness, or dance instructor that wants to add more tools to your teaching experience.
You have always wanted to teach, but you feel like you don’t fit the “yoga teacher” mold. You worry you don’t have the right body or you are not the right kind of woman.

You’ve been teaching yoga for a while (or perhaps not for a long time) and want to experience more as a teacher. You are tired of the drop-in yoga teaching model, you crave to go deeper with your students and teach something different.
You are a career woman wanting to deepen into new knowledge and perhaps rekindle the spark of learning new things.
You are a stay-at-home mom, or an empty-nester, yearning for something more than family and kids.
You’ve been coming to The Practice® for a while, feel the magic happening, and want to learn more.
You are a healer, coach, therapist, or holistic-health practitioner looking for more tools and services to offer your clients.
You feel that buzz in your belly as you read through this page, and have an inner knowing that this is for you.

This Training Is Not for You If

You are looking for a “quick-fix” yoga teacher training, and you want to start teaching yoga right away.
You don’t like the way I teach. There are plenty of teachers out there, so if you are going to invest in a training, make sure you truly resonate with The Practice®.
You are not willing to commit the time needed for this training or you tend to not finish the things you sign up for. This experience is based on commitment and devotion to yourself and the group.

You are not open to learning new things, which often involves “un-learning” old things.
You are not willing to do the deep inner work and peer into the shadows with the intention to grow.
You are seeking Yoga Alliance registration or a training deeply rooted in ancient yoga philosophy. This training is a modern and intuitive approach to yoga through a feminine lens. We will not be diving deep into Sanskrit or the ancient yogic texts.
You want to focus primarily on the physical asana and do not want to explore femininity, connection, and sisterhood.

Feeling the Call?

Apply now. This is only open to a maximum of 16 women and it will fill up fast. If you feel that buzz in your belly that this is for you, then grab your application today.

Our Leader Michelle Long, MA

Michelle has been teaching yoga since 2003. She has a Master’s Degree in Holistic Health Education, is a certified Women’s Wholeness Coach, has owned and managed a woman’s yoga and healing center since 2012, and has taught The Practice® to thousands of women. She studies feminine spirituality and leadership. She is also a wife, mother, and daughter who has lived through her share of hardships. Michelle has pulled all of her knowledge, personal experience, and research into this training for women. Her intention is to help guide you back to yourself, find your own voice, and become your own authority.

FAQ

Do I have to be a yoga teacher to apply?

No, you do not have to be a current yoga teacher to apply. All are welcome. However, this training is an excellent way for teachers to deepen their knowledge and have the tools to teach something different to the community. This training is open to women of all backgrounds and experience. The only true prerequisite is feeling the call to lead and connect with women in a new way, and of course having a love of yoga or movement. If you’re looking to facilitate The Practice® following the training, at least two years of yoga experience is required.

When and where does the training take place?

All training sessions will take place at The Practice for Women in Walnut Creek, California. Occasionally we will have phone calls with our guest speakers, which will be recorded as well. We will meet twice a month: one Thursday evening, and one full Saturday. You will also be required to participate in a 10-week session of The Practice® each quarter at The Practice. You will have the flexibility to choose your class and time. All of the dates and times are listed in the application.

What is the main difference between this and a regular yoga teacher training?

There are endless differences between this training and a typical yoga teacher training. This is a leadership training, with a university-style and approach to learning. You will go deep into yourself and transform. You will take home skills that can be applied to all areas of your life. You will have the potential to teach something completely unique and different to your community and take home good money doing what you love. You have the opportunity to join a movement and become a pioneer of something meaningful and deep. You will become a part of a community of women holding the same intention to help heal women and our world. After the training, if you choose to become certified, you will become a part of a family that gathers each month, and you will continue to have built-in mentorship and support as you continue to bloom and grow.

Is this a Yoga Alliance Registered Program?

This is not a typical yoga teacher training. I have consciously chosen to not be a part of the Yoga Alliance, mainly because, in my opinion, the organization’s guidelines about what needs to be taught leave out what is essential to being an effective feminine leader, and does not serve our model of facilitation. I am seeking women who want to be pioneers of a new way of living, leading, and sharing yoga. Sometimes new beginnings require stepping out of old systems.

If you choose to become a Certified Facilitator of The Practice®, then we will issue you a certification through our program, which can be used as its own credential or added on to your others.

The value of this training is that you will have the skills to offer a unique and specialized program to women anywhere. Getting a job teaching yoga, or facilitating a woman’s group, like any kind of work, relates mostly to being excellent at what you do, having the proper experience, and lining up well with the person who is hiring, not what alliance you are registered with. I personally have never been required to present a Yoga Alliance registration, nor have I ever felt the need to be a part of the organization. In this training, I will focus on supporting you to succeed in teaching effectively and being able to connect with the women you serve, should teaching be your calling.

Where can I get a job and teach The Practice® after the training?

After becoming licensed in The Practice and attend both the Leadership Training and The Intensive, you will be able to teach classes anywhere. The Practice® is a specialized yoga course for women based on a 10-week model. It is easily transportable, and you may offer your teaching experience anywhere you like. Our dream is for The Practice® to be offered not just in yoga studios, but in corporations, community centers, gyms, co-working spaces, schools, churches, and living rooms. Because it is unique, the selling potential is huge and women are yearning for this experience. We are here to help support you to find the perfect place to offer your flavor of The Practice®.

What is the application process and the investment?

The first step is to fill out the application. Please get your application in as soon as possible. We will prioritize earlier applications, so now is the time to enroll and save your spot. All dates and investment details are in the application. This is only open to a maximum of 16 women and it will fill up fast, so apply now. Only 16 spots are available and they are going fast.

After I receive your application, you will receive an invitation to meet me so that we can connect and explore deeper together about the journey. If it feels like a good fit to both of us, you will be one of the 16! The intention of the interview is to connect, get to know each other, and allow me to answer any questions you have before you commit.

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