The Journey On The Yoga Path

Please note that this post may not be for everybody, maybe only for whom is practicing yoga could relate to what I am about to write.

Yes, this training is still a journey and I don't expect to reach any destination anytime soon. Even when the course ends, my learning will be continued. Although I have been teaching yoga classes in the last 6 years, I came to this training with a beginner's mind.

Now I am in the second week of training, looking back and realizing that I need to evaluate my progress of the self-inquiry journey.

Yoga Sutras (Philosophy part)

I often repeat this quote: "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear" Unknown. It sounds so true to me right now. Every time a mood, a feeling, or a thought arise, I practiced mindfulness on it without judgement or praise. Then amazingly, all the philosophy sessions seems to have the answer, explanation, or guidance for me!  IMO, Swami Yogesh is making the sessions interesting, maybe because I understand his English better than Bhooma's, and I always love to learn about self-knowledge (I don't think Avelino and Jitra enjoy this part of training very much)

We have to write a summary of what we understood in those 2 hrs and hand it to Yogesh after class or on the next day.  I missed one so far but doubled the summary the day after.

Asanas and Pranayama

Bhooma and P.S Parameswaran are two great teachers in this part! Bhooma will extend the teaching from self-practice to how to teach a yoga class in the last two weeks of training. One big downfall on my part is not be able to understand their English well in order to absorb more teaching info from them! I always had to ask others after class. Well, I just get what I can.

They both have the skills to lead us to deepen our practice: a simple adjustment that would take me to a new edge which I never think I could, without injure me in any way. In my part, must be my trust in them. However, comparing to my teaching which is without force and with ease, theirs is the opposite: intense efforts and perfection is expected, plus Bhooma's practice is well balanced with proper counterposes and deep deep breathing: inhale Om1, Om2, Om3, Om4; exhale Om1.....Om8! This technique is really helpful. I always relied on my breath when I was struggling in some poses.

Here is a most challenging sequence in the 2 hrs morning practice. Please try if you want to practice with me in spirit:

- Child pose P.S just knows how to press on certain spots on my back and I fold so deep and the spine is lengthening at the same time! My new edge :)
- Headstand I am up now and feel the lightness,but still need a teacher with me to help me get both legs up at the start. Then he just slightly taps on the back of my heels to keep me in a right alignment for 3-5 minutes. I still need to come down slow with knee bent instead of just dropping the legs down so quickly (I will try to video tape this part or maybe a whole class)
- Shoulderstand to Plough to Shoulderstand again prepare to go right in to bridge, then right back to shoulderstand to plough then slowly roll the spine to Savasana. In the first half of this cycle I am doing very well with shoulderstand & plough; the last half i still need help on the bridge transition and of course I always have their full attention.

In pranayama practice, Bhooma makes us do very long Kapalabhati and Anuloma Viloma at the end of both morning and afternoon practices; I still don't get bored with them. I also enjoy his simple twelve-step sun salutations with chanting 12-16 rounds of 3-4 sets. Talk about repetition! (here I was with the variety of my SSs in my classes, because I worried people might get bored with my teaching, think again!)

One more challenging pose--crow or side crane which I am still a FROG (hoping forward to avoid falling on my head! LOL) They look at me and kinda wonder I wouldn't try harder. Well I got bruises under my arms, sweat bucket...

Meditation

I don't learn much as I don't understand one word P.S Parameswaran said. I just sit for the 30 minutes and do my own way of meditation.

Will see whether there will be improvement in the next 2 weeks. In the meantime, I just enjoy the journey :)