Scarlet: Blog 2
After the first week of practicing yoga, I realized it is not just about the yoga pose. Let me explain myself in short terms; before I decided to take a chance and study for the yoga teacher license, my view, – or assumption if you will, towards yoga was; its a good way to stretch and improve your body’s strength. However now that I have gotten this chance to immerse myself in the process, the spiritual side, meditation, student and teacher relationship, the never-ending path of self-improvement, I am slowly realizing yoga is so much more than just the poses. Its a way of life, its finding harmony within oneself, just as much as it is about finding harmony in your surroundings. Although I was struggling in the beginning, I am now starting to enjoy this more and more. Scarlet 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Scarlet: Blog 1
Completing my first day of Yoga Teacher Training was bittersweet. On one side, I was happy and proud of myself for having taken this first step on a new path, on the other side, memorizing what seemed like a million different positions, Sanskrit, sequences etc.. looking at my fellow students I felt inadequate. I was by far the most inexperienced one. Thankfully, Jessica was kind and patient. Slowly, by the help of Jessica and my fellow students, I realized that everyone is different, we are all individuals, and it is fine that I evolve and progress in my own pace. I further realized this was the exact reason why I wanted to join this course to begin with; I wanted to work on myself, improve myself. Scarlet 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Polly: JOURNAL 6 – TRIAL CLASS
Teaching is hard. I never had much issues with public speaking nor presentations but teaching a practice like yoga is a whole other ball game. There are so many things I noticed about myself: – Staying present (panic!) o It’s so hard to stay present! I think the reason I flustered was because I haven’t fully memorized the sequence and the moment I saw the class got confused, I majorly panicked on the inside – possibly thinking I’m just messing everything else up. o Don’t let your panic show! It’s not a good look. – How to divide attention o Maybe I care too much? I feel like I need to adjust everyone but in a class (only 6), it is so hard to focus just on the “weaker ones”. o Need to let go. You can’t adjust all, you can only do what you can. – Don’t lose sight of the intention o My initial intention was for a power-circuit style class but I think it really affected me when I saw my classmates really struggling to get into the poses. I thought I needed to regress everything but in my panic, I couldn’t think of the regressions. In turn, allowing myself to fall into this panic. o Focus on what you initially set out to do. FOCUS! – MUSIC! Makes a world of difference but I didn’t have it today. #sigh Polly 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Polly: JOURNAL 5 – UJJAYI
AFTER 4 WEEKS of daily meditation, I finally had an A-Ha moment! Sitting still and drowning out noises (and any distractions) is pretty much the hardest thing and being able to fall into meditation instantly is impossible. Ujjayi was finally clear today. Day after day, I have slowly been settling in easier and the leg cramps take longer to creep in. There are still days where I am completely out of it but just simply breathing slows the crazy ADHD mind down. I think my body or soul was too exhausted today to be distracted. I got into it this psychedelic state almost immediately and was able to hold on to this weird feeling till the end. I was a little upset it had to come to an end because it felt slightly euphoric (maybe adrenaline?) and I can’t believe I haven’t done this before. It’s like being high without drugs! I get what you mean, Jess!! At the end of the day, I came home to try it out again but was unable to find that same feeling. Polly 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Polly: JOURNAL 4 – TESTING TESTING
Today I did a private class for my friend. It took 1.5 hours of adjustments just for sun salutation A. Many revelations which will apply to beginners I will teach in future: 1. Lack of body awareness – She couldn’t protract her shoulder blades. As much as I said “push against me”, she went further away. She was also not able to isolate that part of her shoulders and the rest of her back came up along with the protraction. – When the rest of the back came up, so did her tailbone. Once she tucks that in, THE SHOULDERS RETRACTED SLIGHTLY (????) – What I learnt: The part of the body that’s supposed to be isolated can move elsewhere. 2. Don’t know how to breath (???) – She forgot to breathe, mixed up inhale and exhale and breathing in but stomach was falling. – I was very confused as to what was happening. Breathing is something that humans think would be most natural and comes easily. But it isn’t. – What I learnt: stop the moving and restart this because breathing is the most fundamental. 3. Strength (or lack of) – She could not hold her own weight in knee-plank. The trembles gave my heart trembles. In comparison, I know many men who can do handstands and pretty much fly but with very bad postures (basically using full arm and shoulder strength) – What I learnt: Throw the rest of the sequence out the window and focus on the arms. Focus on building her strength and core before moving on to more postures. 4. Habits (most annoying) – She has the habit of shrugging her shoulders. Which made shoulder mobility quite hard and doesn’t help that she doesn’t have arm strength. – She also has the habit of rounding her back into a forward fold. – What I learnt: REGRESS REGRESS REGRESS! It helped that we have been building arm strength the last 3 weeks because I was able to give slightly more than 10% for her adjustments and able to guide her into the poses. As this was a one on one session, I was able to give my full attention and adjustments to her. I can only imagine what it will be like in a class of 20. Polly 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Polly: JOURNAL 3 – NEW FOUND SHOULDER MUSCLES
NEW SHOULDERS ARE AMAZING! I was a runner and swimmer. My legs gave me power but my shoulders were useless (not to mention – tight). When I first started yoga 2 years ago, I couldn’t move my arms past my face when asked to have my arms up. Before yoga, I compensated that arm raise with arching my lower back. I have a slightly flexible back so arching was never an issue so it became a habit. At present, my arms are almost aligned to my ears and that’s progress. I would still like to open them further because I want to do a proper handstand eventually. Due to the reliance on my back, it is very easy to arch it to find the balance in mid air, which is dangerous! I’ve always had weak shoulders and arms. Chaturanga is the hardest pose ever! I had issues in ashtanga namaskar, even pushing up to cobra was a challenge. Over the 2 years, I’ve developed the muscle to make chaturanga possible (max 5 in one day). During YTT, I realized I haven’t protracted my shoulders sufficiently to optimize my chaturangas. Need to un-learn to re-learn! Polly 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Polly: JOURNAL 2 – TUCK YOUR RIBS
I’ve never been told to “tuck my ribs” until this YTT. This was a foreign term to me! I’ve only heard “”tuck your tailbone to engage your core” but never the ribs. I also never knew how “loose” my ribs were! I always thought my core was engaged, but I was so wrong. I always feared backbends because every time I did it, it hurt my lower back. Teachers always talked about back opening, strength and flexibility in the back for backbends. I knew I had a flexible back but even doing camel used to hurt if I do it multiple times. We did wheel today and I felt zero strain or pain because we have had a week and a half of rib tucking. I never knew (was not aware) it was because my ribs were flared and they didn’t FEEL flared before but now that I’m more aware of this and consciously tuck it in as much as possible. Body awareness is so important! I can only hope for this for my future students. Polly 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Polly: JOURNAL 1 – SIT STILL!
Pratyahara – This is going to be the hardest limb for me. For years, when asked to sit still, I will unknowingly fidget somehow, be it shifty feet or twitching fingers. I can’t control the twitches that go on in my body when trying to sit or be still – even the eyelids! It is more apparent when I’m focusing on the breath and the body just lets loose. The twitches are wild. Also, I hear every single thing that happens from the cars driving past to the lady sneezing downstairs. When studying or needing to focus, my technique is to always have a secondary distraction (like music) to drown out the primary distraction but with meditation at the studio, it’s a whole new ball game. I hear everything to a point where I don’t hear my own breathing and will have to consciously ATTEMPT to focus on breathing. It’s toughest when I don’t have a secondary distraction. Really hoping that throughout the course of the YTT, all of this would improve. I know I can’t change the brain and habits completely in 5 weeks but one can try. I also know that I need to nail this because if I have to teach a class, I NEED the focus and presence and once I lose that, I lose everyone! Polly 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Alicia: 6 Not the end
This is not the end. We learnt that this is a never-ending journey and we are learning everyday. Because everything is Yoga. I am thankful to the ladies I started this journey with, helping me out whenever I needed some and providing me honest feedback on how I could improve or what I could worked on more. Both community classes went smoothly and I’m thankful and glad to have this opportunity to experience conducting a ‘real’ class and this has motivated me to learn more, practice more and help others with what I have learnt. As well as Jess’ patience that kept me focused and allowed me to have greater insights of Yoga. AND of course, not forgetting her duper high energy level, smile and hilarious stories 🙂 Namaste. Alicia 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
Alicia: 5 Multitasking
Came the day where we had to put everything we had learnt into practice – conducting a FULL ONE HOUR class. Everything that I had learnt and prepared beforehand was going “live”. It sounded easy, following a template, creating a sequence and repeating it out to the students. But man, when I stepped onto the teacher’s mat, everything just did not go as planned. Suddenly, all eyes were on me waiting on my cue, I felt that my internal thoughts suddenly became “louder” and my slightest movement became super obvious. Suddenly, I had to look out if someone seemed uncomfortable in a pose, whether the music was too loud, if the students were still with me, did they seem like they were enjoying the class, did they understand my cues. Conducting a class had so much more than meets the eye. You can plan and prepare your class so much beforehand but things might not always go as planned. Jess asked a really simple question after my ‘class’, “So what did all of you learn in her class today?” And that got me thinking, I was so concentrated on getting the students into the pose that I DID NOT realize why I wanted the students to be in the pose in the first place. Alicia 200 Hour YTT Nov’19
