My Yoga Journey: A Day in the Life
After posting two photos on social media, I have been pleasantly bombarded by my friends who are impressed, excited, and curious about YTT. Even though I still have two weeks left of the course, and perhaps a few more weeks and months until I can get into some final poses, I wanted to draft them a candid email of what life has been like since I’ve retreated into yoga bootcamp. We start out with breathing exercises every morning which is actually quite difficult for me. It’s hard to quiet the mind and it’s tough to actually sit still for so long and not move. My legs will go numb, my back will hurt from trying to sit up straight, and my shoulders hurt from being forced to not hunch. It’s perhaps the most exhaustive sitting there is! By the time the trainers instruct to “take your three last breaths”, I’m breathing a sigh of relief. However, I’m glad we are being pushed to do this because breathing exercises are such an important element of yoga. Pranayama is the 4th limb of yoga and goes hand in hand with physical practice. Iyengar says, “The yogi’s life is not measured by the number of days but by the number of his breaths.” Perhaps one of the fascinating things I heard on the very first day of yoga was that the ancients realized there is a correlation between one’s rate of breath and longevity. A dog breathes at the rate of 20-30 times a minute and lives a life span of 10-20 years. While, a giant tortoise breathes at a rate of 4 times a minute and lives a life span of 150 years. Lowering the breath rate reduces the load on the heart and keeps it going for more years. Are you interested in learning more about pranayama yet? Next up, we go into our asanas. Asanas are the 3rd limb of yoga. On any given day, we can be doing the full sequence, a combination of teaching and sequence, learning proper alignment, strengthening our core and arms with major abs and push-up work, working on challenging poses like pincha and backbends, and on and on. I have always considered myself athletic but I am a hot mess with my shirt plastered to me by the end of sun salutations in our non-air-conditioned room. We need to practice without the aircon to help our body stretch and lengthen and lower the risk of injury. Even though I look like I’ve been caught in a downpour, I have noticed that I stay more focused and feel more flexible. Plus, a little sweat gives you some much needed extra assistance to glide into some tricky poses. The hard work we put in is intense! But day by day, we don’t spend more than a few minutes in each pose. It’s interesting that all you need is a few minutes a day to slowly build up strength and muscle memory until one day you magically get into these superhuman poses. I like to think of my niece Avery, when I get stuck. She just turned 1 years old and is starting to stand on her own – what started out as only 1-2 seconds is now a fairly stable 1 min stand. In a few weeks, she’ll start to take her first few steps. It’s going to feel hard because her legs haven’t felt movement and pressure like that. She’ll be wobbly, she’ll fall, and it’ll be tough but at some point through her daily practice, she’s going to learn to walk. I like to think this is the same process we are facing as we work on the more advanced asanas. Practice and repetition make perfect and we will overcome what seems impossible now. I’m encouraged by how much I’ve grown and I understand what I have to do to work on my limitations. Physically, I’m limited by a soft core, kyphosis, knee issues, and weak arms but this is all things I know my body will overcome. Mentally, I’m held back by my fear. This will be harder to overcome – I feel safe in YTT to push myself. It’s quite an amazing feeling to see yourself do things that scare you, to win mini battles every day. It’s encouraging to take those steps forward, even if some days, you take a step back. I may not learn everything in the next two weeks but I’m confident I will if I keep working. There is a short break after physical practice before theory. I have been pleasantly surprised with theory. It’s been a crash course in everything! The amount of information being crammed into my brain is very much like being back in school. It’s exciting to be learning such varied topics from charkas to kriyas to karma to anatomy. It is information overload but it has definitely piqued my interest in doing more reading and self-study into some of the topics after the course is over. It’s also wonderful to know how well equipped and well-rounded a yoga teacher I will be for my future students. The depth and legitimacy of the knowledge we are learning is vast and great. Perhaps, the best part of YTT is how much of a bonding experience it is to go through it with other people in my class – both with the lead trainers and the students. We were all just strangers three weeks ago, but now I will be genuinely sad to not see these girls every day. Everyone in the class has different strengths and weaknesses. We are each the best at some things and struggle with other things. We help and encourage one another. You root for each girl as she goes up to teach her part of the sequence. You greet them with sleepy smiles in the morning and share excited, well earned high fives after practice. Everyone has prana or energy and I have to say, the prana that
My Yoga Journey: What makes a good teacher?
Tadasana, uttanasana, adho mukha shvanasana, virabhadrasana – three weeks into yoga teacher training, flowing through these asanas every single morning has become quite a comfortable routine. However, when you are tasked with stepping up to the front of room and have all these eyes staring back at you, your mind draws a blank. Suddenly you’re not sure if you have to inhale or exhale, if the right foot goes back first or the left foot, or how to count your breaths. As we learn the techniques and elements of being an effective teacher, it’s been interesting to note how much we have to work on soft skills. What makes a great teacher isn’t the same as what makes a great practitioner. You don’t have to be most flexible person in the room or be the best at headstand. Although that will definitely help to impress and establish credibility with new students, it is more important that you understand things like eye contact, tone of voice, pace of speech, confidence, and facial expressions. There are small yoga studios, big yoga chains, classes at gyms, youtube videos, and DVD’s…how can you possibly draw people in and make them pick you? How can you convince someone not to go to the free classes at their gym or give up practicing in their pajamas at home to YouTube videos? You aren’t inherently offering them anything new. You will still be doing the same sun salutation and although there are many different asanas and ways to sequence them, you aren’t reinventing the wheel. So what sets you apart? Soft skills. Those elusive intangible qualities that yoga teacher training at IHA yoga is making tangible. Think about upper management in a company. Most are usually very personable and command attention during a meeting. Even if you don’t know who they are, you can sense they are someone important as soon as they walk into a room. This same theory can be applied to lots of other professions. For instance, the best lawyer is not necessarily the guy who graduated with the highest test scores, but his ability to debate persuasively will win the case. And what makes the jury perceive he is a better debater? His eye contact, the tone, volume, and clarity of his voice, and his disposition. Same goes for a politician. President Obama’s political resume was by no means super impressive. In fact, he was only a US senator for three years prior to running for President of the US, but he is a gifted public speaker. In my opinion, his soft skills were a major reason he was able to win the vote of so many. His presence, confidence, and ability to articulate himself clearly and thoughtfully, led the country to believe he would be a capable and smart leader. When you begin to teach yoga, you have to apply the same philosophy and command the room as soon as you walk in. If it takes someone just seconds to draw a first impression of you, you have to remember your disposition and establish your presence as soon as you enter the studio. Then you have to be mindful of your facial expressions, the tone of your voice, how you carry yourself, and how you interact with people throughout the class. It’s not so much what instructions you give (although that is important too), but how you deliver it, the organization behind your thoughts, and how effectively you can communicate it across to ultra beginners who are clueless or advanced yogis who have seen their fair share of teachers. People form their opinions based on their five organs of knowledge or essentially what they can gather from their five senses. Thus, they want to see a teacher who is composed and making eye contact with them. They want to hear a warmth and confidence in your voice as you speak instructions. And they want to feel an instructor’s competency and ability to lead. No student is going to want to come back if they feel disconnected from you because Flexible Fiona and Handstand Heather are among many, many others who are waiting to step in if you aren’t an effective teacher. I can tell you that through our introductions into teaching so far, I sure don’t feel confident yet but I will follow these cues to strengthen my soft skills. T-minus two weeks to make it happen! L. Cheng (200 Hour Hatha Vinyasa YTT)
阳光总在风雨后
学习瑜伽的第二个礼拜过去了，我发现自己在老师的指导与帮助下有了提高，自己的手臂比刚来的时候有力了一点，so happy…谢谢你们！学习的过程中虽然有点幸苦，但是感觉到的却是我们大家都很开心，我们的老师也很幽默，总是把我们从“痛苦”的边缘又拉了回来。感觉这里的教学方式挺灵活性的….真的不错，相信这里以后一定会更好的！ –student liuying
Be free. Be mermaid.
“We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing? (136-137)”― Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras Today I was sitting besides Lillian as Jess taught us on how to attempt Pincha Mayurasana. Neither that I had the experience to hold a Ardha Pincha Mayurasana for than 5 seconds nor I had attempted to do Pincha Mayurasana on the wall. Surprisingly, hardly any effort at the first attempt, I managed to lift myself up against the wall. Inside myself I was not quite sure how I managed to do it. When I was preparing to take off from the mat, I heard a voice from one year ago…. “Press your hands against the floor, eyes gaze between palms. Slowly walk your legs towards your chest until you feel the legs are weightless, then squeeze in your muladhara and slowly lift yourself up against the floor.” That was Jess teaching me headstand one year ago when both of us were students.:) Fast forward 1 year 8 months later,as I was doing a wall assisted Pincha Mayurasana and somehow my brain decided to retrieve the memory of instructions from one year ago. Lillian asked me how do I lift myself so gently? I simply shared my experience with her and after that she pulled it off gracefully☺️. Better than me I would said. There were some attempts that I failed to execute the pose due to fatigue but sometimes I could pull it off. But I found myself soaked with immense joy when my fellow friend can do the pose after I shared the method. It brought my memory back to the first class when Jess shared some quotes from Bhagavad Gita. “Yoga is knowing that all things are connected and we are all connected.” ”Being surrounded by fellow Yoga practitioners to be nourished with love.” I felt that way today. Even though most days I feel like I’m dugong. But today inside my mind, I see a mermaid. A state of mind. Allow me to quote my fellow classmate, Lindy’s verbatim, “Hopefully we’ll all find our special style in teaching and be fabulous like this special mermaid we know :)” (6/6-Completed) Wendy Loh 200 hour Hatha Vinyasa YTT Course(28 Sept-30 Oct 15)
My Yoga Journey: Halfway Point Anxieties
As I approach the halfway point of yoga teacher training, I feel a bit of anxiety. It’s already been such a great experience so far but I’m worried about accomplishing everything I need to graduate. When my mind isn’t daydreaming because my Vata dosha is dominant, it is constantly buzzing with thoughts. I do realize that all the worry in the world, can’t stop something from happening and likewise, all the willing in the world, can’t force something to happen either. But I still can’t help myself. The reason I began my yoga journey and signed up for YTT was twofold. One was to learn the piece of yoga that isn’t about the practice, but about a state of mind: how to use pranayama to help me relax and how to open up my chakras to achieve balance in the body and mind. The other was to challenge myself and do something that always seemed interesting but I was scared of. True growth and really living life, means doing something that scares you once in a while. I’m not saying I’m adding bungee jumping or climbing Mount Everest on my to do list after teacher training, but learning to do inversions to further strengthen my asanas as a practitioner and embracing public speaking as a teacher are non-life threatening fears that seemed realistic and important to conquer. I knew dropping into yoga classes was no longer advancing my practice. Most classes are too big for teachers to actually put your body into alignment. And whenever we would get to the part of class where they allowed us to practice crow or headstands, I would sit out and watch. In the first two and a half weeks of class, I now understand how the body should feel in proper alignment in poses – where you should feel the stretch, which part of your body is compressing, where the gazing points are, and how to deepen into the ultimate goal of the final pose. Since I am not as naturally flexible, I know there may be 2 or 3 months of work before I can do a split, compass, or bird of paradise, and that’s okay. Inversions and arm balances are another story and fear can be debilitating. I have a huge fear of pitching forward onto the ground in a pose like crow, and also a fear of falling backwards from an inversion like headstand. I have managed to take some steps forward when I know the wall is there to catch me but I don’t know how I will fare when I move away from it. On the other front is the teaching part. I’m not terrified of public speaking but I don’t enjoy it. I remember how nervous I would feel before any presentation or interview. I would even try not to eat or drink too much for fear that I would get sick. Public speaking is challenging on its own, but on top of that, you need to give careful, detailed instructions while moving through the poses, keep count of breaths, maintain eye contact, and adjust students as well. How do teachers make it seem so effortless? In practice, I have already felt myself stutter, apologize, and giggle. All teaching don’ts! Yoga was something I started to do because it helped me relax and now, as I try to hone my craft and become better in order to help others, I can start to feel the stress creeping back. It will be interesting to see how the next three weeks go as my body becomes stronger. Can I quiet my mind and strengthen my resolve that I can do this? Perhaps focusing on grounding my root chakra will help. The root chakra or muladhara is the first of seven energy centers and is associated with earth and grounding. When this chakra is balanced, you feel calm, balanced, and secure in our place on earth. When it is unbalanced, you may have feelings of aggression, insecurity, impatience, and worries about our basic survival. While I don’t have aggression or impatience, I definitely have insecurities and worries about my “survival” in YTT. Standing or grounding postures can help unblock and balance this chakra. I can perhaps help my anxiety by practicing poses that strengthen muladhara such as malasana, warrior II, or tadasana. In addition, I can also focus on seeing red and saying the “lam” mantra during meditation to bring awareness to this chakra. Thankfully, YTT has been an incredibly amazing experience so far. I have two supportive, knowledgeable teachers who gently coach me through the poses. Even though I still can’t achieve many of the advanced asanas, I am never rushed or pushed into doing something. And because the class size was kept small, I have been surprised at how quickly I have bonded with the other girls. Even though it’s sometimes still scary to get up there and speak, it’s not daunting. I am amazed at how far I’ve already come in the first half of my journey and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next half of the course will bring. I can only send positive thoughts to the universe, practice my root chakra poses, and ujjayi breathe my way through it. L. Cheng (200 Hour Hatha Vinyasa YTT)
WHAT TO TEACH MY GRANDMA
One day, one of the greatest violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin decided to learn yoga. Because Menuhin’s schedule was so packed, Iyengar has only 5 minutes to teach yoga. And a wild guess what asana did Iyengar teach Menuhin?? Savasana! The five minute session stretched out into three and a half hours as Menuhin felt rejuvenated listening to Iyengar’s instruction. And when Menuhin mentioned that he was almost constantly tired, was never really able to relax, and was unable to sleep, in less than one minute Iyengar apparently had him dozing and snoring gently away for the first time in days! The two men formed an extremely close friendship which lasted until Menuhin’s death 47 years later in 1999. Fast forward to 2015, here I am, learning yoga at IHA. So if I am to teach my grandmother yoga and she only has an attention span of 5 minutes, what will I teach? I will teach Tadasana. My grandmother is also a dominant Kapha. She rarely moves. She is big and has bowlegs. Moreover her age is catching up, she has difficulty in walking. Tadasana strengthens the abdomens and legs, also reduces flat feet. Muscle awareness is vital in this posture, especially inner thighs and hips area. Moderate tension in these areas can increase the muscles, which in turn helps prevent injury. Moreover, as you lift your chest by opening your rib cage, you are increasing your lung capacity, strengthening your intercostal muscle as well. That’s all for now. I’ll let you know again if my grandmother can hold Tadasana for 5 breaths! ☺ Wendy Loh (5/6) (200 hour Hatha Vinyasa TTC 28 Sept – 30 Oct 2015)
Bonding
Waking up for early morning class is so hard. Frequent insomnia or nightmares are not helping the situation. The crowded and super slow train rides every morning is an awful drag. The thought of unfinished assignments or a painful right ankle also add to this heavy baggage every morning. IKR. I’m such a grump right? Well, the grumpiness ends once I step into Iha. Maybe it’s after the first hello or good morning greetings I exchange with my fellow yoga classmates. My morning is immediately filled with happy conversations. Everyone is so nice and fun to be around with. We are super different, we look different, dress different, speak different accents (and languages), different careers, different nationalities, different strengths and weaknesses, different horoscopes, different dorsha and different ages. It’s really wonderful when sports activities bring people of different walks of lives together. Tough workouts and embarrassing practical trainings can become so fun because of this great friendships build over a short two weeks. It’s week three now. Lessons are still very tough but in a diverse way now. I’m looking forward to making more embarrassing mistakes with them. Hopefully we’ll all find our special style in teaching and be fabulous like this special mermaid we know 🙂 L I N D Y
自己的感觉
我是一个零起点的学生，刚来的第一个礼拜，感觉自己还没进入状态，感觉自己跟不上，手的力气又不足，然后就很灰心，不知道自己因该以怎样的心态去坚持！但是我的老师，她们从来没有放弃过我，一直鼓励我们，你们是可以的，相信你自己！我很开心，现在我也渐渐的在坚持中找到了乐趣，因为他们是不会轻易放弃任何一个学生的！而且我还感觉到，在这里，每一位学生的进步都是这些老师很开心看到的事。IHA Yoga真的很不错，谢谢这里的每一位老师，你们辛苦了…. liuying 学生
My Yoga Journey: Go to School!
About 1/3 of the way into my 200 hour yoga teacher certification, I’ve already learned more than I have in my year of casually dropping into yoga classes. The amount of work I have put into my Adho Mukha Svanasana or downward facing dog, has been a workout in and of itself. Prior to IHA yoga, I had very little body awareness. I used to think of downward facing dog as a resting position and just hang out upside down. I have kyphosis, an abnormal curve of the upper spine which gives me a slight hunchback. Therefore, to get into the correct position, my body really has to work. I have to lengthen, lift, and push my body into that perfect, upside down V shape. Hips have to be turned toward the ceiling, while the head is reaching for the floor. I must remind myself to depress the shoulders away from the ears, turn elbows slightly towards the back of the room, and keep lengthening the spine. As a hopeful graduate and future instructor, I looked into yoga certification regulation in the US because I have heard that initiatives to regulate have failed in many states. There is no broadly accepted official certification process although many studios and schools do seek accreditation from the Yoga Alliance. The Yoga Alliance is a non-profit membership trade and professional organization for yoga teachers. It was created in 1997 to bring some consistency and set guidelines for teacher training programs. Graduates of Yoga Alliance Approved Trainings can register themselves as Registered Yoga Teachers or RYT. However, because there is no standard regulation, some employers care about RYT and some do not. There are some yoga instructors out there that may not be registered or certified at all. There are a healthy number of sites that offer you the ability to become a yoga instructor just through online testing and/or training. I found a site online that upon completion, awards you an “expert rating” yoga instructor certification. You too can become a yoga teacher for $69.99 on one site or after following 21 hours of video on another site. This is problematic. Even though yoga doesn’t require you to work on machines or lift heavy weights, it for sure isn’t risk-free. Just like any other exercise, it can be quite dangerous if approached haphazardly and without understanding proper alignment or appreciating how much study there is to practice safely. Inexperienced yogis need detailed instruction to understand how to get into a posture and make sure they are holding a pose correctly. An experienced teacher keeps you safe and can adjust you so that you don’t risk moving the body in a way that can cause injury. Intermediate or advanced yogis can risk injury as well if their alignment is not corrected or if there is improper warm up. Prior to IHA, the number of times I ever warmed up my joints before a yoga practice was zero. It was eye-opening how many teachers skipped this step because it is essential. The amount of pressure we put on our joints when we hold asanas is tremendous. Plus, warms ups are necessary to strengthen the joints and increase their mobility. For example, without joint strength in your wrists, it will be easy to injure yourself when you practice inversions or hold your body weight in positions like astavakrasana (eight angle side angle) and bakasana (crow). The likely injuries from yoga are quite serious and can take a very long time to heal. Even the non-physical part of yoga, like meditation and pranayamas may seem relatively straightforward, but are far from basic. Many people believe that breath work is a completely safe part of yoga. However, pranayamas can be dangerous if you are not correctly educated. Who knew that doing more than 120 breaths of kapalbhati breathing could deplete your love hormone? I don’t think my boyfriend wants to find out what would happen if I went over the maximum suggested amount daily. There are some breathing techniques that are dangerous for those pregnant (kapalbhati can cause you to miscarriage) or those with a cold or cancer (nadi shodhana can move active virus or cancer cells throughout the body). Those with hypertension should avoid suryabhedan as it will increase your blood pressure while those with low blood pressure should avoid chandrabhedan as it will lower it even further and put you at risk of passing out. So do yourself a favor, the next time you take a yoga class, read the little bio of your yoga instructor on the website. Many who complete a training like one that is registered with Yoga Alliance will say so, and if not, look to see how many hours and where they have honed their practice. Yoga is a beautiful workout that strengthens your body and mind but is far from simple. Practice safe and practice smart. Lillian Cheng (200 Hour Hatha Vinyasa YTT)
Am I never gonna reach that yogi’s level of zen-ness?
Disclaimer: I hope this post doesn’t sound rude. I have my upmost respect to these masters and their beliefs. I think they are smart and forward-thinking people who developed a wonderful exercise which benefited so many generations. I really believe in the goodness of yoga poses and the benefits of meditating (calming, lower blood pressure, remove toxins). Here’s my blog of the day: Sometimes, meditating and visualizing your image reminds me of this: Are there any very good yoga practitioners or instructors who aren’t spiritual? The spiritual part of yoga is difficult for me to grasp. I am too practical and I need to see, hear and touch to understand (or believe). Sometimes, feeling it is also not enough for me. Nothing to do with my religion (coz I’m also struggling with the spiritual part when it comes to god and science), I just find it hard to study blindly without a deeper reason for everything. Some things I’m learning sounds like my grandmother’s superstitions. So today, I started researching on other yogis who faced the same problem as me. Apparently, there are many. There are also many organization that teaches yoga poses but the spiritual and history parts for theory are completely different, they adopt a new-age approach which they believe is relevant to modern day’s science and beliefs. I think everything makes so much more sense now. Namaste! Lindy Tay, Student
