Christine: The art of sequencing
No matter how many yoga classes I’ve attended in the past 10+ years, I never knew the intricacies in creating a sequence! Learning in YTT the order of a sequence and the types of poses for each has been eye opening. The order of a sequence is usually as follows: Warm Up / Breathing / Sun Salutations Standing Seated Prone Supine Invert Learning this in YTT then reflecting back on all the classes I’ve been to, and then taking classes moving forward made me realise how much goes into creating a sequence for one class. It definitely gives me much more respect to all the yoga instructors who have guided me through my practice, and their different styles of teaching. I hope one day that sequencing just becomes second nature to me and that I will be able to guide my students through their yoga journey regularly. Christine Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Christine: Meditation
An aspect of yoga that I’ve learned to love over the past few months is meditating. In YTT we’ve done different techniques to really slow down our breath and calm our minds. Whether it’s breathing techniques like Nadi shoguns or ujjayi or doing visualization methods, it’s been a great experience learning about the different ways we can meditate. Most recently I’ve been trying the 21 day meditation challenge with Deepak Chopra – the law of abundance. This has gone really well alongside YTT as each day we focus on a different mantra. Many of the theories and concepts presented in this meditation challenge match what we have learned in YTT and it’s been great to intertwine the 2 teachings into one. Meditation is safe for everyone and can really help to relax and calm down during stressful situations. I hope everyone has a chance to try meditation in their own lives 🙂 Christine Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Christine: Becoming a teacher
Ironically, when I signed up for YTT I had no intention of becoming a teacher but rather to deepen my practice…. It’s challenging! When we had to teach our first pose in YTT or go through Sun Salutations, I honestly hated it. I was so nervous, trying to connect what my body was doing with saying it out loud. And on top of that, adding Sanskrit and adjustments. The whole process stressed me out. But when I had the opportunity to teach my first practice class with my friends, I loved every minute of it. Creating sequences for my friends and family has given me so much joy. To guide people through their yoga journey – whether they are beginners or advanced, honestly feels incredible. I love being able to help make people feel more relaxed, relieve tension, relieve stress, and stretch their bodies. The more I teach, the more I love it and I can’t wait to see where my YTT certification will take me 🙂 Christine Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Christine: Inversions
Inversions! I don’t know why but I am so bad at them. Crow, headstand, hand stand, etc. Everyone else seems to make it seem so easy but I’ve always had so much trouble with them…. Hence YTT. I really wanted to learn how to do inversions and figured YTT would be a great place to start. Prior to this, I’ve never successfully done any inversion. So with each day introducing a new inversion pose, I’ve had so much fun learning and trying these poses. A few are: Astavakrasana – eight angle pose Teddy bear Bakasana – crow Baby crow Salamba sirsasana – supported headstand Adho mukha vrksasana – handstand Salamba sarvangasana – supported shoulder stand Pincha mayurasana – feathered peacock pose In these past 4 months, I’ve become more confident and open to trying each pose. I’ve fallen each time and have bruises to show for it but feels great to at least try. Practice makes perfect 🙂 Christine: Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Christine: My yoga journey
I’ve been wanting to sign up for YTT for years – to be honest, I can’t remember my first yoga class, however I got super into it when I was living in San Diego. I would always go to beach yoga on the weekends. Every Saturday and Sunday I would hop on my beach bike cruiser with a yoga mat, towel, and swim suit to attend a 10am class at the park overlooking the beach. It was the best 1.5 hrs of my day… especially shavasana in the sun, and jumping in the ocean directly after. In my 7 years in San Diego I tried pretty much every yoga studio there was in town – hot, acro, aerial, bikram, etc. and it became a daily routine for me to somehow incorporate yoga. When I moved to San Francisco, I still managed to practice often. Hot yoga was much more popular (which I love!) because of the colder weather. And when I moved to Singapore I knew I would finally have some time to commit to YTT. Practicing yoga in Bali was one of my favourite experiences, in the jungle in complete nature, and I knew I wanted to deepen my practice by making the commitment to YTT My friend, Casey is a yoga instructor with similar backgrounds. He introduced me to Jess … and the rest is history! I’m so happy to FINALLY cross this off my bucket list and take my practice to the next level… learning about my body and self and how to teach other people has been an incredible experience and I can’t wait to see where this continues to take me 🙂 Christine Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Athena: Less than a week to YTT graduation – Final thoughts
It has been an extremely humbling experience the past 3 months – going back to basics, connecting with like-minded people and a road to self-discovery. It was more than just about getting the poses, we realised that the final peak poses were just a consequence of our mindset and discipline. Yoga is a never ending journey and we always have something to work on. Our breath is what brings us through. Seeing my YTT classmates improve week after week makes my week full. Very thankful for everyone to be sharing the energy even when we had to bring the class over to Zoom when COVID circuit breaker measures kicked in. Was quite sceptical of having classes over online at first, but it became a blessing in disguise because it trained all of us on our detailed cues. I can see how it made us a better teacher because we have to put in extra cues and effort to make our classes more engaging. We also had to put in more alignment details and cues so that our students know what is going on even though they are not looking up at the screen at all times. Definitely bummed that we did not graduate physically at the studio together with all the YTT friends but this is definitely a start to a longer journey ahead with everyone else in the class. We are that special bunch of YTT class that graduated over zoom! Pretty sure it happens once every century 🙂 As graduation comes near, I can’t wait to officially start sharing my practice with everyone else (apart from friends and family) or with anyone who needs that extra boost or lift from their current state of mind. It’s been a great 3 month journey with TYM, onward to more!! Athena Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Athena: Teaching my 1st class online to my friends
Such an exhilarating experience! Took a leap of faith to do a shout out on my Instagram page and call out for friends who wanted to try out yoga or practice while I lead. I was pretty nervous at first, but if I don’t try I will never know 🙂 It is definitely an experience leading a class of first timers – they are trusting me with their first experience with yoga! Had to tell myself that I come with an intention of wanting to share the goodness of yoga and how yoga will potentially benefit them! Whatever they may feel after that (they don’t want to come for yoga anymore or yes I want more!!), I hope they take away something about themselves from the class they attended. Definitely something I want to keep doing on the side, just sharing my knowledge of yoga with my friends and family. I have seen yoga helped a lot of people struggling with mental health and it is especially important in Singapore where life is so hectic that we help each other stay safe and healthy. Conducting another private class with my bunch of university friends this Friday so hope all goes well! Athena Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Athena: First experience with Yoga nidra
We learnt how to get into Yoga nidra during class recently. To be honest, I had some doubts about the effects of yoga nidra but I definitely experienced the effects first hand. The whole experience of yoga nidra included my body contracting (by squeezing various parts of our body like our palms) and then relaxing. Then it moved on to preparing our mind for it. We had to make sure we don’t fall asleep. It was still quite amazing how my body just got to that state where my mind continues to stay awake but my body is fully rested on the mat. The whole session lasted for about 45 minutes but I thought I rested for only 5 minutes. Really amazing. I started sharing about this technique to my colleagues and even my boyfriend. To which one of my colleague mentioned that when he was serving the nation, his sergeant actually conducted yoga nidra on them to get them to relax. Talk about practising yoga anywhere and everywhere! I got my boyfriend to also download the yoga nidra app we were talking about in class. Oh well, he bought the app because (free credits) and then proceeded to fall asleep 3 minutes into yoga nidra. Well, it’s a start! Athena Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Athena: Practising yoga everyday
I could feel my mind, soul and body changing. It’s my 10th day of doing Yoga consecutively. What I thought would have been impossible to do is slowly kicking in as a habit. Waking up 40 minutes earlier every day and starting the day off with simple breathing exercises and a few rounds of sun salutation has made my day a lot better. I could start to feel the benefits yoga is bringing to my mind, body and soul. There is definitely more to Yoga than just the physical part of it. Well, we all know that theoretically but for myself to feel this, I really want to share this with everyone else. And also for them to experience this 🙂 Flowing with the breath, being present, practising with mindfulness is slowly seeping into my daily life. Has yoga finally transcended into my body? Maybe. I’m going to continue this and see what it feels like. Athena Feb’20 Weekend YTT
Athena: 8 limbs of yoga
We learnt about the 8 limbs of yoga during YTT theory class and I could see how lessons in yoga can be applied to our life off the mat. Just thought to pen down my thoughts about how some of the yamas and niyamas apply to what I am trying to be mindful of in my life: 1) Yama – Aparigraha (non-hoarding) I constantly try to be mindful about letting go of lingering emotions in whatever I do, especially the part about holding on to negative talks. Questions like “what does this persona think of me at work?” or inner self doubt thoughts like “can I really do this?” come to me and I would immediately try to move it aside. It is important that we accept we have these thoughts, but it shouldn’t be tying us down and prevent us from moving forward with life. Sometimes choosing to let go the negative energy and focus my energy on doing my best is the best thing I can do for the people around me and myself. 2) Niyama – Ishwaradpranidha (surrendering control of the situation after trying my best) This is one niyama that I have been practicing and reminding myself on and off mat. Sometimes when we can’t seem to get into a certain pose on the mat and we keep on trying and trying till we get frustrated. I have to remind myself or the people around me that it is important we look at a bigger picture on what we are trying to achieve here. Is it really the final pose or the feeling of achievement we are trying to get when we get into the peak pose. Know that every step forward is an achievement itself. We try our very best to achieve what we want, but life is not a sprint, it is a marathon that requires effort and practice. We need to allow ourselves to be ok with failures to learn and one day, trust that we will be able to reach our goal naturally without having to control the situation by force and hurting ourselves in the process of it. 3) Niyama – Svadyaya (self-reflection) The importance of self-reflection. What makes us a better person is the ability to be able to learn from our mistake and not repeat it again. It is a constant reminder for us not to get sucked into the negative energy when an unfavorable situation arises. Yes, we can harness all the energy to resolve that situation at that point in time, but after the situation ends, we have to take time to reflect and see what happened. Perhaps it is not about the situation sometimes, perhaps we need to reflect on how we responded to the situation and how we eventually move on from it. Do we repeat the same mistake again? Athena Feb’20 Weekend YTT
