Yoga is the feeling not a destination
Social media may have distorted so many views of our reality, from our perception of success to the illusion of the perfect life. We spend so much time thinking of living we forget to live. There is an over excess of things we ‘need’ to acquire, destinations we should see, even yoga poses that we want to perfect. Before YTT I would not have thought I would be able to do “crazy” Asanas like Pincha Mayurasana, headstands etc. Yet, I did! Even after having accomplished these seemingly impossible goals, yoga still felt best when I could learn to hold foundation pose longer through my breath. With consistency and self-belief, anything is possible, but we should also learn to enjoy the process and not be too obsessed with succeeding. Although it is fun to experiment and push our malleable bodies to ends of what seems impossible, yoga is all about the feeling to truly be present in moments of our short lives. To love the people we love, consume less, and experience more. Cheryl 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Eat like a Yogi
How can one live the authentic “yogi journey” without taking a month to eat, pray, and love without a vacation to Bali for YTT? Having gone through YTT in Singapore, especially during the pandemic, this has taught me new ways to incorporate yoga, even in my eating habits. Here is what I have been practicing: Going vegetarian 5 times in a week. This practice was a new addition to my routine and has given me more clarity as well as grounded me. Through experimenting with different variations, my cravings could be satisfied without over-eating. Weight loss is not the goal but the side effect. There is an abundance of recipes online on plant-based eating. I made vegan carrot cake and cream cheese frosting one time, and no one could even tell! Going beyond what we have been taught about the food we eat, re-learning and teaching ourselves about nutrition should be a journey. We should all take the time and energy to invest in it. After all, we are what we eat, from consumption of food to media, let this be a reminder to never stop shaking up your snow globe. Cheryl 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Learning how to sit
Many of us would often spend most of our day hunched over and staring at screens, black matte mirrors stare back at us. Such a habit seems almost part of the simple routines that we perform, from making our bed in the morning to driving to work. Time flies by during these small rituals yet we barely pay attention to it. Just how often are we really present in our day-to-day lives while swimming in the mundanity? On my second weekend of YTT, I had a rude awakening to pay better attention to my body. My morning started with breath work and a 20-minute meditation. It seemed easy, sitting and meditating, how hard could that be? Turns out the brain is a difficult organ to calm. So many of us grew up in environments that encourages us to play the game; to chase and attach ourselves to the next big thing. We may sometimes get so obsessed that we forget to acknowledge our surroundings and pace ourselves due to how we were nurtured. As the meditation slowly eased itself to a gentle end, I shook my legs and I could feel the tingles creeping about my feet. My left foot came back to normal feeling in no time while my other leg was still numb. I felt tingles from the bottom of my feet to my knees. Weird. Ten minutes passed, and this feeling of needles and pins was still present, I caught myself staring at my foot to check if it hadn’t turned blue. After a series of frantic google searches I decided to sleep on it. The days turned into a week and I still felt numbness. I grew increasingly worried overtime and saw a physiotherapist. As it turned out my right hip-flexor was weaker than my left. This was mostly likely because while running, I seemed to lean to one side every time. I kept running, unaware of the effects from this bad habit until it was too late. My hip caved, dis-allowing me to perform. This experience has taught me to re-learn things I often over-look for someone who loves to stay active with double gym sessions. An injury from sitting was something that I never thought could happen to me. Cheryl 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Everything, But Not The End
YTT flew past just like that; what an incredible experience. I am definitely not the first to say that I’ve enjoyed myself so very much, the learning, the sweat, the growth, and most importantly, the company. The early weekends and long hours were painful, or were they really on hindsight? I wonder if we will wake up feeling empty on weekends after graduation. I’ve grown to really appreciate this course, not only for the knowledge I’ve gained, but the growth; from a clueless yoga practitioner, to giving the instructions confidently for sun salutations effortlessly, conducting our very own classes, creating our own styles, building our own special rapport with our students, and becoming the unique yoga teacher that we each are. Some bonds were also built out of the class, away from the sweat; many were built upon conversations ranging from the work, food, love and life, while some were built upon sharing the same performance anxiety, same eye for perfection, same nua-ness, same love for the singing bowl and lululemon yoga mat, same taste in red angpow coloured sports bras, and some, same pain of a miscarriage. It truly has been a unique experience, shared with a special bunch and while I’m at it, I aim to savour these moments while they last, holding these memories, and friends, close to my heart. Soo Hui 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Slowing down
As the year comes to an end, it actually feels good to slow down a little before we warm up our engines for the new year. As a typical Singaporean, a civil servant, a competitive person by nature, and an overly-ambitious person who packs her time to the brim from Monday to Sunday regardless if it’s to meet friends, work, watch TV, spend time with family, read, or do yoga – all activities are to be arranged as efficiently as possible. Slowing down is a foreign concept that takes conscious effort. During the Christmas break, I did a slow-moving and relaxing 75 minutes flow online that was completely not my style. In my mind I felt that the flow was too relaxing, and I could not help wondering if I was wasting 75 minutes of my life because I was not sweating it out, unlike most of my workouts that would have me drenched in sweat within 30 minutes. But I had to roll my eyes at myself for thinking that way. I have been so accustomed to the idea that a good effective workout must be a sweaty one, don’t get me wrong, it probably does have some truth to it. But perhaps some workouts are actually meant for the mind and not the body. Once in a while, it is important to slow down, get reflective, get introspective and recalibrate our minds so that our body can function better, and there’s no better time than the end of the year! Soo Hui 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
The lost skill
On YTT Weekend 8, we focused on physical adjustments, which I’ve termed The Lost Skill secretly in my head simply because I honestly think that is what it is. Throughout many years of my practice, I’ve hardly been adjusted physically; most adjustments were done verbally. But to be truthful, it was not something I was comfortable with anyway. The idea of touching sweaty bodies (or people touching my sweaty body) was slightly icky, a little awkward and very much foreign. Due to various controversies surrounding physical adjustments that’s been thrown into the limelight, especially recently, as well as the rise of virtual yoga classes where physical adjustment is simply impossible, and not to mention the presence of COVID-19 and its Safety Management Measures – I had thought physical adjustment was something unnecessary or not important. Yet, this skill itself could very much be a trademark of a good yoga teacher. From our lessons alone, we already know that adjusting someone is so difficult; it’s hard to tell how much strength is too much or too little, to keep both yourself and the student safe, to be conscious of the position you put yourself in and ensuring that your adjustments are appropriate, to continue to verbalise the instructions and give assurance. It really indeed is a lost skill that can take many years of experiences to hone, and a timely reminder that we are equipped with the knowledge and the first step to becoming better at it is to practice what we learn. Soo Hui 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
Keeping the Ego in check
My wrists aren’t the strongest due to old injuries. Yesterday’s practice was actually very wrist intensive. We did 20 rounds of sun salutations (which I completely lost count!), did many jump-throughs, jump back from side crow many times as well as learned the 8-angle pose. And truth be told, I am actually pretty proud of myself for making the conscious effort NOT to overdo the asanas. In fact, I stuck to doing the arm balances only once or twice and simply watched the rest do their thing. To me, observing Jessica teach is also a good lesson! I don’t used to be like this, in the past, I would have tried to repeatedly challenge myself even if it hurts, for very superficial reasons like trying to look cool, or to take a nice satisfactory photo for the gram, or to show off, or to ‘improve’. Perhaps age is catching up, or perhaps Dylan Werner’s message of “getting sharp pains/injuries from overdoing something will instead set us back in our practice” finally got to my brain after so long. It is definitely more important to have a consistent practice, then a one-off strong practice. Soo Hui 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
The Pincha
I started yoga many years back and was attracted to the asanas, especially the arm balances because they look impressive, cool and made me feel strong. Plus, I have always like a little challenge! But unfortunately, I also like shortcuts. So many years back I actually wanted to ‘master’ the pincha, and I did, but… Today, I realised that I had learned the pincha using a shortcut (straps) and although it is not ‘wrong’, and I did somewhat get the hang of it, but I did not activate my shoulders as much as I should, to squeeze my elbows together and build the necessary muscles to execute the pose. I took the easy way out every time, last time, for the gram. But it’s okay, it’s about relearning, and that’s what YTT is for! Soo Hui 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
What it takes to be a Good Yoga Teacher
On YTT Day 5, we spent the entire afternoon dissecting everyone’s homework – which was to each come up with a sequence of yoga poses for a class, consisting of standing, seated, prone, supine and inversion. I felt that I really learned a lot through the sharing – about poses/ sequences that we might not have thought of, but also realised how unimaginative or uncreative we were as I realised most of us thought of pretty similar sequences. This made me realised that it really takes a lot to be a good yoga teacher, one that stands out amongst the rest. You need creativity and imagination to plan an interesting sequence, as well as good multitasking skills (not to mention endurance) to do the demonstration AND talk at the same time. You also need to be considerate and meticulous enough to provide regression and progression poses for different learners or students with injuries. It really isn’t easy, and made me appreciate the teachers for the work that goes into one single class. Soo Hui 200 Hour YTT Oct’20
