Week 3 – Wrist Work & Arm Balancing
I don’t think I have ever spent 2 consecutive days of practice sessions doing arm balances and poses/drills that require weight on the wrists at a 90-degree angle. The most I have ever done would be practising during the peak pose of a yoga class, which would be like 5-10 minutes at most? The intensive practice of Side Crow/EPK 1/Fallen Angel brought out an issue that I discover now – my palm placement and grip. I’ve listened to teachers telling me to ‘claw my finger pads into the mat’, but I think my lack of awareness of this crucial part led me to having wrist pain for the rest of the week – not to let the meaty part between the thumb and the index finger lift off the ground. If my wrists hurt after that, it means that I was doing it wrong. Got a little confused throughout the week as to how to grip correctly and was observing random yoga videos and googling as well. I have been clawing such that my knuckles might lift off and for a few days I thought that I had been interpreting previous advice wrongly. After clarifying with Jess, I was enlightened on the crucial ‘meaty part’, which is important not to be lifted off the ground. Otherwise, the weight would not be evenly distributed across the palms, but more on the outside of the palms and the wrists – I really don’t want to go through this pain again. I already have enough ailments as it is lol. I also need a lot of work on strengthening my forearms to enable me to hold in my arm balances longer and stronger. My friends ached in their forearms on the subsequent days but I didn’t? That means I was engaging the wrong parts/not engaging at all, therefore my wrists hurt badly from all the weight in the wrong places. I think I also have tight forearms because I can’t flex my hands till a 90-degree angle to my forearm. Pain aside, it was extremely gratifying to be able to transition from Side Crow to EPK 1 and then to Fallen Angel. Milestone unlocked, yay 🙂 Michelle Cheung 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
Applying The Five Yamas to Practice
The five Yamas is Patanjali’s first limb of yoga. They provide details on how we should conduct ourselves and with others as we practice yoga. I find them to be helpful reminders as we tend to forget while immersing deep in the practice. Oftentimes, we would push our bodies past our limits, risking possible injury. Our goal, pride and ego also stands in the way. Ahimsa (non-violence). Not overstretching ourselves while in a pose, and not being hard on ourselves. There are good days and bad days. Listen to the body, and not get frustrated if you can’t nail the pose. Satya (truthfulness). Being honest with your practice, your breathing, and following instructions from the teachers. Basically, do not ignore the truth that your body is communicating to you. Asteya (non-stealing). Each part of the body should have equal energy, avoid overcompensating on one side to achieve a “perfect” pose. Brachmacharya (non-excess). Directing the body’s energy into the right path. Aparigraha (non-attachment). Avoid comparing yourself other high performing students. To respect yourself and understand that you have your own path to take and each practice is a checkpoint to your journey forward. Alvin 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
The Goal of Practicing Yoga
The practice and over-achievement of asanas in yoga seems to be synonymous with the face of modern yoga, which is evident in social media posts of practitioners. Some posts are borderline acrobatics and gymnastics routines. There is even a sense of self-pity and degrading of oneself when we fail a pose. This actually paints a very misleading picture of yoga to the public, the portrayal of achieving physical postures perfectly. And pulling the focus away, forgetting that asanas are merely one aspect of Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga. I am not obsessed with nailing every single pose perfectly, and that was never my intent when I signed up for YTT. I wanted to see and feel what yoga could do to me and in turn offer to others around me. Yoga did strengthen my body, no doubt about it. With each practice and effort that I put in, my body reciprocated and allowed me to do all kinds of amazing poses that I never thought was possible for myself. But I felt that the sense of euphoria from achieving new poses fleeting. Rather, I found solace in the practice of yoga itself. A sense of peace and balance in my mind, body and soul. The development of self-observation and awareness, and the qualitative improvement of physical and mental health. Alvin 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
“Pincha Mayurasana” – (prone)
Forearm stand was the pose I gave when we are asked to name one that we hope to achieve during YTT. I have been trying this inversion pose for the past one year but it has never been stable and I can’t seem to start off the pose without the wall. I grew reliance on the wall such that my legs would look for the wall first before kicking off to find balance in the pose. This is a bad habit of mine that also extends to my handstand practice. I admit I have a stubborn personality which makes unlearning a habit harder to achieve. During the few weeks of intense practice on pincha mayurasana, the skin on my elbow ripped and bled week after week. Plasters and bandages did not seem to help much with the healing as the wound only gets aggravated with the constant practice. For someone like me who has previously suffered from injuries, I am more cautious of keeping the practice safe. I also questioned if over- practising might cause us fatigue physically and mentally. Yet, I do hope to improve on my asana and maybe one day to enter into the pose without relying on the wall for safety. Whenever I need a short pause from my practice, I would often look around in the room out of my curiosity to observe the progress of my fellow batchmates. And I was truly happy for many of them who made significant improvement in their inversion practice with their constant effort. I also feel supported by and thankful to those who have showered with me their encouragement on my practice. Before embarking on the YTT course, I have been mostly alone in my journey of practicing yoga these few years. I met a few acquaintances from some yoga classes but it has been difficult to maintain our regular practice together due to our busy schedules. For the first time in my yoga journey I felt supported by a yoga community and enjoyed progressing as a class. In the past, I used to focus only on myself in the practice and was afraid to even offer my observations on someone else’s practice. Through YTT, the encouragement I received from the community has shifted my perspective. I start to be appreciative to listen to the advice I received especially on my blindspots and to be curious to observe the progress of others while providing feedback necessarily so we support in each other’s growth. So whenever the physical fatigue overwhelms me, I am thankful for the supportive and encouraging YTT team that inspired me and kept me going. And yes, I managed to hold a 15 second pincha after kicking off from the wall during one of the practice! Will continue to measure my progress, but by how far away from the wall I can start with so I can unlearn the bad habit of over-relying on the wall. Evette 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
3 Doshas: Vata, Pitta, Kapha
14 Mar 2021 Even if it may not be scientifically proven, doing the quiz which tells us which Dosha body type I might be, excites me. My results turned out to be being more pronounced in pitta, while having a balance between vata and kapha (similar in scores). This means that I am more dominated in the fire element, which make me innately strong, intense, and irritable. Pitta types apparently have more of a medium build and endurance and gain muscle more easily than other types; and are stronger-willed and competitive. Interestingly, pitta types get more acne, are sensitive to heat and humidity, and gets sun burns more easily. Check, check and check (insert sad face at the acne part). The quiz even tells us what diet is recommended for each of the dosha types, so that it betters our health, energy level or even our mood. While looking through the list, I thinking ‘reduce strawberries and tomatoes??? But those are my favourite!!! Eat more cabbage?? YUCK.’ Jokes aside, I think that doshas may fluctuate or change, depending on many factors such as environment age etc. Just like psychology research, we ask the same question: Is our human behaviour nature (genetic/biological influenced) or nurture (influence of environment; life experience and learning)?? Like many quizzes, or questionnaires out there (i.e., personality quiz), it is good to keep an open mind what the results tell us. It may give us a rough idea on the decisions to make and give us a direction if needed. My takeaway from this dosha experience, is just to eat everything in moderation; to have enough sleep and reduce the stress in my life. To me, health and happiness is most important in life Grace 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
Meditation
13 Mar 2021 – Week 4 Not a fan of sitting still, doing nothing but just breathing, not to mention numbness and cramp afterwards. Week one and two was just followed through as it’s required before the class starts to ground yourself and be present. As the training went on, surprisingly I was looking forward to the morning meditation. During the week four sessions, I could feel and saw myself expanding like a bloated white balloon and lengthening like a sharp pole towards the ceiling. At first I thought something was wrong with my thought and imagining things. It was a good sign, Jess assured me. It was my positive Aura that shine, I have a strong positive vibe that will chase all the bad and evils away! Ha. Must be something to do with my Chakras. 😉 Lianny 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
“Pachimottanasana” – (seat)
Being curious about my identified dosha (well, only 2 out of the 15 people in class including Jessica), I read up on it on google. One of the yoga poses that appeared suitable for a VATA is paschimottanasana. In sanskrit, “vata” translates to “wind” and is characterized by its constant movement and flow. While we can be creative and dynamic, we are also prone to anxiety and worries. Hence, yoga poses like paschimottanasana in a seated forward fold connects us to the ground and promotes a sense of stability and calmness. I figured why I enjoyed yoga that much as compared to other forms of exercises. It is almost the only space that I can dedicate attention to myself and the body. Often I am amazed by how I can maintain my concentration on the present moment during a class. The physical intensity of the yoga poses and the constant awareness of my breathing somewhat disallowed other thoughts from running in my mind. Beside the physical gains from practising yoga, what benefitted me was the mental ability to leave my emotions and thoughts aside and stay focused, which I hardly had the chance to do so in my daily life. Paschimottanasana is also one of my must-do stretches prior to class. Previously, I was conscious of doing such deep stretches before class as I was afraid of potential judgements from classmates (I just do not know how to react properly when people make comments that I am flexible..) I questioned myself but overtime I learnt to feed the needs of my own body instead of my worries of how others could perceive me. Reflection point – nothing to be ashamed of even it means being a minority like VATA and doing what that suits me best. Evette 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
7 Chakras
When I first flipped through my textbook, I had a glimpse of the 7 Chakras diagram. When the time finally came for Jessica to teach about the 7 Chakras, I thought, “Are you serious??”. It piqued my interest greatly and I enjoyed the session immensely. I am a huge animation and comics fan; I watched both the TV series, Aang: The Last Airbender and the Japanese animation, Naruto. Both of which seems to take inspiration of Chakras; and refers to it as is a form of life energy that all individuals produce to some degree, or series of points throughout the body where energy is concentrated. And of course, no surprise here, the characters in the animation series are unable to use their powers if their Chakras pathways are blocked; or dies if they run out of Chakra. Putting aside my nerd moment and coming back to yoga, the concept of yoga is more accurately rooted in ancient traditions of Hinduism but is also found in Buddhism; and it has made it way to spiritual traditions in yoga. Chakra means “spinning wheel”. According to yogic beliefs, the human body has seven Chakras, which can be thought of as intersections of different energy channels. Each Chakra is responsible for our different behaviours and values in life (e.g., security, communication and love). It is also said to regulate various bodily systems and senses. What happens when our energy is blocked in one of the Chakras? Unlike fictional characters who loses their superpower or unable to reach to a ‘higher state’; we might experience imbalances in physical emotional or mental self. If prolonged, we may develop symptoms like anxiety, lethargy or digestive problems and become sick. Different yoga poses stimulate and enables connection to the different Chakras. Perhaps, to become less stressed and more confident in myself, I can focus more of unblocking my Naval Chakara (Manipura) by doing more core work (i.e., boat poses and twisting asanas) to awaken the heat in my body. Grace 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
Talking to Myself
This weekend was the first time I attempted Fallen Angel. Before being able to get into Fallen Angel, one must first enter Side Crow. I still have trouble with stability and stillness in my Side Crow. I even fell on my chin in one attempt. It is still swollen and hurting a little – but it was totally worth it. Shocking myself with a fall was necessary to gain a little bit of confidence. I think it is what made me feel more comfortable leaning down gently into that tripod-type foundation for a Fallen Angel. I hope I can put this sentiment into practice again when it comes down to doing a headstand, or any other inversion for that matter. I found that I talked to myself in my head a lot in practice today. Not that I don’t usually; we all talk to ourselves in our heads constantly. But it was especially so for me today, and I think doing that was what nudged me to put my mind over matter, to stop questioning why I felt so anxious, to erase feelings of self-doubt and to just try. I would stare at the mat for a good minute allowing my brain to process all of the cues and words and instructions and awareness and feelings and “okay you got this you’re fine breathe and focus and just do it”. After some time of letting those thoughts race all over the place, there comes a moment of quiet; a moment of what I can only describe as surrender. It is in that moment I lean into the attempt. Failing was tiring and frustrating, succeeding was temporary bliss. Overall, the entire experience was fun and liberating. The plethora of feelings you get to immerse yourself into each time you practice yoga is one of the reasons why I love it so much. Ramier 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
“Virabhadrasana” (stand)
Reason to embark on such a YTT journey? That was the question that spurred our first conversations in class. It has always been on my to-do list since few years ago, but I have never felt completely ready for it. Am I not physically strong enough? How about those poses which I have yet to master? Am I even confident to lead a class? These doubts hindered my decision to take that leap of faith. My few years of yoga practice came to a point of stagnancy, not in the physical aspects but my relationship with it. Attending weekly classes for a good workout or for a challenge with new peak poses, this has become a routine in my lifestyle and continues to excite me. But often, I questioned myself about the journey and where this journey will lead me to. For one thing I am certain about, yoga has integrated deeply into my life, and forms part of my identity. Perhaps one day I am able to share such joy with others in the practice and create influence? I am thankful that was one of the first questions we were asked to reflect upon. It helps us to revisit our intention so that we keep it in mind throughout the course and let that guide us during times of self-doubt and despair. Like in a warrior pose in yoga, stay grounded so we are ready to charge on. So let’s stay grounded on our intention and identify as we take strides on the journey ahead. Evette 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21
