B L O G

  Time flies so incredibly fast when you’re having fun, learning new things, and growing as an individual. It still feels pretty surreal to already be at the tail end of the course. I don’t want it to end, I want to learn more! But of course, I have all the rest of my life to do that. This is my first but definitely not the last YTT course that I will attend. Someday, I would like to be able to complete a course for pre/postnatal yoga, yin yoga, as well as ashtanga. One step at a time. When I look back on the last couple of months, I can say that I feel like better version of myself now. I like her more. I have definitely gained confidence, even if just a little bit. It feels liberating to have even an ounce more confidence and strength and belief than I once did. I have become more kind and patient, and most importantly, calm. COVID is a devastating, unexpected event that barged into our lives unannounced and unwelcomed. Being 23 is lifechanging, it is the age where one figures themselves out, their lives, their passions and ambitions and how to get to them. They figure out what it means to be loved and to be a part of society, figuring out who they are. For me, it feels as if any blueprint that I had in mind, my plans, my goals and the trajectories to get to those goals have been burned by the hands of this pandemic. It is as if I woke up one morning to the news of some evil energy that had sprinkled gas and lit a match on the sight of my near future. It is scary. But through all of this I have done innumerable hours of thinking – about the rest of my life and about how I want to fruitfully spend it and I realized it is just that. I want to spend it fruitfully, doing what I love, with whom I love, in places I love. Making people happy. I just want to be happy meaningfully; I am not too bothered anymore about being some big shot millionaire (that’s an exaggeration but you know what I mean). I am excited to not only teach but to continue learning and expanding my knowledge and wisdom as a human being, for whatever it’s worth anymore. I have made amazing friends and connections in my batch and am grateful to have met such lovely people. It also was an honour to be taught by Jessica who is so well versed and knowledgeable and intuitive and wise and realistic and honest and kind and loving. I am forever thankful.   Ramier 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21

Jessica reminded us that we were already at the halfway mark of YTT. Time had just flown by too quickly! This post shall be a quick reflection upon my experience in YTT thus far. As mentioned in my post for Week 4, my ability to so full inhalations have improved greatly when I had a revelation on breathing through my diaphragm. I have also been able to breathe more naturally during yoga flows and pole without reverting back to my natural tendency of holding my breath. Also, knowing how ‘forgetting to breathe’ is potentially a problem when doing something difficult or strenuous, I am actively applying this knowledge when teaching pole classes by reminding my students to breathe through the more physically demanding parts of stretching, conditioning and pole tricks. To their own amusement, they have indeed subconsciously been holding their breaths as well. Another thing I have come to notice is that I am now finding it easier to do up yoga sequences. Coming up with a sequence at the start of YTT was really nerve wrecking for me as I used to find it so difficult to do. At this point, coming up with a sequence takes between 20-30mins. Understanding what each pose does and what engagement certain peak poses require really made sequencing a lot easier to do. I must acknowledge that I have come a long way in this aspect, and will continue to practice sequencing and expanding my yoga asana dictionary in order to keep improving. Practice does make progress. Melissa 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21

This week, we started learning to do physical adjustments by pairing up with our classmates. I am pretty comfortable with doing physical adjustments as this is similar to spotting in pole in general. That said, there is still a major difference. The main difference for me is that we were only to use 10% of our strength to do the adjustments as our main aim is to GUIDE students into better forms in each pose, and not to manipulate or force their bodies into it as they may end up sustaining injuries. In contrast to this, when we spot and correct students in pole, safety of our students is definitely our utmost priority. Therefore many a times, we do have to exert sufficient strength while spotting students, especially in newer tricks or tricks that they are unstable in, to ensure their safety. This is a difference that I have to consciously bear in mind when doing physical adjustments in yoga. We also started to walk around while giving cues for sequences in class. Even though I was very comfortable doing this in pole, I still don’t feel comfortable enough to do this well in yoga. While I feel that I have improved from the very first time we gave cues for Sun Salutation in YTT, I am still having some difficulty giving cues without doing the sequences myself. It will take much more practice for me to be able to do this comfortably. Melissa 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21

  1 & 2 May 2021 Completed the teaching assignment. Feel very relieved, alot to improve on, from sequencing, style of teaching to verbal instruction and getting used to teaching while wearing a mask!!   Due to the current Covid development, for the safety and social distancing, YTT management has cancelled the community classes, only allowed to teach with our fellow students. Classes were restricted into smaller groups, we were not allowed to move away from our mat with a mask on for the entire teaching session, no physical adjustment was allowed too. These add on to another level of challenges for a beginner like me.     Big thank you to Jessica and my YTT class mates that give a lot of constructive feedback and point out areas to improve on ??   Lianny 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21  

  I remember Jess telling me once that I am a huge control freak, mainly because I freaked out whenever I was doing inversions and did not like the feeling of being “weightless”. This actually got me thinking and I realised there was a level of truth to it – my personal fear of being “out of control” in situations often left me worrying about every single thing that could possibly go wrong. Over time, I have come to learn how to trust myself and my body, and letting go of that fear/control has seen me through multiple breakthroughs on the mat – something I hope to apply to my personal life as well!   Celynn 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21

  Teaching my first community class last week was such an eye-opening (literally) experience. While I have experience teaching group fitness classes, teaching yoga felt like a completely different ball game. A lot more attention to detail was required as every individual’s body can go into and hold a yoga pose so differently depending on body structure and limitations, level of strength and flexibility, degree of body awareness, etc. Sometimes it almost feels as though there are too many things to try and control while teaching a class, but I am learning how to be more composed, patient, and ultimately improve my skills as a teacher so as to give students a good experience when they come for class.   Celynn 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21

  My fear of arm balances (more specifically just crow pose) surfaced close to 2 years ago due to a failed attempt leaving me falling over forwards. Besides the fear of falling flat on my face, I also had a crazy fear of my wrists snapping upon falling forwards…I struggled with this pose so hard I even remember telling Jess this was the goal pose I was trying to get out of YTT (although she did tell me to pick something else because this was too easy). So after weeks of intense practice (the bruised on my triceps will not go away), guidance and encouragement from classmates and Jess, I’m so happy to finally achieve a breakthrough with this pose! I finally got over my psychological barrier and this pose no longer scares me – am so excited to continue improving and exploring different crow variations now!   Celynn 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21

  I’ve never understood why people rave about meditation – the mental clarity it supposedly gives you, the power to calm your mind, and how “refreshed” you would feel after it. I’ve used meditation apps in the past to help me sleep better, but YTT was the first time I properly and “more actively” tried meditating. I remember my first attempt at meditation leaving me feeling so uncomfortably with my legs all numb and tingly. It honestly felt terrible and I could not have been more distracted by the feeling (or loss of feeling) in my legs. Over the course of YTT, I have tried multiple “tactics” to get better at my meditation practice – these included focusing on my breath, repeating positive affirmations to myself, concentrating on the background music, etc. I still struggle with this, but have also  come to realise that no one “tactic” will be a sure work as the mind and body feels different every single day, and you just have to focus on what feels best for you then.   Celynn 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21

  As someone who grew up playing competitive sports, I naturally transitioned into picking up a higher intensity fitness lifestyle upon entering adulthood. Like stretching exercises done at the start and end of workouts, I found yoga slow and boring – why waste precious workout time moving so slowly when we could be doing higher intensity exercises to burn more calories? My warped measure of a good workout was based solely on the number of calories burned, how sweaty I got, and how breathless I felt – measures I previously thought only a HIIT workout could satisfy. Over the past few weeks of yoga training, I have slowly come to appreciate this discipline, and the level of strength and control it entails. I’m now a convert (and dare I say I enjoy this more than my HIIT classes) and enjoy practising and tracking my own yoga progress!   Celynn 200 Hour YTT Feb-May’21