Translating lessons from the mat into real life
This follows on from my last post about being patient about yoga poses. I can safely say that I am less fussed about not being able to nail yoga poses because that I know with practice and patience, I will eventually get the pose. Why can’t I translate this lesson to off the mat? How do I translate this to real life? I have been feeling very down about my personal life as of late. Many things weren’t going the way that I wanted it to be, and I thought that I would be more successful than I presently am at the moment. I keep trying to force things to be a certain way when they aren’t meant to be. Like trying to bend a metal rod when it’s not meant to be bent. I’ve learnt many lessons from my yoga practice, and now I need to learn how to apply them in the other non-yoga aspects of my life. I need to be patient and appreciative of where I presently am in my life, and not feel frustrated when things don’t work out the way I expected them to. I need to believe that there is a time and place for everything, and with hard work and diligence, good things will come my way. Namaste, Lyssetta, @yogi.lys
Reflecting on YTT
YTT has been an absolute journey – physically and mentally. I remember the first week of YTT – my body had never been pushed so much physically before. It was well worth it though, as I started making breakthroughs after breakthroughs. I never imagined that I would improve so much so quickly, but it goes to show how the human body can change in such a short period of time! I learnt so much about my body as well. I knew that I always had hunchback (kyphosis) but I didn’t know that I had lordosis as well, and pronated feet. Probably my biggest takeaway from YTT physically is being more mindful of my posture and learning how to correct myself. Now I try to stand and sit up straight all the time, and I am noticing more frequently whenever my back is starting to round. In fact Jessica had warned us that our backs may start to ache due to us readjusting our alignments, and true enough my lower back started to ache in week 4 of YTT! I’ve learnt so many lessons on the mat that I want to translate to real life. Executing certain asanas has taught me to be appreciative and content with where my practice is. Trying to nail certain asanas has taught be to be disciplined and patient with myself. Teaching classes, while absolutely nerve wrecking, has made me feel more confident in myself. I came into this YTT hoping to learn more about yoga, but I learnt so much about who I am and my personality. This YTT has reinforced in my mind that yoga is so much more than the physical postures or looking good. Practicing yoga has made me a more well rounded individual which I am eternally grateful for ☺ Namaste, Lyssetta @yogi.lys
YTT Teaching Week
YTT teaching week has come to a close and it has been the most memorable week of them all. Firstly, I don’t think I have ever subjected my body to such a level of physical intensity. I clocked 20 hours of yoga classes in the past 5 days, from attending my YTT classmates’ classes. Definitely a record! Secondly, it was definitely an experience having my friends come into The Yoga Mandala and teaching them yoga. My first class was just to my YTT classmates and one close friend, who had prior yoga experience, so I set the class at an intermediate level. For my second and third classes however, I had more of my friends come in to attend the classes and even though I knew them all personally, somehow it made me really nervous! I still remember Jessica asking me before my third class (which had the most of my friends attending) why I was nervous. I said it was because I knew my friends had come down to support me and I wanted to give them the best class I could. It was also my first time teaching to beginners, which I found more difficult to teach than to advanced practitioners as you really have to break down each pose to its very fundamentals. It was a huge test of my teaching skills and I had to remember and give all the verbal adjustments for each pose and ensure that they were doing them correctly. At the same time, you have to be patient, and not get frustrated when the students do not get what you’re trying to say. Teaching week was a very memorable week for me and I am so appreciative to everyone that had attended my class. It made me feel very loved knowing that there were so many friends that wanted to support me in my yoga journey and it has definitely inspired me to be a better instructor! Namaste, Lyssetta @yogi.lys
Patience and all is coming
Being one of the considerably more seasoned practitioners in my YTT course has given me the rare opportunity to teach my fellow YTT classmates about certain poses. Rare because I hardly consider myself as advanced in any way! One day after YTT we were working on asanas, and someone got frustrated because she wasn’t strong enough or flexible enough to nail the asana. It reminded me of when I was at that stage of my yoga journey and wanted to be able to do poses NOW. I would end up feeling very discouraged that I wasn’t strong enough, flexible enough or I just couldn’t get the mind-body connection required for the pose. After a while I realised that yoga isn’t about instant gratification, its about the journey to the pose – the diligence, discipline, consistent practice and the patience gained – which makes the result all the more sweeter… Now when faced with a difficult pose, I’m less worked up about not being able to get it right, because I know that with practice and patience, it will come in time. Namaste, Lyssetta @yogi.lys
Should we bend our knees in Uttanasana?
I was teaching my Dad Surya Namaskar A in preparation for teaching week. As I know he is super inflexible, when it came to Uttanasana I just rattled off on autopilot, “bend your knees until your belly touches your thighs”. He asked, why? I knew the answer had something to do with lengthening the spine. However, this doesn’t apply to me. Whenever I’m in bent knees Uttanasana, I don’t feel like my spine is lengthening or that I’m stretching out my lower back. Hence Uttanasana feels more like a hamstring stretch to me, which is fine, because I love stretching out my hamstrings anyway. But then I wondered, why not just do Uttanasana with straight legs? So I went onto google to find out why, and surprisingly discovered that apparently the (online) yoga community is very divided about whether or not to bend your knees in Uttanasana or not. When you bend your knees in Uttanasana, the hamstrings become slack, which relocates the stretch to your low back. By bending your knees you are able to gain more mobility in your pelvis, as the hamstrings are able to relax, and the pelvis can tip forward. But some websites have stated that stretching the low back can be problematic as most people have very weak back muscle, and stretching a weak muscle leads to greater weakness and instability. I don’t know what the correct answer is, so I don’t really have a conclusion to this – except that its fascinating to read different viewpoints on yoga poses and that teaching my Dad has made me realise the importance of questioning why do we do each thing for every asana. Namaste, Lyssetta @yogi.lys
Yamas and Niyamas
The practice of apariagraha is of non-hoarding, of non-attachment. Its not only material things that we let go of though, but it also about ideas, people and places that we hold on to, act possessively towards or hoard. This clinging onto something or someone is a barrier to freedom. This would probably be very applicable for me with regards to clinging onto my time spent in the UK. When I went back to London a few weeks ago I sometimes felt miserable and hated myself that I wasn’t good enough to get a job to continue living there and instead had to come back to Singapore. I loved life there and my entire trip there I kept thinking “I want to live here so much”. I was holding onto the idea that my life would be great if I could move there and live there and as a result felt like a miserable failure. This probably links quite well to the Niyama Ishvara Pranidhana, which means surrendering to the fact that you cannot control everything in life. Isvara Pranishana can be seen instead of fighting against life’s twists and turns, we remain open to experiencing life as it unfolds. I only have a vague idea of how my life looks like for the next few months and this worries me sometimes, because I like having plans and knowing what I’ll be doing. But I think I should just learn to take things as they come and appreciate being in the present moment. Namaste, Lyssetta @yogi.lys
