I have just about recovered from the
madness that was week one of my one-month intensive teacher-training course and
I am ready to go again for week two. It was an interesting week, starting off
with nerves and excitement but I quickly settled into my new surroundings and
as I knew I would, developed my routine. I have found my coffee shop for my
Americano on the way in and my favourite place for lunch- I even know where to
get the best cup cakes, so a very productive week one.
Getting used to a 2 hour practice to start
the day was a bit of a challenge initially, it was strange because I practice a
lot of yoga and would always have called myself a morning person. Once my alarm
goes in the morning I am up and out, I don’t really see the point of the snooze
button. But doing a strong class early in the morning is totally different to
my usual walk to start the day…. On Monday my body wasn’t exactly loving me but
by Friday I actually woke up looking forward to it.
It was a very intense first week but I
absolutely loved it. It was a great immersion into yoga and rather than just
give me a taste of where my new journey is headed it really gave me a 5-course
meal with all the trimmings. Although there was endless amounts of information
and new ideas coming at me all week I just took in what I could and know that
the rest will filter in at some stage.
For me there was a huge amount of learning
in terms of my body awareness through yoga. It is funny, I have been practicing
yoga for years and think I am quite flexible so when a teacher offers the
option of bending your knees or using a prop…. I don’t take any notice and
always presume they are talking to someone else in the class. It’s not because
I think I am perfect in every pose (far from it) but because I have developed
certain habits and norms in my practice so I stick to them without even
realizing that I may not always be making the best of the pose.
We really stripped the poses down this week
and went through them in minute detail, which was a massive eye opener. It
seems my downward dog isn’t exactly perfect after all! For any non yogi’s this
is probably the most common pose and one always felt comfortable with. My legs
were straight, my heels reached the floor, my shoulders were relaxed- yeah I
had this one in the bag! However, when I volunteered myself for this pose I
quickly discovered that I needed to bend my knees and lengthen my stance to
achieve that lovely flat back we all think we have when we do downward dog.
Honestly, I was a little taken aback by
this at first. It really made me realize that it was like driving a car we all
do things a certain way in order to pass the test but then slip into bad
habits. Well as I was soon to learn any bad habits that I had picked up along
the way were about to be highlighted. I won’t go through it pose by pose but
safe to say that I now have a highly intensified body awareness through my
poses which I am absolutely delighted with. Throughout the week the teacher
encouraged us to bend our knees and use props… when people still didn’t pay
attention she made bent knees her only direction and didn’t give the deeper
options. I can only speak for myself but I noticed a huge difference in my
postures. Suddenly the phrases I have heard hundreds of times were not just words
that were passing through my ears I was listening to them, following the
direction and as the teacher was saying feeling the benefits.
So why not give it a go? Try it for a few
days, in your next few classes maybe bend your knees a little. Or use a block…
this is not the easy way out or the beginners option but a tool to assist you
to achieve better results in the pose.
Looking back on the last week it has really
changed my practiced and helped me to understand the focus of each posture and to
realize how important it is to have good teacher who can guide you properly
achieve the best pose or modification of a pose for you on any given day.
That’s another thing, your body will not be the same every day so habits in
yoga don’t work out too well. As I have discovered one day you will have no
problem balancing, another day you won’t be able to hold the simplest balance.
Or you might find one day you can get so deep into your forward bend that your
head is on the floor and the next you are struggling to reach your knees. This
does not mean one day you are good at yoga and the next you are bad… it just
means your body feels and works differently on different days so listen to it
and work within whatever works for you in order to enjoy your yoga practice.
I am carrying this through my day-to-day
life too and not limiting this to my yoga practice. We all have good days and
bad days, and rather than question or analyse your feelings don’t be afraid to
feel them. As I have said many times before- the one person you can’t lie to is
yourself- so use this to your advantage. Listen to how you feel and work
through it whatever way you need to. I used to be really bad at expressing my
feelings, not when I was happy, that was easy but when I felt down or upset and
couldn’t quite work out what it was. I felt I had to hide it, put on a brave
face and hide behind that bubbly smile and friendly persona that people around
me mostly see. But this didn’t feel right, because it made me feel almost false
and that is not me at all. So instead I started to listen to how I actually
felt and just be me- when I am happy great, when I am sad great, when I am
somewhere in the middle great…. Because that is just me.
So maybe try bending your knees in your
next downward dog or in your forward bends, maybe the next time you are having
a crappy day ring one of your close friends and tell them you are having a
crappy day and meet them for coffee or a walk….
I have learned my practice will be
different each day, new days will bring new challenges… life happens!!! and
sometimes throws us off our normal balance but that’s not a bad thing, just
listen to what you feel in your heart and in your body and be you.
‘What lies behind you and what lies before you
are tiny matters compared to what lies within you!’
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