YTT '19

It has been a couple of months now since I arrived home after an intensive month Yoga Teacher Training course in India. I had all intentions to write a post as soon as I got home, but I seemed unable to find the words... I guess I was still reflecting on the whole experience and as a whole, my yogi journey.

A year ago, I was spending a lot of time tucked away teaching myself Yoga via You Tube tutorials, and now I am officially a Yoga Teacher, guiding students through their first sessions.

After falling into a black hole of mental health, I found light through Yoga. At the time I wasn’t sure why. I originally approached it as a way of exercising, having been dosed up to the eyeballs on Beta Blockers which put a stop to any previous running. It made me feel good and it became the highlight of my day.

When I started going to classes I was nervous to take my quiet self-practice to something more public. I was lucky to have fallen into the arms of a beautiful studio meeting friends for life. I found my confidence, and I began to see a real change in my Practice. I began to plan my journey to become a Yoga Teacher and where else to go than the home of Yoga; Mysore.

At first I think everyone thought I was mad, I had gone from struggling to make simple trips to the Supermarket, to booking a solo trip to India. It was my goal, to prepare myself mentally and physically for October 2019. I absorbed books by the likes of B.K.S.Iyengar and T.K.V Desikachar. ‘Light on Life’ became my guide – not just to Yoga, but to life.

I didn’t feel nervous about the trip, deep down I knew this was something that I had been leading to, something I was so passionate about and that made sense in a world where a lot of things make me feel lost.

And so after some emotional farewells, feelings of anticipation and excitement, and a suitcase packed to the brim – the long trip to India begun.

The journey from airport to the Ashram was incredible, a blur of colour, intensity, vibrancy and noise. I felt almost a frustration that I couldn’t just stop the bus to explore, my camera feeling heavy in my pocket!

Arriving at the Ashram was surreal, seeing it in real life after all those months of glancing over the Instagram posts and incredible drone videos on you tube. This would be my home for the next month.

I was one of the first to arrive which my social anxiety side was grateful for, allowing me time and space to settle into my surroundings before I would meet who I would be spending the next month with.

I could write pages and pages about my time in India, but it almost feels sacred to me. I think it’s why I hadn’t written thus far, when I went to write I just paused, unable to sum up my time. So many lessons learnt, so many emotions, challenges, memories made and adventures. This trip was mine, something I wanted to do, something I had saved for, booked, planned, worked up to and trained for. There are no words that can summarise except I felt exactly where I should be.

The month was intense, a combination of Yoga lessons, philosophy, lesson planning, pranayama techniques, an introduction to Ayurvedic food and meeting fellows yogis from all over the world who have become lifelong friends.

I was lucky enough to be in India whilst the celebrations of Divali began, an explosion of colour, lights and fireworks to see out our last weekend, followed by an incredible banquet of delicious food served by our wonderful teachers Rakesh and Arvind.

Since arriving home, I threw myself straight into teaching upstairs in the Café that I work. I love working with students and challenging myself daily. My aim to teach was never for it to become ‘my job’ or the thing that defines me, it was to introduce others to the practice that saved me mentally.

Now for a little trip down a picture memory lane through India, Part 1 of many (many) snaps!!