Day Seven. One Week in Yoga Teaching Training... Seems Like Forever.

We all more or less have gotten used to our daily schedule. Rising early to start our day with Mr. Praveen for two hours of ashtanga yoga. Then having an hour for breakfast and recovery after which we run back upstairs to learn the theory of the postures we are doing in the morning class. That class is also with Mr. Praveen. We learn the benefits, the limitations and the ways to teach the asanas to our future students. After that follows the last class before lunch and our day time break; the yoga phylosophy class. It was taught by Mallika, a lovely 65 year old woman, at the beginning, but we have been getting a member of the ISCON, Iternational Society for Krishna Consciousness, teaching the history and the phylosophy of a true yogi in the past few days. A lot of the things we are learning is pretty heavy and not necessarily everything I agree with, nonetheless, it is very interesting. The swami has been bringing us some food from the temple everyday, which has been delightful each time. It would always be a main course, served in little bowls made out of banana leaf and some sort of desert. A great way to cross over into the afternoon! :)

Then we all do whatever it is that allows us to relax and recharge for the second half of the day; laying down, napping, eating, listening to music. Whatever it may be though, we all have been squeezing in some studying time, because the workload has been quite intense. Not only are we learning the different asanas (postures) and how to properly do them but we are also learning the names of those asanas in Sanskrit. We also have been singing opening and closig prayers during our classes. Can you guess what language those are in? Yup, some more Sanskrit. So yoga and its components is not nearly as simple as it may seem from the side. It's all very involved. We have two more classes in the evenings. The first class at 5pm, is the Asanas Adjustment class with Mr. Ramesh. Here we perform the different asanas and then learn ways to teach each other and how to adjust our future students the correct way. The last class of the evening is Anatomy and Physiology with Doctor Sham, who is a real life surgeon and a professor at different Universities here in Mysore. His class has been the best way to finish off our long days. Dr. Sham always brings an air of comfort and confidence to our group, as well as making us laugh while learning, which makes for a very enjoyable experience. So at around 7:30pm is when our school day officially ends. Then we all rejoice over dinner and usually discuss the things we have learned or talk about silly things to get our mind off of everything for a moment.

So although this week went by pretty fast, it seems like much more time has passed. It must be because how much we are learning. It's all very concentrated since we only have one month here. It is getting easier in a way because the schedule isn't new anymore and a routine has been set. Also my body has gotten used to the physical load put on it during the practice because at the beginning, every muscle I have was screaming with pain. Now, I feel stronger, my flexibility has greatly improved and my mind has been opened to quite a lot of interesting ideas. So all in all, it can only get better! :)

If anyone has any questions, wants contact information, or just to share any experiences, please don't hesitate to contact me! :)