My Yoga TTC this weekend

I spent Saturday on my Yoga Teacher’s Training Course.  Every time I go to class, I just feel so blessed to finally be putting into action all the years of work that I have done since first shyly slipping into the Sivananda Centre in London.  All the pranayama, all the early mornings, the fasts, the dedication.  I’ve not been a perfect student by any means, but I am dedicated and truthful in my search and I think that this is what matters most.

This weekend we lost a member of the group.  We began with 12 and are now 10.  It’s normal for this to happen.  Even one weekend per month – plus plenty of homework I might add – is a heavy addition to some people’s already hectic lives. We all come with our baggage, and our perception of how well, or not, we might fare on a four-year-long course is coloured by all this.  I remain surprised at how many of my fellow students still smoke – uh, what??? but, yeah, this is Spain – and how many have little experience of Yoga before committing to teacher training.  As I working masseur, I know how hard it is to put into practice what you learn on these sorts of courses.  I may be wrong, but I believe that of my graduating class of 20 proud masseurs back in July 2002, only I work full time in the field. So, as for the Yoga teachers, well, I wonder how many of us will get through all the course. I don’t mean to be smug by any means.  I too may face unexpected circumstances and flounder and fail.  But nothing is a failure if you’ve learnt something along the way and I have certainly learnt a lot so far.

This week we covered Ashtanga Yoga, book II of Patanjali’s Sutras, verses 28-end.  We talked about Yamas, Niyamas, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi.  What they are?  How can they be applied to daily life?  How mastery of one leads naturally to the next.  Of how small steps give way to tiny moments of clarity, increasingly long moments of concentration, paradigm shifts, sloughing off of the unnecessary.  All very interesting, absorbing, philosophical and yet practical, just as is Yoga itself.    I am recording everything on my new site alteayoga.com , but it’s all in Spanish.  Sorry, but I don’t have time to make it bilingual for now!  Anyway, I can’t wait for next month!  But I’d better get my homework done this time…no sloping off on work placements and educational talks about MLD…for now!