Hello friends, yogis, readers, freelancers…summer people…people! 🙂
How are you? Wherever you are, I hope you’re enjoying these summer days and making the most of longer nights and warm sunny days.
As for me, it’s with a rather feverish face and my tablets on the side that I’m writing, today.
Haven’t been writing that much lately, maybe I needed a gentle push, a day off and some forced rest, or maybe this fever is telling me to slow down.
Or maybe I’ve gone from the Irish wind to the Italian sun and back to Manchester way to quickly for my body to process the news.
Have you ever thought about it? A headache, a cold, a week of flu…we cocoon ourselves from the outer world cleaning the respiratory system, the air, our thoughts, mind. It’s a letting go and tending process.
In Ayurveda it is often said that it’s negative mental processes and patterns that are responsible for our weakness or poor health. In other words, toxic thoughts equal body toxins.
And a cold or a flu break the patterns speeding up the toxicity while pushing it out and helping us clearing the mind and the body.
And indeed, could I skip my yoga practice these days? I’ve tried, but I felt bad. You know, I’ve got this nice portrait of Guruji looking down on my mat and myself, a good reminder of how practicing is a healing process.
A quick routine, a gentle bedtime yoga, a morning shortened version, light the candles and slip into my fave leggings and baggy t-shirt. No camera, no rush. Yoga silence. Strong flow.
I’m feeling better. So much better, I’m here to tell you about traveling to practice and practicing while traveling.
Indeed, today, I’d like to talk about my experience at David Swenson’s Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Training that I have completed the last month, traveling + yoga(ing) as freelancers, while going back to the core of our practice.
While traveling? Because the whole training was a journey for many students who came from abroad to Manchester to meet David, and although I live here, it was a journey for me, too.
Brought back home by the yoga practice at the beginning of my Ashtanga love and then there on the mat, in front of the man himself. My teacher.
And as happens with every journey, this also started with thoughts and worries about the unknown, as if we were all getting lost in a new land, a new city.
This doesn’t want to be a scientific report on David’s experience or a review, it’d be impossible for me to even grasp a single particle of David’s journey and light as a yoga teacher. He is yoga. The man is a real example of yoga, on the mat and off the mat.
And for those of you who don’t know who he is, David is one of the first Ashtanga students that went to Mysore (India) to practice with Guruji and one of the first who brought Guruji to the States, the western mats and today’s modern yoga studios.
He was among the first bunch of enthusiastic students who had a chance to walk down Guruji’s shala when there was still enough space and time for a final Shavasana, when nobody would practice yoga except celebrities and those hippies (like my dad) who were travelling back and forth to India (like my dad), when Sharath was just a kid running away from his granddad. Cut it short: David has been deeply influenced by the Ashtanga method and studying with him a real Ashtanga experience.
I don’t know what type of yoga system you practice, but in Ashtanga we have a pretty fixed sequence to learn, memorise and practice. The system was created by Guruji and based on his experience as a student of Krishnamacharya, well this is all the “history according to Sara” that you’ll get here today, guys, so we can move on to the training adventure. 🙂
Indeed, once you’ve learned the basics of sequencing, breathing and counting, the hardest part is about getting the asanas right. And it’s not as easy as it sounds, but it’s surely easier than what one thinks.
Before practicing Ashtanga I tried Iyengar and Power Vinyasa, Hatha and a long list of other pay-as-you-go quick yoga classes here and there that have never really made the magic.
I just think to find a style that works one has to feel a certain “that’s it!” shouting in their head at the end of the class.
So, yes, Ashtanga was my “That’s it!” moment, I don’t know why, but it clicked. And I tried different teachers and classes to test his love.
Ashtanga is not an easy system. It’s the beauty of its simplicity that makes it so clever. And David can do the same: help you through teaching and practicing poses you would not think you can hold, until you are actually practicing.
Just get on the mat and have fun, he would say. And by “fun”, yes I mean his stories and teaching style, enthusiasm and endless love for the practice – and life – but also the fun of the challenge and the sweating. Because you’ve got to love sweating to practice Ashtanga.
What I took away with me after the training was – above all – the awareness of the huge journey I am on.
Mostly thoughts, states of mind and feelings that are all very hard to describe with words, rather than just names of poses or improved teaching skills. I surely feel better about my skills and am I beyond happy of having studied with him, I’ve got a thick file of notes, pictures, selfies and a bunch of new contacts I’m happy to have in my yogic path and practice with, but it’s the unwritten that matters the most.
It’s that yoga feeling.
Breaking down this feeling is not easy, guys. It’s love, struggle, strength, kindness, it’s a healthy balance and a very focussed state of mind. I could say that – at least for me – kindness, strength and compassion represented a big part of the training journey during the time we spent together, both as something I had to practice myself to deepen my understanding of the Ashtanga practice, and as three qualities that I found myself exploring during and after the journey, in a very practical way, while on the mat.
It was with kindness that we were pushed to our limits, a gradual process that was always explained, never imposed. It was strength that I improved and challenged through alignment and practicing and compassion that we practice on the mat as connection, which is everything in this system, I’d add, as there’s a close practicing experience between the students and the teacher.
Now, the questions that many of you – I assume – would like to ask. Let’s see if I’m guessing right!
- Do I need a consolidated personal practice to attend David Swenson’s teacher training? Yes. A steady Ashtanga practice and – above all – willingness to let your ego and fears out of the door. If you don’t have a steady practice you’ll find it hard to follow the sequence and get into the poses, although there will always be someone to help you. But ego and fear won’t help you through the training, they will do the opposite and you’ll miss all the fun of the shala.
- Do I have to be an advanced student or a teacher to attend the training? I would say that being an experienced Ashtanga student would surely help you – at least because you are more independent and aware, so you can also help others as you know what you’re doing. But you don’t need to be a teacher, if you’re attending or planning to, you have to do it because you are craving to study with your teacher, firstly.
- Is that a difficult teacher training? I’ll reply with a quote from Shakespeare: “Oh, teach me how I should forget to think.” In other words, there will be so much to memorise and learn that at the end of the training you will have two options: practice with an open mind and let the experience fill it and change you, or practice with the ambitiousness and rush of the one thinking CV, rather then experience, and, as a consequence, forget everything as soon as the door closes. Up to you.
Now, if there was another great thing that studying with David thought me, was humble, healing, beautiful discipline. The core of Ashtanga and the other thing I wanted to discuss here with you, today.
I’ve mentioned traveling and since I’ve previously discussed about training and traveling, I’d like to talk again about training and practicing yoga when traveling, in a few, concise, steps. So, here are my tips for traveling yogis:
- Get creative; indeed, you might want to use the beach or the park as your mat, for a change. The same works for other training activities. If you’re a weights and lifting lover, try running for a change – unless you’re staying at your usual hotel/club, in which case you might have your usual gym access, etc.
- Get yourself a holiday yoga (or training) routine, it’s good to be mentally prepared to the such changes, so expecting to be training/practicing as usual will just put more pressure on you and your vacations.
- Don’t be hard on yourself. See number 2. If you can’t train for a couple of days – don’ Or do something different: meditate, read a book about yoga, review your notes, etc. Yoga is more than just exercise, there are other ways in which you can expand its benefits.
- Be disciplined and be yourself. I see people going on holiday only to get wasted and throw away all they’ve been working on. I also see more and more people enjoying their time off as a healthy moment of the year during which they can practice and exercise more. Be like this second group. J
- I got a cold because I was working too much, now I’ve enjoyed part of my holidays so far, but I’m not going to spoil the second half! Just relax and tend to your space: clean the house, slow down, enjoy random walks and getting lost, missing buses and taking pictures, sipping coffee and kissing tenderly. Reconnect with yourself and your beloved, find balance and peace, just enjoy the moment. It’s called meditation.
- Join an online yoga class/membership – you can easily find a YouTube channel dedicated to your yoga style, these days. Don’t be afraid to try and practice with a different teacher, it’s fun to see what other people are doing and also explore different teaching styles.
- Stay at a place offering yoga classes or go on a yoga retreat
- Try a pay-as-you-go local yoga class. If you’re visiting the USA or the UK, note that Lululemon and Sweaty Betty are offering free yoga classes at their shops, call the local store or check online for the timetable. If you are note sure about where to find yoga classes nearby, check Yogatrail or simply use Google. I did it on a couple of occasions while I was traveling and wanted to try something different, it’s really interesting as you get to see a less touristic aspect of your destination, while also practicing – maybe – in a different language and new people.
- Practice with your partner/family and turn your yoga routine in a family activity, so nobody will feel left out or that you’re taking time from them. Share what you remember/know or ask them to help you out as your teacher would do, engage them and make the routine part of the trip.
- Wake up earlier and practice while your family/friends are still sleeping. This is an alternative to 9 and also a way to find some “me-time” within the chaos and schedule of a family trip. Maybe your kids are too young or not interested in your yoga practice, maybe your partner is not exactly an early morning person, or simply prefers other sports. If you don’t want to miss the practice, make space for it. Practice 45 minutes instead than 90, or even cut to 30, if you’re really unable to practice more, but try it, at least 2/3 times.
Training on holiday can be about swimming and running or simply joining a fitness course at the hotel where you’re staying, sightseeing all day up and down monuments, museums and markets, running after your kids, playing with your kids. Having the backyard pool all for yourself to swim and practice yoga in the morning. Maybe also hiking, biking or just meditating.
As long as we see it as an activity we like, even photo walks and walking the dog out can become fitness missions. Or maybe it’s just about ditching the desk for a couple of weeks and enjoying a quiet house and early morning yoga.
It’s a breath of joy and relax. A quick smile. Isn’t it? So, don’t make it a punishment, life’s already hard 11 months a year for freelancers running after clients and struggling with rates.
How are you spending your holidays? Let me know in the comments! I hope you’re having fun and as usual, thank you for reading and sharing.
Sara
The Healthy Freelancer 