One more week to go!

As I sit here, busy preparing for the written and practical exams, I look back on Week Three. I can't help but marvel at the humbling achievements we've all made personally and as a group, and also for the mental and spiritual breakthrough for me.

Week Three was tough, seriously. We began the week happy we've past the half-way mark, felt the helplessness mid-week at the amount of studying, and ended the week tired yet content.

Personally it was about staring at the staggering amount of studying in the face, and knowing all I need do is gather my notes together and do my revision thoroughly. I'm proud that even though I do not know the perfect answers for the questions on poses in the exam, I do remember the moment I paid attention in class, and I'd know where to find the information here and there.

Physical breakthroughs made our confidence. Week Three witnessed my major breakthroughs: enough core muscle for a supported head-stand beginning and enough shoulder and back muscle to come up to a full back bend wheel. My group mates also achieved poses that they set as goals for themselves at the beginning of the course. I am truly humbled and grateful that I have trained, put my body to the test, and have been rewarded.

Spiritual-wise, I've come to a stage of full understanding of the Philosophy of yoga. For a long time, I felt that the accepting nature of Yoga meant peace, calm, but also the danger of lethargy and lack of motivation to better oneself. After much pondering, I accept what I can of my new knowledge, keep what I have of my original belief, and declare my stance and explain it should you ask about it.

Week Three was about putting the jigsaw pieces together and seeing the big picture. Just in time for the final week.

This last weekend marked the end of the 3rd week of our 4 week intensive YTTP. It was a time to reflect back and to take stock, both in body and mind, of the progress/change/evolution that may (or may not) have taken place for me over the last 20 days of my life:
Days 1 thru 4 - I could barely produce a decent chaturanga.and I was almost entirely focused on bringing my body back into yoga shape, strengthening my core, getting my alignment right, building stamina to be able to get through two 90 min and one 60 min session per day with 6hrs of asana workshops in between. Very much a physical focus.
By the end of the first week - Lighter in my step, lighter in my vinyasanas, beginning to have fun on the mat, even though muscles were sore.I began to realize how little sleep my body was able to function on and how the energy that I was creating within my body was actually far greater than the energy I was expending. Beginning to harness life force beyond just oxygen and fuel.
Then, as we moved into Discussion Groups on the philosophy behind the practice, things started to take on a whole new dimension..the one that Dennis and Lawrence Fishburne/Morpheus had warned us about..the one where once you know/feel, becomes near impossible to deny. So here, at the end of Week 3 and embarking on the last leg of this short term journey that is the 20 day programme, I am finding it very difficult to divorce what I have learned at the studio from my everyday life. First my body, then my intellect and now my intuition have been exposed/awakened to a simple set of universal truths and processes. Being Hindu, I suppose I always knew of them, but the fact that I now ?know them', is making life feel a little like a 3-D movie (although in yogic terms, that would be 6 or 7-D, I suppose). For example:
I went to see a classical Indian concert with my family on Saturday evening by world reknowned percussionist, Zakir Hussain and 5 others, each playing different classical instruments.
Each musician took his turn to play a solo and began his individual set with a set of slow, deliberate notes in repetitive patterns with nothing fancy to punctuate the flow, just honest, hard work. This prelude would go on for a good length of time, and it was in that commitment to deliver the perfect sequence over and over again, that the music began to tell the story of the years of effort and commitment, or tapas, that the artist must have put in with his guru (Indian musical training, as in yoga, is also undertaken with Guru as Guide).
The pace would then hasten, chords would become more complex and suddenly but seamlessly, the lone musician would be producing sounds that one might have expected from a quartet. His hands would begin to move so fast that they were becoming indistinguishable from his instrument and you had to choose between focusing on this with awe, or on his face, with that serene smile and clear connection to bliss - so that now the audience was experiencing both awe and bliss.
Once each musician had completed his individual set, some would play in pairs - and here you could see how the connection between the two was not through scripted music (there was none) and not through improvisation (they were not jamming, but playing precisely the same note, simultaneously, on vastly different instruments) but through a channel of energy that they had built between themselves.and then with us, the audience.
The concert culminated in the 6 musicians playing, not as an orchestra, but as One..not playing the same notes now, but rather playing in such perfect Unity that the tunes of one flowed into the other like water and fire, earth, air and space coming together to form a complete universe of perfect sound. If I can ever claim to be Enlightened, I think this may have been the moment.late Saturday evening, when the house lights came up and I saw the yoga in the music and the universe in yoga..

Oh my god, time flies, only one more week left! I cannot believe it. All our asana workshops are replaced by teacher workshops and discussion groups. There are a lot of inputs this week. Learnt a lot of yoga philosophy, teaching skills and assisting technique.

I have just notice that I have not wear makeup and high heels for three weeks now. Not to mention shopping. I am ground to earth, I do not care about what I look like, and I do not care about what people think I look like. I guess I am just focusing more about myself rather than what others think about me.

The yoga philosophy is actually difficult, because it's something new and different for me. I took a lot of time to digest all the information as well as to understand them. I learnt about I am the universe and the universe is me. Happiness is what the universe wants from us.

I realize that using prop is very helpful. I am so scared of inversions, especially which requires my head upside down. I never have the confident to do bakasana, as I am so scared that I might break my neck. On Friday, I put the bolster between my head and the mat, which makes my head really close to the bolster. Amazingly, I can hold my bakasana, which is fantastic. It's actually the highlight of the week.

We're at the half-way mark! We've completed all 20 Asana Workshops, which really means, asana poses beyond count.

Week Two is about getting beyond the physical workouts and coming to terms with reading and learning. Sore muscles are no longer an issue; it's time to get some serious reading done. It was the week of anatomy pop quiz and baby steps in teaching poses. It was the week of ?By now you should know this'.

Personally, it was about tidying my notes and making sense of my own scribbling. It was about the great self-discovery that I could now do certain poses that I previously could not do. It was also about pacing, being aware and taking care of our bodies, especially when this course is so intense that any severe wear and tear can literally put you out of the class.

So week two was really learning this truth the hard way. As much as I want to have enough core muscle to do this and enough flexibility to do that, I can only really do so much and leave the rest for time (and gravity). While I am proud to say that my body is still all intact, I did learn my lessons. Earlier in the week, I over-stretched my right hamstring in trying the monkey pose. So imagine my frustration now that I am flexible enough to bend to a straight left leg but not a right. And I learnt what muscle fatigue was: I actually over-exerted myself and the fatigue resulted involuntary muscle spasms, twitches and cramps.

Today is the first day since the course started that I did not practice at home and did not do any exercise. I can only do myself the service of resting my body sufficiently so the twitching will die down and I'll be in good shape to work it out again on Monday.

Hint: the tibia is the long bone in your leg that is connected to your toes. The other one is the fibula. So remember T for toe and you won't get it wrong.

The class with Vincent was a fun change. The dynamics were different. Also the switch of rooms was a welcome change. I don't know about the others but it felt brighter and fresher in the Kappha(?) room. Also, I feel slightly depressed when I see the Macau ferries in view, that's why I always stay on one side of the room where I can't view Shun Tak.

This week, after the Monday boost, it felt that our group's morale is running low. All of us felt aches and pains in parts of our body. Mid-week I felt really sluggish no matter how much I tried to perk myself up. Both my wrists and arms hurt the rest of the week and I've got this nagging back pain too, albeit from one of our Asana workshops where we practiced our backbends. I've always had a weak back from lack of core muscles, so that's my primary goal - to develop it. We all felt beat and battered and my guessed is Wanda noticed it as she was gentle and forgiving in some of our Vinyasa class. Nevertheless, we were all looking forward to Friday. Not so fast though...

Thruthfully, I really find the Discussion Group Chapters too much. This weekend, all I did was read them, but I still didn't get pass Chapter III. How am I going to read them all for the next 10 days I've no clue. I'm starting to panic and slightly frustrated as I feel that I'm running out of time. I wonder if it's only me that feels this way? Did my other classmates finished it all up? Time to ask tomorrow.

Am I looking forward to tomorrow's class? I'm not so sure. I really didn't get a break to re-charge and all that. But I'm excited that we'll be starting our teaching class, time to test what I've learned for the last 2 weeks.

I came across Yoga Limbs' 20 day intensive teacher training course just a few weeks before it was due to begin and enrolled the following week, a day after I left my job in finance. I had been training with a personal trainer for some years at a gym and enjoyed yoga and pilates as a compliment to that regime. It was not until the end of Day One, however, that I began to seriously question whether I was mentally or physically prepared for 4 hours of flow practice and 6 hours of asana workshops daily. I went to bed that evening utterly destroyed, as if I'd been hit with a tranquilizer gun.

My classmates and I returned to the studio the next morning, somewhat defeated to say the least, and that second day was spent literally going through the motions, trying to keep our chatarangas above water. It wasn't really until Day 4, close to the end of Week 1, that the magic of yoga began to reveal itself in each of our bodies. Personally, that was the day that I began to physically feel a fresh crop of blood flowing through my muscles, experience a new energy and lightness in my vinyasa and actually visualize the functioning of each of my organs and the movement in each of my joints as if I were a computer generated image in a documentary on anatomy!

This was also the day that our first meditation exercise, one that actually lasted 20 minutes but only felt like 5, made us realize how far we had come in such a short time on our metaphysical journey.

By the close of Week 2, as expected, much of this euphoria has mellowed in to an acceptance of the fact that not everyday will witness a breakthrough. As the practice becomes more vigorous, my body has certainly yielded to pain and fatigue that has ultimately caused pain (wrist, shoulder, knee, you name it). As the 3rd week begins, however, and I scan my body and mind to assess my progress, I remind myself that for change to happen, one has to push at the outer edge of comfort.and watch that edge expand and widen. With that in mind, I'm looking forward to the change that takes place over the next 10 days and to carry that forward into everyday life.

Week 1 didn't turn out to be as bad as I thought it would be. Admittedly, I expected the worst - with my physical abilities at least. I thought I will just be massacred and would made an expensive mistake. I was proven wrong. I feel my body responds to the three Vinyasa sessions a day, quite positively to my absolute delight. I cannot believe I'm eating healthy too and finding myself not reaching out for a salty snack which has been the staple of my "diet". And thanks to an early start, I had to learn how to eat breakfast on the correct hour - in the morning!

W is for Wanda, and Wanda is wonderful. A real well of knowledge, I am absolutely amazed by her physical and mental abilities and her dedication to Yoga. But most of all, by her genuine empathy and kindness to us all. I am grateful that I am given the privilege to deepen my practice under her guiding wing.

Dennis is the Big Daddy - strict and funny. I like it on how he takes care of us all - keeping us in the straight and narrow. And providing yummy food too.

I've got no complains, but (hahaha, there's always a "but") I wished I got my hands on the manuals and notes a little early so I'd have more time to read it ahead. I must admit, the quantity of the reading materials overwhelms me. There's too much to digest and finding it hard to find enough time at night to sink it all in in my tiny brain of mine.

Welcome to the world of intensive yoga teacher training. The idea is to complete a 200-hour course within four weeks. So here I am, having completed my first week, having gone through three yoga practice sessions and two workshops everyday during the past five days.

Day One, I went home sore, tired and demoralized. Working out (and falling over) amongst a class of advanced yogis certainly didn't help. Worse yet, our instructor showed me how my alignments were improper but were somehow never corrected. As a result, many of my poses were actually incorrect. It dawned on me that my previous two years of yoga practice were literally in vain. Even my most basic standing and sitting postures needed work. And I'll be ready to teach in four weeks' time, are you kidding me?

Well, it does get better. By day Three my body has adapted and I don't feel sore anymore. Everyday I find myself sitting deeper, twisting further, and standing firmer. I've also learnt some anatomy and teaching skills along the way. Our instructor Wanda is Wonderful, encouraging, and far more knowledgeable than any other teacher than I've ever had.

My advice for any interested yogi is to come with an open mind. Yoga is about peace and non-violence. So look to others as role models, not competition. Having other yogis join in our practices and workshops mean more student input and sharing. Be happy, friendly and make new friends. Us four girls laugh, sweat and encourage each other everyday. Also, prepare to devote yourself to the course. Make use of spare time to improve on your weak areas - do lunges during TV commercials, wash your dishes in tree pose, do twists before you go to bed. Dedicate your weekends to revise your notes, read and meditate.

Yoga, after all, is our own personal practice. I may weigh only 89 lbs, but never mind me; I'll be working my way. The practices and workshops will only make us better. Best part yet: this course comes with Lunch.