Day 42: First week of my yoga training

First week at my 200h yoga training on top a mountain in the Indian Himalayas.

It’s now my 6th day at the ashram and officially day 4 of 21 on my 200h yoga training.

Arriving to the Abhayaranya (fearless expression) yoga ashram was like arriving to a secret Shangri-La piece of paradise.

From Rishikesh I took a taxi up the mountains following the mighty Ganga river for about 20min. 

Suddenly the driver pulled over to the side of the road. "It's up there", he said and pointed towards a little opening in steep jungle hill on the other side of the road. "Oh.. okay", I responded very hesitantly. It was a tiny hiking path and it was very steep. With my 30kg of luggade it was a workout to say the least. I used the timer of my watch to hike 5min and rest 5min at a time. 

Finally I saw the gates at the top of the slope. The sun was shining in my face at the perfect temperature, and the sound of birds was mixing with the sounds of holy chants and a calming stream of water.

The entrance to the ashram at the top.

At the center of the ashram grounds there was a big sacred Bodhi tree, under which I sat down to catch my breath. I felt ecstatic. This is exactly the kind of place I have dreamt about. Immersed in nature with incredibly beautiful birds and trees covered with monkeys, this place feels like an old holy mountain monastery. 

The sacred Bodhi tree at the center of the ashram. In the distance at the end you can see the large dining hall.

I'm here to do a 200 hours yoga teacher training, which is more like a thorough introduction class/training for yoga, than learning how to teach (although we will do some of that later on). And what we in the west think is yoga, which for most is the physical movement of different postures, is only a small part of what yoga actually is.

---

How my days here look like

So here's how EVERY day for 21 days look like (except for our two off days after week 1 and week 2):

At 5.30 there's a very loud bell ringing for several minutes waking up the whole ashram. We start the day with a yogic nasal cleansing where we pour a whole clay pot of warm salt water into one nostril and out of the other. This is to clear and improve the breathing.

Then we chant sanskrit mantras which I find is a great way to wake up the body from the vibrations within and puts you in a quite meditative and focused state.

After that we have half an hour of pranayama - breathing exercises - where we each day are taught and practice different ways to control our breath and affect our prana = the body's vital energy. 

The breathing is followed by 90 minutes of Asanas, which is what we in the west most often refer to as yoga. The asana teachers are all male and incredibly good. The first week we're mainly doing various stretches to fully open up the body and make it more flexible. 

At 09.00 it's time for breakfast, which at this point feels like lunch since we have already been active for so many hours.

Since it's an ashram, we sit on the floor on two sides of the long hall facing each other, and the most delicious vegetarian food is served on a metal tray in front of us. Afterwards we clean our metal tray, metal tiny bowls and metal glass outside in a long continuous stone sink along the outside wall of the dining hall building.

Inside the dining hall.

The long stone sink just outside where we clean our trays and bowls.

After breakfast it’s time for Yoga philosophy. The teacher here is the only female staff member at the ashram and the head teacher. She has an academical PhD in Yoga (how amazing that this even exists!). Here we talk about the ancients scripts like the Vedas and the Upanishads and the Yoga sutras, and in general the yogic lens on life and consciousness.

Then it’s time for Yoga alignment & adjustments - my favorite class! The teacher here is incredibly good, one of the best teachers I’ve ever had, all categories! The most remarkable thing about him is that he is young, but his energy is one of the most composed, confident and wise kinds I’ve ever encountered. He is honestly a big inspiration for me in every class, and after every class I walk up and ask him questions. In these classes we are so far learning practically how to walk, how to sit, how to stand, and of course how to do various postures correctly. 

Here’s me asking Nitish a question again after the class. :)

I have so far learnt that the reason my shoulder blades hurts so much every time I try to sit up straight without back support is because my chest muscles are very tight and my shoulders are bending forward, probably from spending so much time in front of a computer with a bad posture. I’ve also learnt that I cannot sit cross legged for very long because my ham strings are very tight. These are the two main physical restrictions I will work extra on throughout this training.

Before lunch we have 30min of a break where there is also a chance to get one-on-one time with the different teachers. 

At lunch once everyone is served we chant a mantra before we start eating.

After lunch we have some space for ourselves to chill a bit in the sun and to study the books we have gotten. I started reading the book on the yoga sutras (four chapters on freedom) which is basically a guidebook step by step in four large chapters on how to reach non-duality/enlightenment/oneness. Very exciting.

In the afternoon there is Yoga anatomy class where we so far are learning about how the body is built and how it is functioning. All the education is really thorough and detailed, which I like because it gives us the deeper understanding of exactly why and how yoga is good for us.

Anatomy class in the yoga shala. Feels like being back in school again!

Then it’s time for another 90 minutes asana class of stretching and strengthening the body, followed by a 30 minutes meditation session where we each day learn and practice different meditation techniques.

In our Asana and meditation classes we have our fixed places and this is how the mats are organized.

After that at 19.30 it’s dinner in silence, we’re back in the room by 20.30 and at 21.00 it’s lights out.

At 05.30 the bell rings again and it all starts over. 

---

The group and the grounds

When it comes to the group I think it’s a lovely group. 

Everyone seems quite committed and eager to learn. I guess if you take yourself all the way to such a remote place like this (India itself is not the easiest place to travel for many), it already filters out quite a lot of people I guess.

We’re 20 students from literally the entire globe, every continent is here. We are four men where I am the youngest. Johannes that I share my room with is a 42 year old German eye doctor that seems quite experienced in yoga and has done a shorter version of this training before. 

Then there is the super friendly Adi from Nigeria/UK, and lovely Chetan from India (but whose family lives in Sweden!) who’s been in the Indian army for 20 years commanding over 1000 soldiers. Both are very experienced and have done yoga for a very long time it seems. 

The girls vary a bit in age but I’d say most of them are in their 20s. People from Mexico, Bolivia, Colombia, US and Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany and Belgium. Everyone seems really nice, friendly and easy going. 

Some are here to become actual yoga teachers, but most are here just like me for spiritual purposes and/or to just deepen the understanding, motivation and commitment to their own yoga practice.

The teachers I would say are really really good. And extremely committed. They are literally devoting their lives to this teaching as they also live up here on the mountain all together in a house next to the ashram. I’m amazed by how confident, secure and competent they all are even though many of them are quite young. 

I don’t know how these trainings are in other places, but you can sense that this is holy for them. It’s serious and sacred. They are here to serve. This is not a job or a passion, it’s way more for them. It’s a devotion. 

Then there’s also the guru of the ashram which is the founder, who is a bit older but still relatively young. In one of the breaks each day we have a 30 min Q&A session where he is sharing his wisdom.

You can tell that they have made an effort to make the training a bit more secular to be more accessible for westerners, but the spirituality very much still comes through.

The grounds themselves consists of a main front-desk/office with a library just next to the big sacred Bodhi tree. There are beautiful gardens on different plateaus (since we’re on a sloping mountain), and a temple with an everlasting fire (it never goes out). All the cottages are on different levels above the gardens, there’s a cute little café and shop, and a quite large dining hall. And of course the yoga shala where most of our classes are, except for when we’re outside. 

Here you can see one of the garden plateaus with some cabins in the background and the temple on the plateau above. And me doing a downward facing dog at the other end. :)

Inside the café that is also a shop for some ayurvedic teas, snacks, etc.

View from just outside the yoga shala (you can spot the tea corner to the right) up towards mine and Johannes cabin (the one in the front and center).

The rooms are super nice! And you can literally lie in bed and look out on the mountains.

---

So how do I feel about being here so far?

Arriving here in the beginning I felt ecstatic about being here. Such a wondrous place and setting. Everything I dreamt about and more!

The feeling carried over into the second day but from day 3 it’s been quite challenging.

It’s an incredibly intense program and the whole purpose of the first week is to open up our bodies. As many men are, I am very stiff, especially in my hamstrings, chest and hips. So 3h per day of intense asana practice of stretching and bending out the body in ways it has never been stretched before resulted in a fair deal of pain (the good kind from when the muscles grow in length, that everyone seems to experience to some extent).

Also, in all the classes (total program is 10h per day) we are sitting down, mostly cross legged. As westerners our bodies are not used to this and it causes a lot of pain too. And for me the shoulder blade pain that I mentioned has been completely killing me. After a while it becomes a mental challenge.

The days here are lovely climate wise but the nights and mornings are quite cold so we need to heat up the room and the yoga shala with warm air heaters which make the air super dry, so simultaneously I have gotten a very dry throat and struggle to breathe whenever I lie or sit still.

And with the bell ringing at 05.30 in the morning I am not getting enough sleep (for some reason I am struggling to fall asleep at night), so I feel a bit like a zombie at times. 

All of this together have made me quite low the past few days and it’s been difficult for me to be myself and to engage much with the group.

But I think it started turning today! I think that we now started to land in the rhythm of the days here, my pain has started to ease up a bit and we had the first class outside in the sun in the garden overlooking the mountains which was amazing.

Another thing that I knew would be challenging and that I’ve been battling with a bit these days is ego, but I am very proud of how aware I’ve been whenever it got triggered and how I have manage to handle it. 

With ego in this case I mean the emotions that arise when I’m comparing myself with others, when I can’t do a pose in the asana practice properly, when I can’t find my voice to sing the mantras, when I feel that I am not making any progress, etc. But it really feels alright and I am actually not comparing myself much at all, maybe partly thanks to the fact that I am just way more stiff than anyone else here. 😅

The days feel very long here since we start so early (I literally catch myself thinking it’s lunch when we go for breakfast at 9), but at the same time they’re so packed that it all flows by rather quickly. I absolutely love the fact that I don’t have to take a single decision here, just follow the flow of the program and sit down to eat whatever is served during meals. Just like the Hindu ashram in Rishikesh, this makes me melt into some sort of flow where my presence is just getting stronger day by day.

I’ll finish off with one of the core lessons/reminders that I’ve gotten here so far, which is to not measure my progress (in yoga but also life in general) by achievements but rather by the extent and persistency of my efforts. It’s all about finding ways to enjoy and be content with the process, instead of being focused on an end goal.

This yoga training really is a journey on its own.

To be continued…

With love,

Philip