The first week – the path of yoga

The first week – the path of yoga

It’s unbelievable, but the first week of training is already over. There are so many things going on, but somehow it is hard to put the experience into words. But don’t worry, this won’t be a super-spiritual post, I guess I’ll manage to find the words.

The yoga school

We are in the northwest of Koh Phangan, a relaxed, small coastal area with great vibe and many yoga schools. In our school the yoga halls are open and all three of them are facing the sea. Some say it is very relaxing, and others find it to be a distraction. I really like it. Just to know, that the sea is there. But somehow it doesn’t influence my yoga practice, I can concentrate on myself, on my movements, on my thoughts, or on relaxing my mind.
Samma Karuna. It is led by a Greek guy raised in Uruguay, and with a multinational team of teachers, with many volunteers, a cool, non-dogmatic school was built. There is a lot of freedom in the curriculum, we learn a lot of things, which are actually just a doors opened for us, and everyone can decide which ones to enter. Yoga history, yoga philosophy, nutrition, anatomy, tantra, meditation, correction of poses, self development and so on. We also try different yoga practices, like yin yoga, vinyasa flow, ashtanga, yin tantra … I love this diversity and how it shapes our taste, our style.

How my days look like

I get up around 6 in the morning and I eat something for breakfast (usually a banana), just because I know my body and I know I do not function as a human in the morning if I don’t eat at all. I still struggle every morning, but those who know me are not surprised at all. Then I walk to the school, which is about 5-10 minutes away. At quarter past seven, we begin with Vipassana meditation – I’ve already mentioned it before. The essence of this is that we are sitting quietly, without moving for an hour (even if mosquitoes are in buzzing around my ears or ants are fighting around my ankles). During meditation, we are observing our breath without changing it (for example, how deep is the breath or how fast it is) and observing the feelings around the nose, the flow of air in and out. If our mind wanders away – as it will – then we just get it back to focus on our breathing. We do not deal with the past and the future, only with the breathing that is present, now. It is said that Buddha achieved the state of enlightenment this way.

Meditation is followed by one and a half hours of yoga practice, always with another teacher, so always with a different style.
Then we lunch. Or late breakfast. Or brunch, as you like. Vegan meals, in huge variety. It’s hard to stop eating a lot, because everything is amazing, and I get usually really hungry at this point. It’s a pity that I didn’t take a photo of our bufe, as I think many of you would be surprised about the variety of dishes can be created without meat and any kind of animal products.

Lunch is followed by a break, and from half past twelve we have lectures with small breaks till four, when we again start a one and a half or two hours long yoga practice. We close the day with a lecture, and finish usually between seven and half past eight.

On Mondays we share a community dinner at the school with the volunteers and teachers, on the other days we are either having dinner together or if I need more space, I grab something quick in the small Thai buffet opposite to my accommodation and spend a quiet night in my room or on the terrace.
This is the routine from Monday to Saturday, our only free day is Sunday when the team breaks up. Some goes to study, others heading out for the nearby ecstatic dance, and I spent some time with a good coffee and had a great massage.

The people and the environment

We are fifteen of us on this journey, and hopefully we all become yoga teachers at the end of the course. Three guys, twelve girls. Seven people are from the USA or Canada, three from Germany and one from Holland, France, Czech Republic, Australia each.
I share my room with ashley, a girl from New York, who is simply brilliant. She is super charming, and her humble and kind personality is a real blessing at the end of the day. She’s amazingly flexible, a real inspiration for the high-level execution of the asanas – yoga postures.
The team is getting closer together. A lot of emotions come up from us every day, lots of repressed frustrations, trauma, and we’re there to support each other. It feels good to be part of this.

By the way, the rainy season just started on the island. In the first days, it was raining all day without a break. Later we saw the blue sky a couple of times, and even the sun was shining once. There has been a serious competition in who has the most ridiculous raincoat.Rainy season with clouds on Koh Phangan

And of course because of there’s a huge number of mosquitoes, which is bad enough in itself, but as the island is in a dengue fever infected area, it worries many of us – including myself. We’re experimenting with the mosquito repellents and other methods, trying to figure out which is the most effective. Natural oils proved to be inefficient, now we all believe in DEET. I found a repellent, that seems to be good, I have no new mosquito bites for two days now. There is hope. The trousers and the long sleeves do not help at all, the little killers sting through them easily.
Dengue is not funny anyway. It takes you off of your feet for 7 to 10 days, with high fever, headache, with fatigue in the first few days, so that you cannot get out of bed and can’t eat either. It sucks in general, but it would actually mean the end of the training as well, where only 10 hours may be missed. This fear influenced the group dynamics in the first few days. Right now we believe in papaya leaf juice and in garlic, so in the morning everybody is chewing raw garlic, so we a have a collective smell.

My yoga practice

My first yoga class was about 10 years ago. With various intensity – sometimes every day, other times with a gap of even a couple of months – I visited bikram yoga classes. Then last year I tried ashtanga yoga, but I far not considering myself super-experienced. So what happens here is a real challenge for me physically. I’m not very flexible, and I’ve been struggling with ankle injuries all year, so the program is really tough for me.
I love those classes where I’m about to reach my limits, but I often face the long-long path ahead of me before I can do do positions when I have my body weight on my arms, like the headstand or the crow pose. Being not really good at something teaches me to become more humble. And even though I know, that yoga is way more than just doing yoga poses and training the body, it’s a difficult journey for me.

My soul

When I left home, I intended to leave all my troubles, my problems and my struggles at home, and to focus only on myself – whatever this means. Now I’m laughing on myself a lot. Because of course, all of these just came with me. Why did I ever think that my troubles were not me? Most of the things that I thought I can leave at home are actually with me, in my mind. So now I’m learning to accept that this is okay, because in fact this whole package is me.

First examTomorrow is my first exam, keep your fingers crossed!