My Yoga Teacher Training Journey

When I first found yoga, I was working as a manager in a restaurant, which was very physically and mentally demanding. I soon found that yoga helped me to find the stillness in my mind that I hadn’t realised I was missing. I felt like I had been given a wonderful gift, a way of reconnecting with myself every time I returned to my mat. After a couple of years of dedicated practice, I decided I wanted to share this gift to help others experience the joy I had found in yoga. 

I initially started my yoga journey through physical practice (asana). My goals were very physically orientated, as I had for a long time suffered from a lot of pains due to hypermobility. I found that not only did the physical practice of yoga help me to build strength in my body and relieve pains that were once there, I also started to fall in love with the whole philosophy surrounding yoga. As I delved deeper, the more I practiced and learned about the many different aspects, the more I fell in love. 

Vinyasa Yoga School

I knew I wanted to train in Rishikesh, the home and heart of yoga. I found Vinyasa Yoga School online, after much research into the abundance of different schools Rishikesh has to offer. Vinyasa Yoga School stood out, and met all the criteria I was looking for, backed up with honest and humbling reviews from very happy students. My experience at Vinyasa Yoga School, was quite honestly life changing. Rishikesh is an incredible and inspiring place to be and just be present in. I absorbed the spiritual energy almost instantly, evoking feelings of pure bliss.

All of my senses were in complete awe of this magical place on arrival. Visually, there is a very pure beauty; the Himalayan foothills form a magnificent back drop, mother Ganga flows her cleansing, inviting waterway in all her bright turquoise glory, the beautiful colourful buildings provide for a more modern, stunning contrast and the wonderful spiritual people seem to radiate a true zest for life as they come and go amongst the almighty views. The aroma of spices, warmth, incense and nature are fresh, fragrant and invigorating. The sounds of music, mantras, people hustling and bustling, cows, scooters all come together in beautiful harmony to provide a truly encaptivating, all-encompassing experience.

The start of my teacher training journey began with an initiation ceremony. More than thirty of us gathered together for the first time, with all of our own personal expectations of what the month ahead had in store for us. This was the first time we met and little did we know that over the next few weeks we would become each other’s family and that lifelong friendships would be made.

This was also the first time we met our teachers, our Gurus for the month ahead. Mundeep, our mantra chanting teacher on Saturday evenings, opened the ceremony with a fire which we gathered around and set our own intentions and goals for our journey. This intention was commemorated with a simple piece of string, which he wrapped around our wrists individually. This string was to remind us of our intentions throughout our training. There was music throughout the ceremony. Mundeep played the kirtan and sang for what seemed like hours without pausing for breath. His voice so pure, so piercing and seemingly so unreal – to believe something so beautiful could come from a human being. The words he sang came from somewhere deep and devotional inside. They sparked a convincing feeling of inspiration – that every one of us has a powerful and universal energy within us that can be awoken. He went on to talk about the “ego”, and how, while setting our own personal intention, we need to leave our ego behind us for the duration of the course. This meant not comparing ourselves to others, or judging ourselves for things we couldn’t do, but to be happy with where we were, because we are always exactly where we need and are meant to be.

It challenged us to remain true to ourselves and to step away from the modern, social media culture in which we have all unintentionally become accustomed to. We let go of this ego by each taking turns to throw a combination of flowers, spices and rice onto the fire, while chanting in unison with one another. We left the ceremony anticipating what our first full day training the next day would be like, eager to get to know the teachers, each other and get to work.

Although we studied the many different aspects of Yoga, the teacher training element focused on the structure of designing a Vinyasa class. Tulisa, one of our Vinyasa teachers, explained the format of a class in a way that really resonated with me in all aspects of life. She taught us that a Vinyasa class should be structured the way that life is. When we come into life as a newborn baby, our movements are gentle and our approach to life is a new experience. This is represented in a class by the warm up through gentle joint movements. As we move through life and come into adulthood, our knowledge, understanding and strengths become more developed and advanced, which is represented in class when we move through standing sequences and peak poses. As we grow older and become wiser, we understand ourselves and our bodies more. We also start to slow down from the fast paced lives we once lived, which is represented in class in decompression, and deeper stretching postures. Savasana, represents the end of life, the final resting pose, like a peaceful reflection on the life we lived. The days at Vinyasa Yoga School seemed to fit this analogy perfectly.

Reflections on my teachers

Every single one of the teachers I had gave me wisdom and understanding over and above my expectations. From the minute I met Sarita, my Hatha teacher, I completely fell in love with her. Her energy and passion for sharing her wealth of knowledge with others was exhilarating. She was a teacher that had a certain sparkle; she understood people and she had an animated understanding of herself. She was the kind of teacher I hoped to become. She spread a love so genuine and motivating to all her students. 

Having originally found Yoga through a physical approach, I was amazed to find that philosophy was my favourite class of the day, and this was mainly down to that fact that our teacher Simon was one of the most interesting and inspiring people I have been lucky enough to meet in my life. His wealth of knowledge appeared limitless. Every question he was asked, he gave real thought into answering and he was always very generous with his responses and the time he spared for us. His passion for Yoga as a philosophy and as a science was contagious. Every class was buzzing with energy, and in most classes, time seemed to disappear far too quickly due to incredibly deep discussions. I could spend hours listening and talking to Simon. He will always be someone that I hold in an extremely high regard, as a teacher, as a friend and as a phenomenal fountain of knowledge.

Graduation day

Graduation day sparked an overwhelming feeling of joy, achievement and an element of sadness that our time had come to an end. Emotions were high. Love, and positive energy from students and teachers filled the room - it felt so warm, like rays of the brightest sunshine were shining light on all of us. We joined together again for a fire ceremony, this time with a deeper understanding of ourselves and our purposes. We sang so much louder than we had in our first meeting, our confidence was so much higher, and our love for one and other was so strong. I looked around the room, smiling from the bottom of my heart, looking at the teachers that I had learned so much from, feeling overwhelming gratitude. I looked towards my amazing new friends, feeling blessed that I’d been given this opportunity to surround myself with such beautiful, like-minded people. It was in that moment that I knew that I had found the right path in life, and although my journey at Vinyasa yoga school had come to an end, the journey of becoming a teacher was just about to begin.