My experience with education has been that the more you learn, the less you feel like you know. After my third week of the 200-hour yoga teacher training, I’m finding that’s half true YTT.
Though I’ve been practicing yoga sporadically for a long time, I would definitely still consider myself to be a beginner. I can’t do intermediate poses such as crow pose (Bakasana) at all. But there were some poses I felt confident doing, like low push-up (Chaturanga). Now I’m learning what true proper alignment looks and feels like. And I’m learning that even if I could go into certain poses, like half-moon (Ardha Chandrasana), I haven’t been in proper alignment.
If you are in proper alignment, you are going to feel it, no matter how bendy you are! Because even though yoga is supposed to allow for the poses to be held with ease and comfort (Sthira and Sukha, respectively), even when you’ve mastered a pose everything is engaged.
Everything…
So I’ve definitely been learning what I don’t know in regards to my body movement.
But I’ve also been learning a lot more about myself. I’m learning that I do have will power to do my dishes and get up in the morning, even if inertia is fighting me. In fact, today was the 11th day of my morning Sadhana practice. Sadhana translates to personal practice. My yoga teacher recommends a morning practice consisting of meditation, asana (moving yoga). I’ve added in journaling in the morning, both about my YTT experiences as well as thoughts about my upcoming day or things that happened yesterday (more here).
It feels good to be doing this every morning, and I’m proud of myself for keeping it up even this long. Since it’s summer, some days my Sadhana is a little earlier than others. But it’s been the first thing I do in the morning after going to the bathroom. I’ve even been doing it on the weekends, though I sometimes cut the asana practice out since I go to YTT on the weekends. Depends on how I am feeling.
I’m proud to have been practicing meditation before bed since 05/17/17. I did miss one day, but I made a very conscious choice not to practice that night. I chose to read a book for awhile instead. I’d had a really long day that day. And the next day, I picked it right back up again.
I’m also learning a lot more about my body. The pain I’ve felt pretty consistently in my left knee, in my wrists and forearms, and in my lower back has been less. There are days things still hurt, but the duration of time is shorter and the intensity has also been less. I’m learning that I can increase my flexibility and strength, because over the course of practicing asana every day for three weeks I can see and feel it. I’m excited to see where this side of yoga takes me.
There are a lot of ways to lead a happy life. Yoga is one path, and it’s taking me deeper into the self-inquiry I started with counseling oh, 7 years ago. This path is helping me gain control over certain areas of my life that I let get out of control. I’m still not eating perfectly healthy (I’m doing better.), and there have been things I’ve spent money on that I didn’t really need (A bit better on this front.). But the daily practice is causing me to be more mindful of those other areas of my life too. One thing is trickling into others.