BALI 2009
Dare to be who you are
Like standing somewhere on your way up a great mountain, it’s that point where a magnificent view comes into being, you’re now close enough to see the first peak of the moutain! And it’s the most beautiful view. Yet obscured by cloud and fog, trees, are many more peaks and the top reaches so high it’s completely out of your vision – infinte mountain peaks.
Bali teacher training is one such experience. I arrived there fragile, tired and sick! I’d been travelling around Bali, avoiding the main tourist areas, on a trip with Intrepid, met some really cool people, and arrived at the yoga training feeling like a scared little deer. Put it down to the dodgy water I drank. The amazing surroundings in lush tropical gardens, massive swimming pool and my glass of fresh coconut juice and smiling faces that greeted me did give me hope. After about 10 days I completely felt myself again, gathered my energy, renewed strength and felt a sense of openess and love pulse through me each day.
The asana is challenging, hard, fun, beautiful. I can’t describe standing on my mat balancing in warrior 3, gazing out at the valley outside the big open windows, hearing the sounds of nature all around. Upbeat, motivating music pumps all around and our teacher, Daniel, is adjusting, encouraging, using bold words and statements … and pushing us to our limits, even when we think he is crazy, so that when when we stretch ourselves to go deeper, to go to the edge, we may see it’s not where we thought it was, and there is a world of possibility and potential opening up before us. Sometimes we can’t reach it in that moment, and that’s okay but I begin to see, right at the end of the training during these morning asana classes, and the Ashtanga classes also, that maybe I’ve been holding myself back, staying safe. That maybe I’m much more capable than I give myself credit for. This isn’t just about physical yoga practice, but it’s a realization that ripples out into my life.
Our teacher in Bali said that “after these four weeks your life will never be the same. It will ‘ruin’ your life,” that it would elevate us higher and that if we went back to an old way of being that didn’t sit right anymore, we would know. For me it’s been a subtle shift that’s occured in Bali and since I’ve come back in the last few months. Our Jivamukti teacher, Alanna, started off classes sometimes with the guitar and her amazing voice. After chanting Om, she would always say something that reverberates through me and uplifts me whenever I neeed to hear it: “Don’t miss those vibrations.”
A full month
of challenging asana classes, morning meditation, yoga philosophy, eating only raw food and dipping into the knowledge and experience of our many varied teachers spanning Ashtanga, Yoga Synergy, Jivamukti. At night we’d meet in the yoga shala and chant and sing kirtan with Geoffrey Gordon and guests. I loved it when we rocked out with he and Alanna, and some students played on drums. A fucking awesome experience!
On the last day of training after our exam where we instructed a mini yoga class, we were given our certificates and went out into nature for our ‘initiation ceremony.’ It was pretty cool, a little out-there, and afterwards I let myself drift in the beautiful blue water of the pool surrounded by jungle sounds and green and felt relieved it (training) was over, yet sad. But excited about what was to come…
Dare to be who you are
Like standing somewhere on your way up a great mountain, it’s that point where a magnificent view comes into being, you’re now close enough to see the first peak of the moutain! And it’s the most beautiful view. Yet obscured by cloud and fog, trees, are many more peaks and the top reaches so high it’s completely out of your vision – infinte mountain peaks.
Bali teacher training is one such experience. I arrived there fragile, tired and sick! I’d been travelling around Bali, avoiding the main tourist areas, on a trip with Intrepid, met some really cool people, and arrived at the yoga training feeling like a scared little deer. Put it down to the dodgy water I drank. The amazing surroundings in lush tropical gardens, massive swimming pool and my glass of fresh coconut juice and smiling faces that greeted me did give me hope. After about 10 days I completely felt myself again, gathered my energy, renewed strength and felt a sense of openess and love pulse through me each day.
The asana is challenging, hard, fun, beautiful. I can’t describe standing on my mat balancing in warrior 3, gazing out at the valley outside the big open windows, hearing the sounds of nature all around. Upbeat, motivating music pumps all around and our teacher, Daniel, is adjusting, encouraging, using bold words and statements … and pushing us to our limits, even when we think he is crazy, so that when when we stretch ourselves to go deeper, to go to the edge, we may see it’s not where we thought it was, and there is a world of possibility and potential opening up before us. Sometimes we can’t reach it in that moment, and that’s okay but I begin to see, right at the end of the training during these morning asana classes, and the Ashtanga classes also, that maybe I’ve been holding myself back, staying safe. That maybe I’m much more capable than I give myself credit for. This isn’t just about physical yoga practice, but it’s a realization that ripples out into my life. Our teacher in Bali said that “after these four weeks your life will never be the same. It will ‘ruin’ your life,” that it would elevate us higher and that if we went back to an old way of being that didn’t sit right anymore, we would know. For me it’s been a subtle shift that’s occured in Bali and since I’ve come back in the last few months. Our Jivamukti teacher, Alanna, started off classes sometimes with the guitar and her amazing voice. After chanting Om, she would always say something that reverberates through me and uplifts me whenever I neeed to hear it: “Don’t miss those vibrations.”
A full month
of challenging asana classes, morning meditation, yoga philosophy, eating only raw food and dipping into the knowledge and experience of our many varied teachers spanning Ashtanga, Yoga Synergy, Jivamukti. At night we’d meet in the yoga shala and chant and sing kirtan with Geoffrey Gordon and guests. I loved it when we rocked out with he and Alanna, and some students played on drums. A fucking awesome experience!On the last day of training after our exam where we instructed a mini yoga class, we were given our certificates and went out into nature for our ‘initiation ceremony.’ It was pretty cool, a little out-there, and afterwards I let myself drift in the beautiful blue water of the pool surrounded by jungle sounds and green and felt relieved it (training) was over, yet sad. But excited about what was to come…
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