Tuesday 7th May 2019 – Day 1 Week 1!

I resume my journey 😊, transferred from 1 year teacher training to 1 month intensive! I am a true believer that we are all exactly where we are meant to be exactly when we are meant to be there. Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and in all earnestness, (Yoga Sutra 1-14)

So, I managed to overcome my first 3 hurdles, 1) ceasing work for 1 month, no work equals no pay in my world, but it is a sacrifice that I must take. By renouncing worldly things, you possess the most important sacred property: your peace, (Sri S. Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras); 2) who will do the school run just happened to coincide with my mum taking a week off work for sickness, turning a negative into a positive (God works in mysterious ways); 3) making it to class on time 😊, the one hurdle which I can aim to control… Things outside neither bind nor liberate you; only your attitude towards them does that, (Sri S. Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras).

A familiar face, I am so happy to see Jess, I fell in love with her spirit and teaching during my foundation course, she is a magical spiritual being in an odd way I see myself in her and I feel a connection.

Pranayama (4th Limb); I had 2 meanings proposed for this on day 1, this may be attributed to each teachers perception or I may have simply taken the notes wrong ha! “Expansion of the life force through control of the breath” and/or “Extending the breath to control life force energy” my interpretation of both is that by controlling our breath through extension of the puraka (inhalation of air ) and rechaka (exhalation of air) we can also control and therefore extend the life force energy! POWERFUL...

My favourite exercises of the week were the 4 stage breathing exercise covered on day 1, during this practice I found myself slip into a meditation, I realised this when my eyes were watering, which brought my awareness to the fact that I hadn’t blinked throughout the session due to my focus on the breath, AMAZING!! I also really enjoyed working on the Nidra practice and helping my student to sink into a deep meditation, so relaxing & soul soothing; YUMMY!

My conclusion,

· Lead with the heart not the head,

· Life is experienced by the mind through the body,

· Strengthen what needs to be strong,

· Lengthen what needs to be long,

· Fit the posture to the person, not the person to the posture

· Breathing exercise before a session will help the practice flow better

· Pranayama is daily maintenance for the soul, body and mind

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