Yoga Teacher Training AKA Boot Camp

Where should I begin???

I am training as a Hatha yoga teacher and I have just returned from my first nine days of yoga teacher training at Yogayama in Stockholm. The experience was overwhelming, to say the least. It was hard work, fun, tiring, challenging, humbling, thought-provoking and so much more.

Lidingöbron before 7am

The days started with an eight km long cycle for a 7:30am start; 2.5 hour long yoga session with chanting, kriyas (cleansing techniques), pranayama (breathing techniques), meditation and asanas (physical yoga). 10am breakfast, followed by lectures, discussions and technique, and lunch in-between. At times, it was hard to keep focused, but mostly, it was so interesing that the time flew by till it was time to cycle, legs aching, back to where I was staying.

10am chia pudding breakfast in the sun.

During our nine days, we were drilled in sun salutations, learning hand/foot placement, which muscles to engage and how to make our (and others') practice safe. Then we learned about many other aspects of yoga and being a yoga teacher; history, philosophy, chakras, pranayama, meditation, kriyas, pedagogy and anatomy. I felt so fortunate to be surrounded by kindred souls and learning from such amazing teachers. Everything was interesting and intriguing, but I was surprised that philosophy was the most thought-provoking.

Sitting on the floor, taking it all in.

"Yoga Chitta Vritti Nirodaha" or "yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind". In other words, you do yoga to achieve stillness of the mind and you aim to stop identifying yourself with your thoughts. For me personally, this means that I understand that my thoughts are not what define me as a person and that just because I am thinking something, it doesn't mean that it is the truth. This is really difficult for me, as I am a very introvert person and I have chat going on in my head all the time! I could go on and on about this, but I'll leave that for a face-to-face discussion in future.

Perfecting the downward-facing dog

The potentially scariest part of the training was starting to guide my fellow trainees through yogic breathing and sun salutations. There were so many things I wanted to impart on my pretent class and I was scared to forget something. Apparently, I did alright and didn't forget too many things, but I definitely need to practice more - watch out everyone in my proximity!

Warrior I on the roof terrace.

Now I am back home at PaulssonPaleo HQ, doing my own yoga practice and homework, and I am looking forward to the next installment of yoga boot camp in a couple of weeks!