Progressing Through Yoga


About a year ago is when I first had my experience in yoga. It was the summer after my first year of college and I decided to go to a Sivananda Ashram in Kerala, India for about 10 days. Before then my yoga was limited to occasional yoga classes at studios, something purely physical. The experience at the ashram was very eye opening as suddenly the world of yoga was not just a way for me to exercise.
I saw that the people at the ashram applied the philosophy and teachings of yoga to their own life. For example, we had a strict schedule of 5:30 am wake up calls for meditation and satsang. Then we would practice yoga and after we did our daily routine of karma yoga. Then we had brunch, an afternoon discussion where we would learn more about the philosophy of yoga, and our second class of the day. We would always end the night with meditation and satsang, just like how we started.
Even though it was only 10 days, I felt like each day I was improving in my yoga practice; and that was something I had never really felt beforehand. I wasn’t sweating heavily like I did in the studio but my body still felt more stretched and open. That was definitely the start of my intrest in yoga.
After that it was hard to keep my practice up. That’s when I decided to sign up for this training course and I’m grateful for both experiences. This teacher training course really helped me understand more about alignment and help further my motivation to keep practicing. In the future I’m excited to have more experiences learning and practicing yoga.
Lan Otani 200HR YTT