Saturday, February 3, 2018

My Experience with Yoga

Yoga is the science that adds zeal to your spirits. The positive energy imbibed by practicing Yoga every day is commendable. I have been witness to the immense change Yoga brings, not only does it spark up your spirits but alleviates many health issues. Yoga teacher training in India helped me realize the best things Yoga can do for us.

Doing Yoga changed my persona:
I was never an athletic person. Since childhood, I never excelled in any sports neither at school or in my neighborhood. When we played gully cricket, I was always the last person to be picked in the team. I couldn’t run fast for long, and neither had I the strength to hit or throw the cricket ball far. I tried to compensate it by applying myself academically. Around the time I turned sixteen, I tried to change how I was. I took up running. I started doing laps of my gymkhana ground in the morning. I started with a couple of laps, but even after a year, I could do only three or four. My knees hurt. I couldn’t do it regularly. I joined a gym, but that wasn’t for me either. Doing repetitive exercises could never hold my interest. I didn’t renew my membership after one month.
Life went on, I got enrolled in the prestigious Delhi School of Arts, got myself immersed in studies and started working full time at an advertising studio. I picked up the bad habits of smoking and drinking and working late nights. After a few years of this lifestyle, I started to feel fatigue. My digestion went haywire and I started to have frequent acid reflexes. I couldn’t sleep properly and always woke up tired. I no longer felt energetic. It affected my work. It almost seemed like I was drained empty of my creative juices.
New intentions to stay healthy!
I made a lifestyle decision. I made a genuine effort to lead a healthy lifestyle. I quit smoking and cut down big time on my drinking. I joined a gym again near my building. I started going to bed early and getting up at four am. I really became watchful of what I ate and when I ate. At the gymnasium, I felt so out of place. Picking up weights was never my thing and no matter how strongly I resolved, I wasn’t making any real progress. One thing I thought I would excel at, the treadmill, it also proved to be a thing of the past. I was no longer a sixteen year old. My knees weren’t what they used to be and my stamina had seen better days. So, I huffed and puffed, sweated like a pig, and kept repeating in my head, no pain — no gain. It turned to a point that I no longer looked forward to the mornings; it was a tortured time for me that I dreaded.
Something had to be changed. A new outlook was required to attain the goal I set for myself. And the journey didn’t necessarily have to be a punishment on the body. That is when I picked up the brochure of yoga classes at the reception desk of my gym. I immediately enrolled and gave it a try. Yoga isn’t about taming your body with harsh discipline and painful training. It is about worshiping it, understanding it, and gently coaxing it towards what our body was made to achieve.
I started practicing yoga daily. I learned a few basic postures. I started practicing in fifteen-minute sessions every morning before work at the gym. Soon, these sessions grew to a half hour and for the first time; a sense of accomplishment filled me. My arms grew really strong, my waistline became taut, and I began to breathe so much better. As my body became lithe, my mind ached to learn more about this wonderful art. I became really interested in this ancient discipline. I felt so stupid that I had this plethora of knowledge in my culture, yet, all my life, I ran towards western ways to condition my body.


The place where I was reborn:
As luck would have it, I got an assignment in Uttarkashi. I had to shoot some stock footage to be used later. I shot one day in the town, then, on the next day, I went up the river Bhagirathi to take some nature shots. And places of places, I found myself face to face with Yoga Bhawna Mission. Little did I know then, that moment would change my life?
Uttarkashi in the Himalayas is a canvas of stunning landscapes. The place is a marvel that imbibes in it a serenity and soul-binding peace. The ambience of the place adds to yoga learning experience here. The scenic landscapes and tranquil atmosphere boost your spirits and furnish immeasurable happiness and peace to do Yoga. While doing a yoga teacher training in India you get a chance to probe into several aspects of Yoga with every passing moment and tranquil atmosphere around the place of learning can play an eminent role in the learning process. Learning Yoga in Uttarkashi gave me the dual benefit of good health and peaceful atmosphere. Since while learning Yoga teacher training Course, it is eminent that you aptly concentrate on the latest chapter, tranquility is of paramount importance, and Uttarakashi being amidst the magnificent Himalayas makes a perfect place for the same. Moreover, the homely yet disciplined environs of Yoga Bhawna Mission empower yoga learning process with blissful accomplishments that hardly part from you throughout life.
I went in and inquired about the various courses the institute offered. I gathered that it is a venture of Ujjain Yoga Life Society, a prestigious trust in her country. And that it is also a certified as well as registered yoga school from YAUSA. We talked at length about the experiences there and I decided to give it a serious thought. I was given an orientation. The building accommodates classrooms, yoga hall, kitchen, living rooms and living quarters. All living rooms are twin shared and face the river. Rooms are well appointed with all modern amenities and looked quite comfortable. That evening I did some research and found that, since it is an internationally recognized RYS for teachers, your certificate will also be recognized globally.
My discourse with Yoga
I made a decision right there. I opted for the RYS200 course. This program offers two hundred hours of training and broadly covers the physical, theoretical, physiological as well as spiritual branches of yoga. It is structured so as to train the students into yoga teaching professionals. At the end of the course, one gets the RYS certificate. A certified course helps an individual to take up Yoga as a profession in any part of the world.
I came back to Delhi and arranged with my company to work as a freelance for two months. It went smoothly. And I came to Yoga Bhawna Mission on the appointed date.
I had the most extraordinary time at the institute. It was like getting reborn. A life of discipline and a quest of inner self-filled my days. I really saw myself for the first time. From 4:00 am in the morning with pranayama sessions under the caring eyes of ERYTs, we were on this wonderful journey every day. A succulent breakfast followed and we gathered again to learn new asanas and hone our bodies. There is a flat sand bank just outside the campus. Sometimes when the weather permitted, we practiced on that spot. Such fun activities added to my treasured life of Yoga learning.
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