Started my normal morning ritual, wake up 6am (nice change from 4:50am in London), hit snooze a couple of times get out of bed at 6:20, have a cold shower…..oooo I soooo look forward to those
I then stretch a little, wake up, get changed and head to my 7am class. Today we had a back bending class which was a nice change from our usual Ashtanga. The intention of the class is to build up to a specific posture – today’s one nobody could actually do – haha obviously it was a little too tough!
I wish that I could sometimes dissect my body while I am awake and see what is going on inside. It would be super useful in yoga to see where my muscle stiffness and inflexibly is originating from
For our Meditation class we had a class called Yoga Nidra. You lie on your back and are listen to your teacher saying various things and the aim of it is to remain aware of what she is saying and to stay away. Errrrr errrrrr I reckon half the class must have dozed off in that hour. I did my best but must have slipped off for a few minutes here and there, ok maybe for like 80% of the class
We had our usual Anatomy and Alignment class and then after lunch we had our Teacher Training Methodology. It was super fun and we had to teach a few posture sequences to each other in our little groups. It’s amazing at how much there is to remember and how descriptive you need to be to get people into their postures, explain the transitions, the names of the postures and then the alignment reminders once they are finally in position.
We had a class after that talking about our Breathe and Bandhas (Locks in Sanskrit). Very very interesting from both an anatomical and spiritual perspective. It’s also extremely difficult I find that during your whole Ashtanga class (about 1hr 40 min to 2hrs) you need to always engage your bandhas. The main two being a muscle situated next to your perineum and the other your lower transverse abdominis (for all the bodybuilders that is basically like holding a vacuum pose for your whole practise!!)
Tonight was pasta night for dinner….I think that everyone is starting to get a little tired of having the same food so pasta night is always a good break. I personally love the food and don’t mind eating the same sort of foods day in and day out. Strange how people don’t appreciate having food cooked for them every single day, 3 times a day. I feel like I’m in heaven or something….wake up, train, eat, learn, eat, learn, snack, train, eat, study, sleep! Happy days or what….??!!
Had a big session of homework tonight, 2 hours to start planning out the main chunk of my own class. Need to present and teach that on Friday so a couple of late nights and early mornings coming up!!!
Heard about the terrorist attack in London today. It’s so sad how we have to worry about these things in life.
Love
Gareth / China/ BB / Token