I woke up this morning feeling really tired, heavy and lethargic which wasn’t great because we were having our practise assessed by Yoga Teachers at our school who are taking their 300 Hour Teaching Training Certification. Needless to say that I had a very average practise and found myself getting very frustrated because I wasn’t as in tune, focused, strong, flexible etc as I wanted to be. You know when something annoys you, you can’t stop thinking about it so it annoys you more – it was one of those sort of scenarios! Anyway I will live to fight another day I’m sure
Our meditation class was that good that I can’t recall what we actually did in it, haha. Wait – it just came to me. We did a lot of chanting practise, not really my thing but it’s a nice gesture to be thankful for everything Yoga offers I guess.
We had our usual anatomy and alignment classes and then lunch. For the first time I took a nap at lunch which was a nice little treat. I flippin needed it because I just felt that my energy levels and mind were not all there this morning. I’m not sure about you but when I’m having a day when I know that I’m not 100% happy, focused, energised etc then I’m usually a little quiet and take a step back so I don’t overreact to situations. I’ve learnt to realise that for me these are just short periods of time and that something later in the day is going to trigger the endorphins and happy hormones and I’ll be back to my sprightly self as some point soon after.
Our afternoon classes were great – in Teacher Training we spent the first hour practising in small groups the opening 15mins of our classes which we are going to do in our full assessment.
It’s interesting listening to yourself speak and trying to remember everything, especially when you also need to demonstrate it at the same time! Kudos to all those teachers who make it look so easy. For homework we have had to plan the postures for the next 30mins of the class – lots to do but so awesome doing something new and different.
In our afternoon class called Pranayama Theory we were learning about a lot (7 in total, there are many more though) of different breathing techniques which you can use in meditation practises. It’s quite fascinating how something as simple as breathing can be used to distract or focus the mind as well as have so many healing powers.
After dinner I received the feedback back from my mentor for my class in the morning. It was really good feedback in terms of very constructive and detailed feedback with some (many!) great suggestions to try in my future class. “Gareth, basically your shoulders, neck, back, hamstrings and hips all need a lot of work – other than that everything is good ;)” Haha!
One of the things I find very difficult is to see or understand is how well or badly you practise compared to other people and also that it’s very hard to know how good or bad your postures are as there are normally no mirrors and not enough time to check yourself out
Homework almost complete and now time for bed!! Going to really make sure tonights kip as an awesome one!
Love
Gareth / China / BB / Token