First YTTC Yoga Intensive Course – Kate’s Blog

After returning from the Intensive Teacher Training Course I am reflecting on what an amazing experience it was.

Travelling from Belfast to Dublin to meet people who I did not know, travel to Spain and spend two weeks with them may be a scary experience for some, but to me it is an exciting challenge. For a start, the people must be like-minded otherwise they wouldn’t be going, so that’s a start. Oh and there is the fact that I am a bit of a talker! I like people and I like to hear their stories, so I was looking forward to meeting everyone.

We met in the airport and everyone was lovely, we struck up a rapport straight away and got the craic going. The flight flew in – no pun intended! Getting off the plane we were greeted with pure blue skies and a lovely warm evening. We were collected by Dan and Billy and taken to Tara’s Retreat where our course was being held.

The first thing you see when you arrive at Tara’s Retreat is the lilac gate. Stepping through the gate you feel the stresses and strains of the world disappear and feel enveloped with the calming warm ambience of the place. It is beautiful; the garden is filled with lemon, orange, fig and pomegranate trees with little winding paths through the garden. After being there only a few days, we all felt like we had been there a month because we were all so chilled out and relaxed. It was the ideal place for the course.

On arriving we were greeted by Tara herself and shown to our rooms, which were comfortable and inviting. There was also a roast dinner waiting for us, which was superb. Mmmm, the food, what can I say about the food. Every meal was fantastic; each meal was designed to give us energy and was PH balanced. There were snacks provided as well in case we ever got hungry, but the truth is, we were so well fed at mealtimes, that there was no need for any snacks.

After dinner we all hit the hot tub, by this time we were comfortable in each other’s company, so we had a great time chilling out under the stars in amongst the trees. This was the first of many dips into the hot tub; we even had class in there! Yes we did. When we didn’t need any notes and were able to just discuss the topic; we headed for the hot tub!!

Our days began at 7.30am, where we would have around 30 minutes of meditation. When we started, it was dark outside and we would hear the sounds of the village waking up. Cockerels, dogs and cars stirring in the background. Once the mediation was finished, we would open our eyes, the sun had risen and it really prepared us for the start of our day.

We would then lie down for a short relaxation before starting our asana practice. For our asana practice, we worked off a lesson plan. There were 6 in all; the first lesson plan formed the basis of all the lesson plans, with new poses being added in progressively.

We started with Centring, which was our relaxation at the start of our practice, followed by Limbering which started with lying down poses, coming to sitting poses, then moving onto hands, knees and feet. After Limbering we would then move into Warming, this consisted of 6 rounds of Sun Salutation, followed by 1 minute of relaxation. This certainly warmed us up and we would move into Strengthening poses, starting in mountain pose. These poses were standing poses and progressively our feet would move outwards. That is, we would start with our feet together, then moving them to hip width apart, then 3-4 feet apart, moving out to 4-5 feet apart, each pose getting progressively stronger. We would always end this sequence with at least one balancing pose.

Next up was Cooling Down, so again we came back down to sitting. These poses consisted of bending, twisting and back bends. Following up with the next sequence – Calming Down. This sequence consisted of inversions and the poses building up to them along with the counter poses. Definitely the most challenging of these was headstand, and it wasn’t until the last day of the two weeks that I got fully into the pose. It was a real progression over the two weeks, as I definitely didn’t feel strong enough in the first week to go fully into the pose. We of course also did shoulder stand, ending with fish pose, which I did not like at all at first. But I came to love it. I looked forward to finishing our practice with this pose, as I felt wonderful once in it. Love it J Then we would finish with relaxation.

By this time we had reached 10am – Breakfast Time, yay. We were all really hungry by this stage and breakfast was always fabulous. For breakfast, there were either cereals or porridge, followed by some type of eggs with toast. Always either a smoothie or juice, which were freshly made that morning, usually with fruit from the trees in the garden. So yummy.

Back at 11am for classes again and depending on whether we needed our notes or not, we would head to the poolside or the hot tub. If we had class in the hot tub, we sat for about 5 minutes just enjoying the jets and the bubbles, and then start our discussion. Some of these lessons consisted of discussing ‘Planning a Yoga Class’, ‘Yamas and Niyamas’, ‘Our likes and dislikes of poses’, ‘The Breath Flow’ and ‘Becoming a Yoga Teacher’. These were very enjoyable productive classes. It almost didn’t feel like we were learning, but we were learning loads.

Also part of our day was teaching practice and the hardest part of this we all found, was finding the words to explain the poses. So during the first week, we had a session where we wrote down the words to describe each pose and this really helped to focus our minds on the words. As we all felt the words came much easier to us after this. Of course, we also had a little fun with teaching practice, cos the game was on!! We had to make deliberate mistakes, such as a beginner might make and the one who was in the teacher role would have to observe any mistakes and then correct them. Of course we didn’t always get all the mistakes, but over time, there were less and less that we were missing.

We also did Karma Yoga everyday and this consisted of helping out around the retreat. This consisted of helping out in the garden or helping out in the house, from clearing up after meals and also cleaning the yoga studio. It was lovely to help out, as it really helped to settle us in, as we felt right at home and it was a big help to Tara and Dan.

We would have free time after lunch and we made the most of this, enjoying the sunshine.

Then at 4pm, we were back in the yoga studio for another asana practice or teaching practice. So by the end of the day we had done between 5-6 hours of yoga per day. That is a lot of yoga and in the first week it was tough going at some stages, but we worked our way through it and we could all feel ourselves getting stronger day by day.

Of course we also had classes were we concentrated on Pranayama, this included the ujjayi breath and kapalabhati to name a few. We also had time off over the two weeks, 2 half days and a fully day off, plus evenings too.

One of our half days we headed to the beach, to Puerto de Mazarron, we had a lovely chilling day out and even ended up practicing sun salutation. Our full day off, we headed into Cartagena and we had a fabulous day there. Going round an ancient Roman amphitheatre, having a lovely lunch overlooking the marina and meandering around the streets, seeing the sites. Lovely, lovely day.

Our evenings we would spend laughing and chatting over dinner. Roy even downloaded X-Factor and the results shows so we wouldn’t miss any of them. Yes, we are obsessed with it!! We even had two salsa nights where I taught the girls how to salsa. Of course we couldn’t manage to get Roy to join in; I think it was something about a dodgy hip!!! Hhmmm, a likely story....

All too quickly the two weeks were over. We had learned so much and I was really starting to believe that I am going to be a yoga teacher, as were the rest of the girls. We had all become such good friends, and there was a real love and support for each other. It was an amazing time and I cannot wait until January for the next two weeks.

Roy, what can I say about Roy? He is a fabulous teacher and has such a great way with him. There is a bit of a cheeky chappy about him, it is so funny. He had us laughing so much, but still getting the work done. If you are interested in the Intensive Course, I definitely recommend it and if you would like to find out more, then check out my more detailed blog on the YTTC website, along with the course prospectus.

Namaste.

Intensive Yoga Training Student Blog Day 8

24-10-2010 Sunday

Sunday, a later start today. Today is our day off, so instead of doing a yoga practice, we are going for a lovely long walk. So by 8:40am, we are going out the lilac gate with Tara and 3 of her dogs, Bambi, Blanco and Rodger the Lodger. We head out of the village and walk through the paths beside the fields, passing olive trees, carob trees and almond trees.

It is a beautiful morning and we are all chatting away. I am chatting with Tara about creative writing, which she is interested in doing as well and during our chat we find out we are both Arians.

We turn and start to walk through a dried up river bed, where we find lots of interesting stones like rose quartz. Back from breakfast and we all tuck in. Then showers and get ready for 11:30am when we are departing for Cartagena for the day. While I am getting my bag ready to go, I find the muffins!!! Yes, they were in a side pocket of my handbag, couldn’t believe it. So brought them out to Clare and Eugenia, so of course they started slagging me, saying that these were not the same ones, that I had replaced them as I had eaten the originals!!! Oh the abuse I got, are you ever sorry you did something... lol

Tara drops us off at the port. We head to the museum and walk through the 3 floors which take you up to the Roman Amphitheatre, which was discovered under the Cathedral. It is huge and we have a good time looking around. The girls get me to do tree pose on the stage and then Clare comes up and joins me and we do dancer pose. Photos as evidence J

Clare and I head up to the top of the Amphitheatre and Joanne and Nora-Mary stay down at the bottom. They can hear us talking right down at the bottom. We then join them again and head out. The view over the port to the sea is magnificent. To head out we go round the other side of the amphitheatre and down to the streets and walk back round to the town hall square, where we meet Roy and Eugenia having a coffee.

We then stroll along the promenade watching all the people and head to the restaurant Mare Nostrum. We have a lovely lunch overlooking the huge cruise liner that is in the harbour. After lunch we head down to see if we can get onto the ship for a view but you are not able to as they are due to depart. So we head back up to the town hall wander through Calle Mayor and the shops. We then head back and, sit on the green beside the port. I head off along the other end of the promenade where I find some interesting sculptures. I also see the cruise liner departing. Minutes later we are picked up by Dan.

Dinner, we are hungry and Tara has made a lovely roast. We all tuck in and then catch up on Saturday nights X-Factor – woo hoo. 10pm we are all shattered and head to bed.

Intensive Yoga Training Student Blog Day 7

23-10-2010 Saturday

Up as usual and into the yoga studio for 7:30am. During meditation this morning we brought in the ujjayi breath and visualised the breath as a transparent tube, blue while inhaling and red while exhaling. It was very energising. We then moved into our asana practice and I felt very strong and energised through the whole practice.

After breakfast we sat beside the pool and discussed the Nadis and the Chakras. The Nadis are highways of energy inter-twining through the chakras. We brought this to our practices throughout the day, visualising the blue energy flowing in and around the body and the red energy flowing around the body and out, helping to bring balance and centring to our bodies. We also discussed meditation and what is required for a good meditation – a regular time, a comfortable place, warm, quiet.

We also discussed the Mudra and how we use this in meditation. Joining the thumb and the index finger, represents keeping the ego centralised so it cannot be dominate.

This was a very good day and I felt happy and centred throughout the day. Feeling strong and energised in my body. Before I knew it, the day was over and it was nearly time for dinner. Everyone was feeling relaxed and Joanne had settled in well, it felt like she had been there from the start. Dinner was lovely, it was a huge gorgeous paella. We all oohed and aahed when Dan brought in the paella dish. It was so yummy. After dinner, the girls wanted to do some salsa again, so we did some dancing for about an hour. Oh course, Roy slid off as quickly as he could, as he was not interested in salsa lessons. Tara was interested and we tried to get Dan involved too, but both Roy and Dan were not interested!!! Honestly!!! It was a lovely evening.

Intensive Yoga Training Student Blog Day 6

22-10-2010 Friday

Slept much better last night. Had my new roommate Joanne and it was an early start for her.

In practice this morning, we worked through the lesson plan with a closer inspection. We were holding the positions for longer and were given corrections to the poses and more specifically to our own individual bodies. We then looked at each other poses and identified where the corrections needed to be made. This was very beneficial and useful, both from the perspective of our own practice and then also as a teacher in helping our students correct their poses.

We then discussed Yoga Nidra (Conscious sleep), went through the handout and talked about how best to work through the different parts of Yoga Nidra. We had this session sitting beside the pool, which was lovely.

We then had teaching practice and I was grouped with Eugenia and Nora-Mary. We concentrated in the lesson plan concentrating onLimbering and Sun Salutation. We each named, demonstrated and talked the other two through a pose and we circled round so we were each the teacher for a different pose. This helped to provide confidence in demoing and speaking about the posture.

After lunch we had our asana practice and this was less time in each pose and more of a flow. There were a few extra poses introduced to make the practice stronger. Tara joined us as well. It was definitely a stronger practice for me. I brought in all the corrections that I had been given over the last few days and definitely felt strong and more energised.

As usual, dinner was fantastic. We started to talk about salsa dancing. I said I could teach everyone, and all the girls were up for it. Roy wasn’t as keen and first there were comments about a dodgy hip, then he quietly slid off!! Hhmmm.... We had a great time dancing, everyone enjoyed themselves. Bedtime.

Intensive Yoga Training Student Blog Day 5

21-10-2010 Thursday Day 5

Didn’t sleep well last night. I woke up very tired and slow today and a bit stiff.

In meditation, felt stiffness in my back right lower ribs and this didn’t start to go until we went into relaxation.

Flexibility in the poses was not as good as normal, but I took it at my own pace and it was only when we got to sitting forward bend over 1 leg that I had a spasm in my back which I had to come out of to the position to release. Struggled a bit through the rest of the poses but managed to at least do them for short periods. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Another lesson in the hot tub. We went through the lesson plan and discussed our likes and dislikes of poses. I said that I liked fish, I hadn’t originally and I still found setting the position up a pain, but once in the position it was lovely. I also said that I didn’t like the hand position in locust, lifting the legs was fine but the hands hurt. Also said I didn’t like head stand, that I was afraid to attempt to go up, because of neck problems. Roy said that we would look at these tomorrow, including the dislikes of the rest of the guys.

We then had a session where we paired up and went through teaching each other the strengthening positions. I was paired with Nora-Mary. I started off with Mountain the Nora-Mary with Squat, taking it in turn for each pose in week 1 lesson plan. We first named the pose, then demonstrated it in silence, then talked through the pose. Felt this was good as we refined what was being said the whole way through, with a few suggestions from Roy when we forgot to say something about a pose.

Afternoon practice was to write out each pose as we would speak it to a student from week 1 lesson plan. Then we had to teach the class a Pranamaya – full yogic breath. We all took slightly different approaches but all were good and understandable.

Feeling my energy level increasing, so hopefully I will be more energised tomorrow. Joanne arrives tonight, so it will be nice to have company in my room.

We had a lovely dinner tonight. Tara had made a huge mushroom puff pastry pie, and written in pastry on the top was ‘yoga’, served with baked potatoes, salad. The pie was amazing. Quality of food is top notch. We made sure we left enough for Joanne, for when she arrived.

We were sitting having a cuppa when Joanne arrived. She came in and we all said hello, Tara had dinner warming for her, so I showed her to our room and let her get settled in. After her dinner, another cuppa tea and more chat then we headed off to bed. I had met Joanne before as she is my friend’s sister-in-law, so for me it was more of a catch up.

Intensive Yoga Training Student Blog Day 4

20-10-2010 Wednesday Day 4

Up again and into the yoga studio for 7:30am. We did half an hour of meditation and then moved into our asana practice. Still feeling a little stiff this morning, but felt good in the postures and with the corrections given to me previously starting to feel a lot stronger in the postures too. I am consciously making an effort to bring the corrections to my body both on and off the mat.

10am Porridge for breakfast this morning, yummy. Juice this morning was fig, it is absolutely gorgeous. Figs, fresh off the trees in the garden.

Nora-Mary and I do part of our Karma yoga after breakfast is finished and then we are back at 11am for teaching practice. It is another gorgeous day, so we decide to do the practice outside. We bring the yoga mats outside and pair up; we are to teach each other from the week 1 lesson plan. I was paired with Eugenia and Nora-Mary was paired with Clare. We took the Limbering section of the lesson plan and took it in turns to teach a posture. We were still finding it difficult to find the correct words to describe the pose and after we had completed our session, we spoke about this more. It was agreed that we would have a class where we would write out the words for each pose tomorrow.

Today is our first half day off, and we have decided to head to the beach. Tara has prepared a packed lunch for us to eat on the beach. Roy is staying at the Retreat, so it is just the 4 girls.

Intensive Yoga Training Student Blog Day 3

19-10-2010 Tuesday Day 3

Woke up on time this morning, so a better start to the day. Feeling very stiff and sore from the previous day’s practice. Think also my Fibromyalgia is kicking in a little bit – not so good. Hopefully a good stretch out will ease this out.

Unfortunately, this was not the case; found the stiffness was impacting my ability in some of my poses and how I wanted to do them. I still did the poses but just pulled myself back a little and went with what my body was allowing me to do.

Porridge for breakfast this morning, just what I needed. Everyone enjoyed it and this was followed by poached eggs and toast. Juice today was fig and grape, absolutely amazing. Figs were fresh from the garden.

After breakfast, we headed to the hot tub for a lesson. Wow – how amazing is that!! We all piled in, it was like a big hot bath, we got all the jets going and had five minutes of just relaxing, then we started our discussion on ‘Planning a Yoga Class’, followed by a discussion on the ‘Yamas and Niyamas’ and how they impact on day to day life and then how they impact postures. This was a very relaxed productive enjoyable class. So now instead of saying ‘Damn you Roy’, we were saying ‘We love you Roy’! Feeling much better after the hot tub, think I am starting to be less stiff and sore.

We also had a class on sectional breathing and I found out that I am a belly breather!! So I need to learn to use the top of my lungs more.

For teaching practice, we took the Limbering section of our lesson plan and paired up to teach the positions to each other. We worked outside as it was another beautiful warm day. We each demonstrated a posture, then breaking it down and explaining it to the other person as we got them to move into the posture. This was the first time we had tried to teach the postures to one another and the most difficult part was finding the words. We then broke for karma yoga time and some free time before lunch.

Karma Yoga time, we were giving something back. Some of the guys are in the garden and some are in the house. Nora-Mary and I are clearing up after breakfast and lunch, 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes after lunch. It is enjoyable and means we get to know our hosts a bit better, as well as giving them a hand around the retreat.

Lunchtime and again the food was outstanding. Tara and Dan cannot be thanked enough for the quality of the food – 5 gold Michelin stars deserved here. Figs with goats cheese on them, amazing and that was only part of the delights of lunch.

Afternoon class was an asana practice and by this stage we were all really getting to know one another and have a bit of a laugh along the way. I am still feeling a little tired in my body, but am able to do the postures without too much impact. Roy has us all laughing out heads off when we came to do cobra. We couldn’t even start the posture for a minute or two because we were laughing so much. He was talking us through cobra and talking about a cobra curling up and hissing forward, then he did an impression of the hissing cobra, we laughed and got him to do it again – so so funny…

Once class, summary and journaling were over for the day, I sat in the garden in the sun until dinner was ready, which again was amazing. Then Roy told us he had downloaded X-Factor Results Show, so we watched it after dinner – Yay J

Intensive Teacher Training Student Blog Day 2

18-10-2010 Monday Day 2

Starting the day by sleeping in is never good. I forgot to move my clock forward by an hour!!! I heard the rest of the guys talking and burst out of my room like a mad thing, asking was it 6:30 or 7:30. I don’t think they knew what to make of me standing there with bed head in my pyjamas!

Amazingly, I got myself together and into the yoga studio in record time. Still half asleep, simple instructions were not transmitting to my brain!! Roy asked us to fold our mats in two for meditation; instead I got a second mat and placed it on top of my other mat, only then realizing that was not what he had said!

We spent half an hour meditating in a simple cross-legged position, listening to the village wake up. The sound of the cockerels, dogs, cars, stirring in the background. Then lying down, for a short relaxation and centring, preparing us for our asana practice.

This was our first asana practice together, so we worked through the week 1 lesson plan. This practice was a flowing practice and was for Roy to gauge where we were with our postures.

After our practice finished, we headed for breakfast at 10am. We were all really hungry and looking forward to our breakfast. We were not disappointed. There were a variety of cereals to choose from, as well as fruit salad, yoghurts, followed by boiled eggs and toast. Tea, coffee and the most delicious smoothie made with avocados, bananas, lemon and soymilk. Yummy J.

After breakfast we talked about the ‘Aims and Objectives’ of the course and also ‘What is Yoga’. We sat beside the pool in the lovely warm sunshine and it really didn’t feel like we were working as the conversation flowed.

Next, we had teaching practice, this was a very enlightening session, as were studying each other bodies in postures and Roy helped us to focus on the areas of the body that needed correcting. When this came to my turn, I found the corrections made my body feel weird as I felt I was standing all wrong. However, I took these corrections and brought them to our afternoon asana practice and started to feel better with the postures as my body got used to the new position.

In the afternoon practice, we were all feeling a little tired towards the end of the class and Roy was keeping us going. He started to say in a high-pitched voice – ‘Damn you Roy’, so we all joined in with him too!!! This was to become a bit of an anthem in some of the classes when we tired or doing a strenuous posture, just to lighten the moment.

After the end of the day’s summary and journaling, I felt very positive and was looking forward to the next day.

We had a bit of relaxation time before dinner and of course we were talking about missing the X-Factor results show. So Roy said he would look on the internet to see if he could find it for us to watch… Yippee!! I mean, you do have to get your priorities sorted in life!!

Intensive Yoga Training Student Blog Day 1

05-10-2010 Tue

Email from Roy, our teacher à Meeting at Starbucks in Dublin Airport on 17^th at 12:30pm.

17-10-2010 Sunday Day 1

As I had travelled down from Belfast the night before, I arrived at the airport a little early – 11:30am, after checking out of my hotel. I went through security, browsed round the shops and went to Starbucks for 12:30pm to meet Roy and the rest of the Intensive Course Students. Now I had spoken with Roy since he had sent the email about meeting, and I knew that Starbucks was on the 2^nd floor, but could I find a Starbucks on the 2^nd floor? Well No!! There was one on the ground floor, so I realized there must be another one in the check in hall… Oops!!

It all worked out. Nora-Mary, a fellow student called me on my mobile and we arranged to meet at the gate. I gave her a description of what I was wearing, so that she wouldn’t miss me. Arriving at the gate, first to meet were Nora-Mary from Co. Cork and Eugenia from Dublin. Although Eugenia is from Argentina, so her name is pronounced differently from how I imagined – A-O-Hania. For those of you who speak Spanish, you will know how to pronounce it, I was having difficulties with it, so had to work on it. Thankfully, by the time I got to Murcia, I had got it

YTTC Yoga Foundation Course

YTTC Yoga Foundation Course Level One

With Roy Griffin

20 Week Introductory Course

This course is ideal for yoga students who wish to go deeper in to the subject of Yoga and improve their personal level of practice. The course is delivered in a relaxed and friendly manner in which the students are encouraged to contribute.

Aims and Objectives:

1. To introduce the student to the fundamental practices within asana, pranayama, meditation, yoga Nidra {Relaxation} and philosophy.

2. To provide the foundation on which the student can develop and evolve their Knowledge of Yoga.

3. To provide students with the understanding, skills and attitude to practice Yoga safely and confidently

Tutor:

Roy Griffin is an experienced yoga teacher having spent many years studying, practising and teaching yoga. Roy is the director of Yoga Therapy & Training Centre {YTTC}, Ireland’s largest Yoga Training Organisation providing training courses throughout the island of Ireland.

“Roy’s style of teaching is intuitive and fun with a strong focus on developing the more subtle practice within asana work”