Yoga Teacher training course in Hoi An - week 1 experience

I'm completing a 1-month intensive yoga teacher training course which started on Monday 8/1/2018 at http://nomadyogahoian.com/ in Hoi An, Vietnam, which will qualify me as a yoga teacher through yoga alliance, this is my first weeks experience documented. The course cost $1,750 (roughly 1,258 pounds) and includes 3 vegetarian meals a day 5 days out of 7.

Yoga class in main room

Nomad yoga is very professionally run; the staff are all really friendly and the course is laid out in a very organised way. There are 6 other female students on the course with me; 3 from Germany, 2 from USA and 1 from France. We are all of different levels of ability in yoga and have practised for different lengths of time from just months to years.

Course timetable

On the first day we were given a pack with some free books for study, a timetable, a poster with yoga asanas on it, a diary and pen. This week we were in Monday - Saturday 5.15am - 6pm and we have every Sunday off. Normally on a Monday we just have to turn up to 2 lessons of our choice and the rest of the day is our free time, but this week it was a full day for our first introductory day.

Free course books we were given by nomad

Nomad is a vegan cafe as well as yoga studio and we get 3 free Vegan meals a day provided for as part of the course on full days there - Tuesday - Saturdays. The food has all been so healthy and tasty. There is a full menu of food that we can order extra for money if we like.

One of the vegan meals

Week 1

YOGA

We have Rahul for Hatha yoga, ashtanga yoga, chanting, pranayama and philosophy.
Rahul is our main teacher that we spend the most time with, he meets us all at 5.15am and prepares our herbal cleansing tea to start the day with. We also have our 2 main hatha and ashtange yoga classes with him. He's a brilliant and engaging teacher with very clear instructions.

HATHA YOGA - Hatha is a general category that includes most yoga styles. It's a slower paced, old system that includes the practice of asanas (yoga postures) and pranayama (breathing exercises), which help to combine the mind and body, preparing the body for deeper spiritual practices such as meditation. We have Hatha yoga daily first thing in the morning for 1 1/2 hours. This week we have been doing postures working on opening the back of knees and hips and core muscles to increase strength.

ASHTANGA YOGA - Fast paced yoga - We have ashtanga yoga every evening for 1 1/2 hours and have been learning different sun salutations.

RESTORATIVE YOGA - Slow and relaxing yoga, holding poses for a long time using props like pillows and bricks. We had restorative yoga twice this week; in the afternoon for 1 hour each lesson. I really enjoyed the restorative yoga, it helped to ease my aching body from doing so much yoga and I wish we had these lessons more often.

MEDITATION

Victoria is our teacher for Mediation and restorative yoga. Victoria is really friendly and super smiley and has a really calming, soothing voice perfect for guided meditations. She uses a meditation singing bowl in all of her classes

We've had 1 hour of meditation each afternoon and have tried different forms of mediation including; sitting silently, guided sitting, walking, mantras (gathas) while walking and conscious eating. I prefer the guided sitting meditation, we had a one called garden of the mind that was very powerful for me. Body, mind, emotions and surroundings are the 4 things that meditation brings awareness to.

We discussed the garden of the mind and if we are watering wholesome or unwholesome seeds. Wholesome seeds being gratitude, love, joy, acceptance and peace; unwholesome being jealousy, anger, fear, anxiety and stress.

This got me thinking about my own 'seeds'. Ways in which I personally water my wholesome seeds are writing poems, playing my ukulele, getting out in nature and positive affirmations, mostly on accepting myself and gratitude. Ways in which I sometimes water my unwholesome seeds are by putting expectations on people and being dissapointed when they don't meet my expectations.

The science behind meditation - We have an autonomic nervous system which is split between the SNS sympathetic nervous system and PNS parasympathetic nervous system. PNS is triggered by abdominal breathing and is healing and relaxing, slowing down the heart rate. SNS is triggered by thoracic breathing (chest breathing) and can increase heart and blood pressure and increase stress.

4 Nutriments are:
1, Edible Food.
2,Sensory Impressions - vision, touch, smell, taste, hearing.
3, Volition - our intention (mine is to heal).
4, Consiousness - individual thoughts and feelings and also collective thoughts and feelings.

We've spoken about Thich Nhat Hanh a lot, he's a Vietnamese Buddhist Monk who has Plum Village meditation centres in Vietnam, Thailand and France. We've read some powerful chapters from his book, art of communication, he has more books published including one I've been advised to read about anger. I would like to go and stay at his meditation centre in Thailand some time. https://plumvillage.org/?gclid=CjwKCAiAqIHTBRAVEiwA6TgJw7FZk4rBAyaaqanveJMweaODWJrQnOU0HwD5MORN-M_75wyRFiqI5hoCN_UQAvD_BwE

Headspace app is a really good free meditation app that can be downloaded.
Chill app is a good mindfullness app that can be downloaded.

meditation singing bowl

PRANAYAMA
This means expansion of life force and is achieved using different breathing techniques. We've been practising different breathing exercises every morning for 1 hour, straight after hatha yoga. We've practised the following breathing exercises:
1, Ujjay breath - ocean breath - noise at the back of the throat, good for holding postures.
2, Aloum Aloum - alternate nostril breathing; left nostril is feminine the moon; right nostril masculine the sun.
3, Simha - tongue out whilst breathing out, fire breath.
4, Kapalbhatie - fire breath, lots of frequent short, powerful exhales and passive inhales.

doing Aloum Aloum breathing

CHANTING
We've been learning various hindu sanskrit chants, this week we have learnt Guru mantara 1 and shanti mantra 1 . We've had 3, 1 hour chanting lessons this week.

Guru Mantra 1

Shanti Mantra 1

YOGA PHILOSOPHY
• Yoga is the union of mind and body and it originates from India.
• In the philosophy class we've spoken about Buddah, the enlightened one. It took 42 years for Buddah to become enlightened.
• The aim is mocha – liberation.
• According to the yogic theories of creation we are now in the stone age – Kali Yugah - described in ancient Sanskrit scriptures. It is the age of the physical body more so than mental. People regard their physical possesions as an extension of themselves. They live for material things and physical pleasure. Our heart is like stone and does not melt easy. People are more focused on yoga as exercise than meditation.

ANATOMY
Nicola is our teacher for anatomy. There's a lot of anatomy to take in for just a months study, it’s the bit I find the most difficult. Thankfully, Nicola keeps it all interesting and very hands on, not just reading from the white board, but with lots of practical things, involving us all. Plus she emails all of her class notes to us after the lesson which is really usefull!

We have 2 cavaties of breath

1. Thoracic – using the lungs, ribs – causes SNS nervous system.
2. Abdominal – using the stomach – causes PNS nervous system.

BONES
-206
-compact & spongy
-made of 25% water
-manufacture blood cells
-structurally support the body
-storage reservoir for calcium
-ability to change shape; Wolff’s Law states “calcium is laid down in response to stress”

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy there will be more to follow!