my YTT journey

This weekend, we worked on our handstands and also practised other inversions and arm balances. We all love challenging ourselves and getting every improvement we can, to get into these difficult poses. It is definitely the most physically demanding aspect of asana and common among practitioners to aim to achieve. For me, I have wished and dreamt for the longest time to be able to hold a pincha mayurasana/handstand, and every new arm balance I try still gives me exhilaration. That sense of achievement is something we all seek and enjoy. But besides the superficial perks from inversions such as looking fancy, physical fitness and ability, or simply enjoying the thrill, I think inversions and arm balances also train the mind. The more obvious benefits from attempting these asanas would be perseverance (how many times have we fallen or failed before we can get 1 successful 0.5 second hold?), and focus. What is the most challenging for me, more so when going upside down than balancing on h...

This week, we learnt how to safely adjust students to help them into proper alignment while in poses. I would have to say this is by far the most challenging part of teaching to me. It's easy to process what to do when watching a demonstration, but when it's time to do it myself, I fumble and feel so unsure. I do hope with more practice and visualisation, this would come more naturally to me. Even though we were paired up, I was kiasu and practised on another friend when there was any extra time xD Analyzing a different body type in a split second is really challenging and also needs practice and experience. We've also been layering our teaching more and more - on top of walking around while giving cues now, we also have to start observing what students are actually doing and give customised verbal and physical adjustments when necessary. That's the end goal and a necessary skill that a teacher needs. While it is helpful that we are taught how to adjust for each individ...

How time flies, we've already completed half of our YTT. It got me reflecting on what I had intended to achieve from this YTT, and what I am currently experiencing/feeling as I am halfway through. For the past 2+ years when I was seriously contemplating to do a YTT, my main objective was to improve my practice as I had observed other friends who had gone through YTT and drew a conclusion that a YTT could be helpful for me. I felt compelled to know how to improve and access more poses for which my progress had been stagnant, as I was still very tight in many parts of my body. At the same time, I felt intimidated that because I was unable to access many poses, it would not be 'becoming' if I were to be licensed to teach but not be exemplary of a yoga teacher (which in my mind at that time was, and maybe still a teeny bit now, being able to do all the fancy poses). The only thing I thought I could contribute as a prospective teacher was advising on gentle stretches or 'reh...

New Learnings I was very intrigued over the weekend, learning about joint movements and spine types!  It opened a whole new perspective in understanding yoga poses and how they help in joint mobility. There are so many movements that each joint should be able to do. It also helps us be more aware and conscious of what we need to engage and what movements we should be actually doing instead of focusing on how the pose looks. For example, palms on the ground in arm balancing doesn't mean dorsiflexion of the palm (bring the palm towards the top of the forearms, just as how it looks), but it actually means the other way round (palmar flexion, bringing the palm towards the bottom of the forearms) because we need to press down onto the ground. Most interestingly, we can actually cue yoga poses just by using joints and their movements as reference points. I still have difficulty remembering all the terms though xD We also learnt about different spine types and commonly seen traits/issues....

I have struggled for a long time with chest or shoulder opening poses, as these areas are very tight for me and I believe that it would only take me daily, religious and diligent stretching to get them to open up. One of my resolutions (even before YTT) is to open up this area so that I can access many more poses, the obvious being backbends. But my previous view on progress was a little too organic, i.e. if I go for a backbend class then yay good for me, otherwise I would rarely stretch out on my own at home. The one thing that struck me the most was during our self introduction when I mentioned to Jess about my tight shoulders. She said that we should also practice yoga off the mat, such as the way we sit. There I was hugging my knees close to my chest, with a rounded back. I have been hunching my whole life! When I was about 10 years old, my piano teacher told me to stop sitting like a prawn. After decades of hunching, it is no surprise that my shoulders are tight and even though I ...

I don’t think I have ever spent 2 consecutive days of practice sessions doing arm balances and poses/drills that require weight on the wrists at a 90-degree angle. The most I have ever done would be practising during the peak pose of a yoga class, which would be like 5-10 minutes at most? The intensive practice of Side Crow/EPK 1/Fallen Angel brought out an issue that I discover now - my palm placement and grip. I’ve listened to teachers telling me to ‘claw my finger pads into the mat’, but I think my lack of awareness of this crucial part led me to having wrist pain for the rest of the week - not to let the meaty part between the thumb and the index finger lift off the ground. If my wrists hurt after that, it means that I was doing it wrong.  Got a little confused throughout the week as to how to grip correctly and was observing random yoga videos and googling as well. I have been clawing such that my knuckles might lift off and for a few days I thought that I had been interpretin...