India is almost always a test: a sensory assault, a country filled with nasty bacteria and parasites waiting to make you well acquainted with your toilet bowl, a place that really makes you re-evaluate your ideas about personal space, cleanliness, standards of living and what you think you can and can’t do without. The simplest [...]
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Delhi: turn up the heat
Today we took a drive to Agra (it took us about 4 hours each way) and saw the famous Taj Mahal, which warrants its fame. It’s gorgeous. You can see it in all its marbled splendour in the photos below – all you need to do is add about 44C to the scene and you [...]
Tibetan koras
On Sunday we went contemplative kora walking around the Dalai Lama’s residence. It’s a meditative clockwise circumambulation that involves spinning prayer wheels, chanting mantras or counting mala. There are two juniper fires burning and we had the opportunity to write notes to the universe and throw them into the flames, asking for love and light, giving [...]
Certified!
I can’t believe we’re done! One month in India and over 200 hours of teacher training and I’m a certified Ashtanga and Hatha yoga teacher!
Mind over mat …
Yesterday was my first day teaching the whole class. I was the first in the first group … nothing like getting it over with! I surprised myself by enjoying it, and going to so many led classes (thanks Sarah!), really does help – information seeming it infiltrates your brain by osmosis, and then suddenly you’re [...]
Teacher training: the countdown begins
My mom is a wizard. A wizard among wizards. She managed to change my flight from South Africa, through the Jet Airways office in Jo’burg, and so I will be leaving here in the 22nd and heading to Delhi with some of the girls from the teacher training. Fun times :) The thing I’m most excited by [...]
Home stretch
India got on my nerves this past weekend. It makes me crazy when I don’t know if I’m getting a good deal or not, whether I am being ripped off or not, and when everything always becomes a mission, no matter how easy it appears on the surface. I have always enjoyed flying Jet Airways [...]
Day 14 meditation
Today has been a good day. Yesterday was hard one for a lot of people - tears and stress, and silence the whole day. But today we practiced almost the entire primary series (instead of doing modifications and demos for teaching purposes), and I have missed it so much! YAY! Feel energised for the whole day! [...]
Day 13
Yesterday’s half day wasn’t really a half day since we had lots of work to do, but I did manage to get in a nap, visit a Tibetan tattoo parlour (just for research purposes ) and eat some delicious Tibetan food. Tomorrow I’m leading the class in a meditation, which I thought I’d be nervous [...]
Half way
The last two days have been pretty hard on the whole group – not so much in terms of any increase in workload, but rather because the intensity has been consistently high for the last two weeks, and we are now half way and feeling pretty beat. It can also be hard to get a [...]
Day 11
This weekend the Dalai Lama was in town and I spent some time considering hanging around outside his residence hoping to catch sight of him. There is such a special feeling there, a calmness and happiness – it’s quite amazing. I dropped some goodies off there, and I really hope His Holiness has time to [...]
Dark Days in Dharmshala
From happy yesterday to miserable today – things are changing fast here in Dharmshala! I really felt so good yesterday – strong and flexible and in control – and today I can barely move on my mat, barely touch my toes, and am definitely nowhere near being in control of my emotions! I spent much [...]
