The past weekend was a weekend filled with yoga. Starting off on Saturday in Camps Bay at Judy’s studio in The Little Glen, I had my third module for Intermediate Junior 1 teacher training. There are 6 training days for this year and so I am now officially half way through the modules. The module was on inversions and how these days work is that each candidate or each of us have to teach a 30 minute sequence incorporating new poses in this module.
There are 4 of us, so it was quite a physical challenge doing about 2 hours of Adho Muhka Vrksasana (hand stand), Pincha Mayurasana (forearm balance or feathered peacock pose) as well and Setu Bandha from Sarvangasana (bridge pose from shoulder stand). As exhausting as it was, I learned a lot. What’s really great about them days is how we come together to learn and there is always something new that comes up, people’s challenges and how we can safely guide students to do the pose or an alternative. This empowers us as teachers to ensure that we can spread yoga in a safe and accessible way to anyone.
I personally love inversions and think that they are a real gift to us. As challenging as they can be, once we can do these poses with awareness and conscious alignment, the benefits are astounding!
Sunday was the day of yoga and sound therapy at Sangha Spot with Dave Reynolds and Pops Mohamed. It was fabulous, there was a great turn out and the day was very successful.
It started out with an hour of yoga, since I had a mixed bunch of students, I planned a very general sequence to get them moving (it was quite a chilly day) with some rounds of Surya Namaskar and mixer that in with a few standing poses. The second part of the sequence was a more restorative sequence where with the use of props, they were guided into a state of relaxation. The use of props is very much an Iyengar yoga feature and especially in restorative poses, it allows the students to be fully supported in a way that encourages the opening of the chest, which allows for deeper breathing. After that everyone got warm and snug for Savasana (relaxation).
Dave and Pops then took over and transported us on a magical sound journey where they simulated sounds of nature sprinkled in with some gentle melodious mellow sounds of music.
After a seriously delicious vegetarian lunch that Dave prepared, we were all treated to several of their songs. Their music has a very local yet worldly feel. African and beyond – beautiful really.
It was truly a weekend of yoga – experienced from very different aspects. It’s amazing how wonderful and diverse this art and science can be experienced and how it brings us together in a joyful, mindful way.
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