After a slightly less eventful flight to Delhi (upgrade, thank you BA!) I landed in Delhi and made my way to the rather terrifying Smart Signature hotel. Despite some misgivings about my room and fears from all the news earlier this year, I awoke bed bug bite free, bright and early to catch my fly to Dehradun. I was surprised to find Delhi very cold, and my flight delayed due to heavy fog. This was a sign of things to come.
Landing in Dehradun I was picked up along with my fellow yoga hopeful Cian, a nice Irish water sports instructor, by the very friendly Vikas. Vikas runs Jiva Yoga Academy and would be our host, Ashtanga and Philosophy teacher. He drove us the 45 minutes through the jungle and soon we arrived in Rishikesh. It turns out that January is down season, possibly something to do with the fact it’s 6 degrees once the sun goes down with no heating anywhere, and so it’s just Cian and a very friendly Indian, Mithun, who now lives in Melbourne as a roaming pharmacist, who are doing my course. We met our various teachers and immediately got started on our fire ceremony. This was a lovely ceremony that kick started our yoga journey, taking place in the yoga studio in the roof that is where all our classes will take place.
The rest of the day proceeded with a healthy lunch (lentil count 1, cauliflower 1) and our first class - anatomy. Anatomy & Physiology, the study of structures and how the body & organs work, started with a look at the cell, the concept of Prana and Apana which is the intake and expulsion of energy/ vital force. We moved through the body and started looking at different spinal ailments, and how the yogic practice can help to fix things.
The general idea is that we are aiming for homeostasis, or the stable condition. Yoga is a holistic approach to support stability and balance. Therefore for many of the issues an imbalance may be caused where some muscles are tight, and a corresponding balancing muscle is weak. Yoga supports by identifying some muscles to stretch through Asanas (poses), and some corresponding ones to strengthen, again through Asanas. All pretty interesting, though as all classes take place in the yoga studio, they involve sitting cross legged on my yoga mat and by the end of the class I’m feeling pretty stiff and very fidgety.
We then had our first Ashtanga yoga class. The style of teaching is very different to the UK, in an hour we learnt sun salutation series A, and did 5 iterations, then series B. It was exhausting! The teacher, Vikas, pushes hard, with a focus on getting the poses right, taking no prisoners if knees not bent enough etc. I have done the most Ashtanga of the group, so found this stage the easiest, I’m sure that will change.
The same can’t be said of meditation, this will by far be the hardest for me I fear. By this time it was dark and freezing! In my coat and 2 jumpers, sitting for an hour on the floor learning mantras was a struggle. Jet lag not helping, and again feeling the pinch from crossed legs for so long. A quick dinner (lentils 2, cauliflower 1) then to to bed. Luckily my shower is warm and the duvet is too, so with 2 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of trousers and a big jumper, I could snuggle to bed nice and early ahead of the 6:30am start tomorrow. I have been informed that the ears are a major source of heat loss, so will find myself something warm to wrap round my head asap tomorrow! Feeling a little daunted, but excited for more tomorrow.
First book finished, “Really good, actually”. Wasn't for me but will try to keep the posts positive so will leave at that.
Sunrise is at 8am, so the cold and dark was tough to get up in. Our first Hatha class was all theory, again interesting but chilly. From tomorrow onwards it will be practice. In Pranyama (breathing class), we learnt 2 main breathing types. Pranyama class is very nice and relaxing, lots of lying down and breathing, and talk of how slow breathing makes you live longer. Think turtle vs bunnies. Towards the end of Pranyama the sun had hit the room, and we all gathered in it like lizards, so good to feel warm again!
Alignment class is focused on the small detail of postures, aligning body, breath and mind. Today we learnt 1 pose, “happy pose”, sthir sukham asanam or sukhasana. This is the sitting cross legged pose. It hurts my hips, I’m hoping I improve quickly. Apparently tomorrow we learn to do it with props eg blocks, but in a contrast to London yoga teachers, our teacher said we should be feeling uncomfortable in order to progress.
Yoga philosophy was a great class, and held sitting in chairs outside in the sun! I’ll go into it more tomorrow as we dig into Ahinsa, the first Yama (there are 5 Yama or moral disciplines in Yoga). Yama is the first of the 8 yogs, Ashtanga Yoga means 8 limbs. Not to be confused with Ashtanga vinyasa flow, the practice. Ahinsa**non-violence, is a big one for Jains that Anjul once tried to explain to me at Glastonbury so keen to learn about it properly tomorrow! **Note that all members of Shah tribe have corrected me to Ahimsa, which is the Jain version of the word. Google seems to think they're equivalent so readers choice on what you read here.
In Ashtanga flow, we learnt 4 more poses and my back was twisted round outrageously but clicked nicely, and my forehead is already touching my knees so that felt like progress. Meditation however, was hard. We did a 35 minute long meditation to learn our weaknesses, physically I can’t sit in one position for that long and it hurt. I think my max would be 10 mins. The hips! We have upgraded on temperature control, by getting blankets so it's not so cold, plus I found a hat when we popped out for a walk and tonight was a balmy 8 degrees so looking up!
(Lentils 2, cauliflower 2)
The quick walk into town was nice, spotted the famous Ganga, it’s very blue and beautiful. Over an out for today, will report back in a few days but feeling optimistic, if a bit sore.
Ahimsa*