For our 3rd week in Rishikesh we had a new schedule. Philosophy, anatomy and meditation all finished and we had a few new classes. These included double sessions of Aryuveda classes, and 3 holistic healing sessions. In Aryuveda we learnt that everyone has tendencies towards the elements Vata (air), pitta (fire) and kapha (earth/ water). The principle of Aryuveda is that over time we are constantly getting imbalanced, and imbalance leads to illness. Therefore, with Aryuveda we try to fix imbalances with various medicines, asanas, pranayama, cleanses, lifestyle etc. You can tell what a person is from how they behave, their eye shape, food preferences and many other factors. I was told universally that fire or pitta is my dominant nature, and 3 different doctors told me I have a Vata imbalance, too much air in my body. I am therefore working on reducing, good to know that even on the other side of the world, doctors can confirm I am full of hot air.
In holistic healing we did 2 breathing based sessions of rebirthing, and a self administered Reiki session focused on chakras. In the rebirthing, through breathing etc, you are meant to unlock and release previous traumas that stem right back from being born. I didn’t experience much personally, however the impact on everyone was very strong, with high emotions, breathing and even tears. In the reiki session I did experience a strong feeling in my chest and throat as we got to that chakra, and Dr Arti was very calming and powerful in making everyone feel safe and special throughout all 3 sessions.
In our final week we upped the ante for cleansing in pranayama, and progressed from Jal Neti to Rubber Neti. Jal Neti is the process of cleansing your nose/ sinuses with warm salty water, feels weird at first but by now I was pretty onboard with the process. Rubber Neti is another level. It involved pushing a rubber tube into your nostril until it comes back out your throat, then grabbing it and sort of flossing your nose/ throat, before pulling fully out through your mouth. The first time I tried I had to abort mission, I did manage the second day but given how much I was gagging, declined a photo. Here is a video of Cian completing this much more gracefully than I did! I didn’t personally notice any benefits to my breathing but did feel a bit sore in the back of my throat, the jury is very much still out for Rubber Neti.
As we reached the end of the week it was time to finish Hatha and Ashtanga classes, which was a bit emotional. It felt like the time had passed so quickly, and was good to see the impact and progress we’d all made in just a few weeks. Vikas and Sonu have looked after us so well and been so welcoming, I am very lucky to have had such good teachers. With classs over, we then started practicums, where we took turns running 20 minute classes in preparation for our final exam. Before we knew it, we were headed into our final few days.
On my last day off, it was very foggy and cloudy, which meant that we didn’t go rafting as planned. Instead we all went for a very bouje breakfast at a hotel looking over the Ganga, then I walked up to the second secret waterfall for some Momo’s and had another massage. All in all a good day even if not the one planned.
As we got closer to the end of the course, trying more and more practicums, I was increasingly impressed with yoga teachers who manage to squeeze so much into an hour. Particularly those who can balance a challenging class while being beginner friendly. Bonus points for those who can also perfectly time to music etc! Shout out to all the yogis/ yoginis out there making it look easy. For our last day we had our philosophy exam and final practicum which lasted an hour, despite a slight timing misstep I am proud to say I passed!
To celebrate our final night we hit the town for an open mic night and Cian impressed us all with his singing & guitar playing. There were a surprising number of open mic nights going in Rishikesh which generally seems fairly quiet, however that could just be a biased view from someone focused on studying. While most of the Indian songs picked by people were Bollywood classics I hadn’t heard of, the crowd was loving what are clearly bangers if you like old school Bollywood. At this point I realised quite how much I'm looking forward to a night out. 25 days of clean living has been great, but looking forward to a bit of balance in the other direction on the next leg of the trip.
On our final morning, Thursday 25th January, I officially qualified as a yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance! After a short ceremony, we said our goodbyes. The morning was a slight anticlimax as poor Cian was ill so stayed in his room for most of the morning, and of all our teachers, only Vikas attended the ceremony. But hey ho, not to take away from an overall great experience with Jiva Yoga Academy. I left filled with knowledge on teaching, the asanas for Hatha and Ashtanga, pranayama and also a new perspective on lots of yoga philosophy. I would definitely recommend the Jiva Yoga Academy for YTT.
I think I have also accidentally done a crash course introducing me to the Shah/ wider Jain philosophy. Possibly could qualify as honorary Shish? I'll let readers decide.
Looking forward to next stop Mumbai, putting my yoga into practice and seeing Nik after nearly a month apart!
Book update, I have finished 3 more since my last post. The Wager by David Gran was an excellent book about an 18th century ship wreck off the coast of Patagonia. It's an incredible story and I would highly recommend. Next up was The Ballard of Songs and Snakes: A Hunger Hames novel by Susanne Collins which I also loved. It is a prequel of the Hunger Games, from the perspective of the villain of the later novels, and you get an insight into his decline into being evil which is an interesting viewpoint to read about. Last up was Rory Stewart's Politics on the Edge: A Memoir from Within. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, I listen to Rory's podcast with Alastair Campbell and was a worried it would end up being things I had heard before from the podcast, but actually learnt a lot about how government works and some specifics on e.g. prisons, and would again recommend. I set myself a target of a book a week for this year, so far so good. Any new recommendations please do send my way.
CONGRATULATIONS AND CELEBRATIONS