After returning from the Intensive Teacher Training Course, I am reflecting on what an amazing experience it was.
Travelling from Belfast to Dublin to meet people whom I did not know, traveling to Spain and spending two weeks with them may be a scary experience for some, but to me it is an exciting challenge. For a start, the people must be like-minded, otherwise they wouldn’t be going, so that’s a start. Oh, and there is the fact that I am a bit of a talker! I like people and I like to hear their stories, so I was looking forward to meeting everyone.
We met at the airport and everyone was lovely, we struck up a rapport straight away and got the craic going. The flight flew in – no pun intended! Getting off the plane, we were greeted with pure blue skies and a lovely warm evening. We were collected by Dan and Billy and taken to Tara’s Retreat, where our course was being held.
The first thing you see when you arrive at Tara’s Retreat is the lilac gate. Stepping through the gate, you feel the stresses and strains of the world disappear and feel enveloped with the calming, warm ambience of the place. It is beautiful; the garden is filled with lemon, orange, fig, and pomegranate trees, with little winding paths through the garden. After being there only a few days, we all felt like we had been there a month because we were all so chilled out and relaxed. It was the ideal place for the course.
On arriving, we were greeted by Tara herself and shown to our rooms, which were comfortable and inviting. There was also a roast dinner waiting for us, which was superb. Mmmm, the food, what can I say about the food? Every meal was fantastic; each meal was designed to give us energy and was PH balanced. There were snacks provided as well in case we ever got hungry, but the truth is, we were so well fed at mealtimes that there was no need for any snacks.
After dinner, we all hit the hot tub. By this time, we were comfortable in each other’s company, so we had a great time chilling out under the stars in amongst the trees. This was the first of many dips into the hot tub; we even had class in there! Yes, we did. When we didn’t need any notes and were able to just discuss the topic, we headed for the hot tub!!
Our days began at 7.30 am, where we would have around 30 minutes of meditation. When we started, it was dark outside, and we would hear the sounds of the village waking up. Cockerels, dogs, and cars are stirring in the background. Once the mediation was finished, we would open our eyes, the sun had risen, and it really prepared us for the start of our day.
We would then lie down for a short relaxation before starting our asana practice. For our asana practice, we worked off a lesson plan. There were 6 in all; the first lesson plan formed the basis of all the lesson plans, with new poses being added progressively.
We started with Centring, which was our relaxation at the start of our practice, followed by Limbering, which started with lying down poses, coming to sitting poses, then moving onto hands, knees, and feet. After Limbering, we would then move into Warming, which consisted of 6 rounds of Sun Salutation, followed by 1 minute of relaxation. This certainly warmed us up, and we would move into Strengthening poses, starting in mountain pose.
These poses were standing poses, and progressively, our feet would move outwards. That is, we would start with our feet together, then move them to hip width apart, then 3-4 feet apart, moving out to 4-5 feet apart, each pose getting progressively stronger. We would always end this sequence with at least one balancing pose.
Next up was Cooling Down, so again we came back down to sitting. These poses consisted of bending, twisting, and back bends. Following up with the next sequence – Calming Down. This sequence consisted of inversions and the poses building up to them, along with the counter poses. Definitely the most challenging of these was headstand, and it wasn’t until the last day of the two weeks that I got fully into the pose.
It was a real progression over the two weeks, as I definitely didn’t feel strong enough in the first week to go fully into the pose. We of course also did shoulder stand, ending with fish pose, which I did not like at all at first. But I came to love it. I looked forward to finishing our practice with this pose, as I felt wonderful once in it. Love it, J Then we would finish with relaxation.
By this time, we had reached 10 am – Breakfast Time, yay. We were all really hungry by this stage, and breakfast was always fabulous. For breakfast, there were either cereals or porridge, followed by some type of eggs with toast. Always either a smoothie or juice, which were freshly made that morning, usually with fruit from the trees in the garden. So yummy.
Back at 11 am for classes again, and depending on whether we needed our notes or not, we would head to the poolside or the hot tub. If we had class in the hot tub, we sat for about 5 minutes just enjoying the jets and the bubbles, and then started our discussion. Some of these lessons consisted of discussing ‘Planning a Yoga Class’, ‘Yamas and Niyamas’, ‘Our likes and dislikes of poses’, ‘The Breath Flow’, and ‘Becoming a Yoga Teacher’. These were very enjoyable, productive classes. It almost didn’t feel like we were learning, but we were learning loads.
Also part of our day was teaching practice, and the hardest part of this we all found was finding the words to explain the poses. So during the first week, we had a session where we wrote down the words to describe each pose, and this really helped to focus our minds on the words. As we all felt, the words came much easier to us after this. Of course, we also had a little fun with teaching practice, cos the game was on!!
We had to make deliberate mistakes, such as a beginner might make, and the one who was in the teacher role would have to observe any mistakes and then correct them. Of course, we didn’t always get all the mistakes, but over time, there were fewer and fewer that we were missing.
We also did Karma Yoga every day, and this consisted of helping out around the retreat. This consisted of helping out in the garden or helping out in the house, from clearing up after meals, and also cleaning the yoga studio. It was lovely to help out, as it really helped to settle us in, as we felt right at home, and it was a big help to Tara and Dan.
We would have free time after lunch, and we made the most of this, enjoying the sunshine.
Then at 4 pm, we were back in the yoga studio for another asana practice or teaching practice. So by the end of the day, we had done between 5-6 hours of yoga per day. That is a lot of yoga, and in the first week, it was tough going at some stages, but we worked our way through it, and we could all feel ourselves getting stronger day by day.
Of course, we also had classes where we concentrated on Pranayama, this included the ujjayi breath and kapalabhati to name a few. We also had time off over the two weeks, 2 half days and a full day off, plus evenings too.
On one of our half days, we headed to the beach, to Puerto de Mazarron, we had a lovely chill day out and even ended up practicing sun salutation. On our full day off, we headed into Cartagena, and we had a fabulous day there. Going round an ancient Roman amphitheatre, having a lovely lunch overlooking the marina, and meandering around the streets, seeing the sights. Lovely, lovely day.
Our evenings, we would spend laughing and chatting over dinner. Roy even downloaded X-Factor, and the results show, so we wouldn’t miss any of them. Yes, we are obsessed with it!! We even had two salsa nights where I taught the girls how to salsa. Of course, we couldn’t manage to get Roy to join in; I think it was something about a dodgy hip!!! Hhmmm, a likely story.
All too quickly, the two weeks were over. We had learned so much, and I was really starting to believe that I was going to be a yoga teacher, as were the rest of the girls. We had all become such good friends, and there was a real love and support for each other. It was an amazing time, and I cannot wait until January for the next two weeks.
Roy, what can I say about Roy? He is a fabulous teacher and has such a great way with him. There is a bit of a cheeky chappy about him, it is so funny. He had us laughing so much, but still getting the work done. If you are interested in the Intensive Course, I definitely recommend it, and if you would like to find out more, then check out my more detailed blog on the YTTC website, along with the course prospectus.