Halfway Point

Today marks the halfway point of yoga teacher training! Couldn't be happier about that. This has been one of the hardest things I've done, and I cannot wait until it's over. Not that I'm not enjoying the process, just that I miss my family and I can't wait to be back in the comforts of home.

We started the morning with our regular meditation and pranayama classes. I was eaten alive by mosquitos last night so I could barely switch off my mind and focus on not focusing on anything, instead surrendering  to scratching the bites. Pranayama went a little more smoothly for me, as we did mostly seated stuff (at 7am it makes a difference to me!). We did a Tibetan breathing exercise that involves plugging one nostril and breathing out, inhaling and plugging the other, and we did Kapalabati breathing seated which was nice too, since my joints have been giving me problems lately. Then we had our asana class and it was so perfect. The instructors take turns teaching asana class, and today we had Emily, whose classes are a little more flowy, and her instruction puts you at ease so you feel comfortable to make any kind of organic movements you feel like you need. It was a great class, and my wrists even let me do a semi normal practice! So grateful for that.

The rest of the day involves a three hour anatomy class, lunch, and three hour written test and teaching test. There are only three tests throughout this whole thing, and today's is the second. Tomorrow is a day off, thankfully, and I'm planning on going into town early (1 hr by taxi) to see what I can do about my flight to Munich (really hoping somebody cancelled their flight so I can leave soon after the training) and then I'll come back and read and rest.

Some pictures from the previous few days:

Here is my class during laughter yoga the other day, which was actually quite funny and not as lame as I thought it'd be. (That being said, I still don't see myself rushing out to take a laughter yoga class.) Here we are doing "machine gun laughter". Not very yogic, is it, to be holding an imaginary machine gun and shooting people while laughing? The absurdity of it was the best part. 

Here is one of my teachers during our props class, where we learned various ways to incorporate the use of straps, blocks, cushions, walls, etc to help students have a more full pose while keeping the integrity of the posture.

And here, another one of my teachers shows us various ways to adjust a forward fold (aka paschimotonasana b in Sanskrit, just FYI). 

Now I'm off to study for my test. It will cover about thirty or so Sanskrit posture names, chakras, 8 limbs of yoga, some anatomy, yoga philosophy, etc. Our practical exam will consist of us teaching a partner a set sequence, and the instructor listens to our instructions, and watches our adjustments and assists. Fingers crossed I do well!