I'm back!!!

What? Who?! You may well ask... I've been incommunicado so long by today's instant messaging standards that you could be forgiven for asking if I still exist? In fact the whole question of existence and what is in fact 'real' is one I found myself addressing on a regular basis throughout the month of August, courtesy of the in-depth yoga course I took in a very leafy, idyllic - but a) out of cell phone range and b) too small a place to support anything approaching an internet cafe! - part of Quebec, Canada. For those of you who don't know, I took a Yoga teacher training course at the very same place in July of last year and (last year's schedule clearly not having been punishing enough!) I decided to come back for more and do the advanced teacher training course for 4 weeks this August.

This is how my daily schedule went:

4:30 am Wake-up
5 am Pranayama - Excercises to control the breath/vital energy. On the whole, I am pretty hopeless at this! The excercises involve controlling your breathing so that you can not only hold your breath for a considerable length of time, but also lengthen out the exhalation.. and then do this over and over again without getting distracted or panicking that you are not getting enough air. Needless to say I could not keep up with the group and decided to take things at my own pace and actually succeeded in making a little progress that way!

6 am Satsang - 20-30mins meditation, followed by chanting, followed by an address (something akin to a sermon). I was much more comfortable with Satsang this time around, having had the 4 week course last year to get used to a) sitting still in a cross-legged position for the meditation part and b) chanting stuff I don't understand in Sanskrit. Now I just see it a bit like going to church twice a day for a month - an unusual, but not unpleasant occurrence!

8 am Asana Practice - tying yourself in knots and standing on your head etc. while generally trying to maintain decorum and not look too silly :) I think for most of us, this was our favourite part of the course. It gave our poor philosophy-drenched brains a break!

9 am Anatomy and Physiology - nice bit of revision for my Herbal medicine course!

10 am Brunch - broccoli, broccoli and more broccoli? Oh joy..

11 am Karma Yoga - an unkind interpretation of this would be "unpaid work around the Ashram" ;) Seen in a positive light it is a way of making yourself a better person by learning to serve others selflessly. And then there's the whole grey area between.. As for me, this time around I was assigned the job of cleaning the bathrooms in my block and was amazingly zen about it, even when I arrived in the men's bathroom for the nth time to find it looking like a war zone.. I don't think this yogic calm will translate back into the real world, but we'll see!

12 noon Raja Yoga (we studied the Yoga Sutras as compiled by Patanjali Maharishi)/Sanskrit (we learned to write and read the Sanskrit characters - I loved this part of the course! The characters are actually very pleasing to draw and it was amazing to be able to look at the yoga sutras in the original and decipher some of them)

2 pm Vedanta (Essential philosophy behind yoga - VERY deep but very rewarding.. if and when you actually get it!)

4 pm Asanas and Pranayama
6 pm Dinner
8 pm Satsang

It's hard to describe the impact these four weeks have had but one of the stranger effects has been to dampen my appetite for meat/fish and alcohol. I wouldn't say I have developed an aversion to either of these (in fact I have by now had a little of both!), but it simply is not something I hanker after at the moment. Perhaps a few months back in London will retoxify me to the point where I start to crave them again, but in the mean time, I guess any of you looking for a friendly yoga teacher and/or designated driver may have a new resource at your disposal - watch this space :)

I have lots of photos from my time in Canada and in New York and Montreal (where I broke my journey on the way there and back), but at this point technology is not playing ball and I can only post a couple. When I am back at home I will post more pictures and fill in a few more details about my Summer.

In the mean time, I will wish you all well as I enjoy my last couple of days here at Dad's before I fly back to London and the start of my clinical training (starting Thursday and Friday). M xx


View at dusk from Battery Park, NYC


Sivananda Yoga Advanced Teacher Training Course, Val Morin (class of 2007). The teachers are mainly in the middle row (and top right) and I was struggling to keep my eyes open in the glare of the morning sun!