First full day @ ZUNA YOGA YTT

Zuna Yoga YTT Day 2

Sunday 5th june 2016

The alarm clock that I had set unfortunately didn’t go, but luckily I had build up a good ritmne in getting up early the two weeks before so I woke up without needing it ;-)  That’s why it didn’t give me any trouble getting out of bed quite fit. Although it was still dark outside when I went up to drink a cup of tea, there were already a few participants sitting in the public room. Everyday after dinner it’s silent time from 21:30 till after breakfast the next day: no eye contact, no communication, no conversation, also no social media; just silence - Noble silence. Time to listen to the sounds of the island, how it awakens en watch the slowly rising sunrise. Time to observe the sounds that are far away more closely and use the other bodily senses to become aware of this moment here on Bali.

I’m sitting here on the edge of the pool and doing just this; letting it all sink into me. At 5:55 AM I hear a sound; a singingbowl invites me to go down to our beautiful yoga room. It has already been prepared and is filled with yoga mats, pillows and blocks. I’ve positioned myself in the front at the edge, luckily because I’m early I can make this choice cause there is no-one else at this time and I am nice and early, this feels nice and comfortable! However, I’ve made an agreement with myself to switch places every day, good for the mindset and not to get too attached to a specific spot in the yoga room.

We start our morning session with a soft meditation on our backs…feeling the body combined with a breathing technique…..deep down into the pelvis. This proved to be quite a challenge to keep my focus, in this new environment and I need to surrender now to the teachers, although usually it’s me doing the teaching and leading the group. Even observing that, how that feels keeps me away from focussing on my breathing technique, pranayama focus…..ups, allright, iam starting  again.

After the meditation we included the breathing technique into our yoga routine,easy flow of surya namaskar. The progression from one asana to the other is quite slow, and the flow within them unfortunately is not there yet. The focuspoint and attention lays on the explanation of the pose and the breathing.

After breakfast, I enjoy a nice and fresh lunch consisting of fruit, yoghurt, cereals, scrambled eggs and glutefree bread, we move on to lecture class; yes Pranayama and the explanation on how important breathing is within yoga. We’re taught 5 pranas, quite a lot of different comfortable sitting positions and meditation postures. During lunch I’ve decided to take a fresh dive into the pool; it cleares my mind and afterwords. Lunch is served with a lot of passion and love for the food.

After lunch there’s anatomy class. In which we study all the areas of the body and there directions of movement. The whole class together and this is really nice and helps in understanding. Everyone has to read a part of the Trail Book on the Body, completely written in highly scientific English, which not only proves to be difficult for me, not understanding half of the terms I am reading. Terms I’ve already learned by heart in German and English……..no trying to add the English terms….The pop quiz on anatomy, done in small groups, is difficult. A lot of information in one day, combining this with it not being in my native language, proves and seems to be an additional challenge during this anatomy class.

We close off this day at sunset. We have learned today during posture lecture, exactly 3 postures, the start at least, the methodology of those postures: extended posture for more stability and awareness of the body: 1 Tandasana: mountain pose, within this pose it becomes clear very fast why this asana is so simple but holds this strong a name. Incredibly interesting and how this postures does or doesn’t get your breath flowing through your whole body and how your body experiences the complete set-u. This is just great, because I have experienced this a lot in self study the past couple of years and these practices answer a lot of the questions I had, or sometimes takes away any insecurities on how I have tought myself or can the posture get any more effective and efficient….this feels nice….”Where there is Awareness, there is no need for uncertainness” ;-)

During dinner I’m chatting away with a French beauty, Julie. We exchange our experiences of the day and my Birthday twinny Morgan joins in which results into chatter and laughter; great! After this chill intermezzo I want to write down all my experiences and thoughts of this day. It’s 10 past 10 now and my alarm goes at 5:15AM.