Three times yoga: a session this morning running through this evening’s class; teaching this evening; then to Petersfield for a new evening class. The evening class was a new style of yoga to me, called Seven Stars Yoga. They are influenced by Chinese qi gong as well as Indian yoga, and we practised two routines, an hour in total. It was a good way to use and circulate much of the energy I get after teaching. And to be taught is always a treat. I’ll be going again. Unfortunately good venues are hard to find and the Petersfield Community Centre was a bit grubby, with icky bits on the floor. The music from the dance class next door didn’t bother me and the class itself was fun.

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A friend asked why I chose Kripalu to train at. I said:

I looked around extensively over many months when I was looking for a course. I knew I wanted a month-long rather than over a couple of years on weekends. I wanted the immersive experience. So this narrowed it down. In my researching Kripalu kept coming up and so I asked around my yoga friends and while none had direct experience, they had all heard good things. The only thing putting me off Kripalu at that stage was the hugeness (and ugliness) of the building, and it was quite pricey. I was impressed at the website and curriculum and attracted by them saying it is not so much an intellectual course, and that there aren’t too many exams. So a kind of negative attraction in that sense, but I don’t like memorizing and theorizing. Then I saw they did scholarships and applied, and was granted 40% off, so that kind of sealed the deal. But mainly it was the feeling it out and the good vibes from the site. Their apparent professionalism, the fact that they were once an ashram and that they had a long history of YTT courses also counted.

I was not disappointed. There was a strong sense that while they were routed in traditions (particularly chanting) they were progressive. The course was beyond anything I expected. Way beyond yoga-yoga into experiential sessions, dance, and what they call meditation in motion. I would definitely recommend it. The days are long, but not as long as some YTTs. Importantly it felt like a really safe training ground, and they structure the weeks very well, lengthening each practice teach each week. And you only have to teach those to five people. The food is very good. And there’s a sauna and hot bath, which I used every evening. You get two yoga classes a day plus a whole bunch of posture workshops. Damn, I need to say something negative, but I can’t… Of course, you have to take in a lot of the ‘real self’ ‘true self’ yoga talk, but I kind of accepted where they were coming from. I went for the cheapest option, the dorm. The girls had sometimes twenty in a room, but we were only five. Sound.

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I’d really love to do it all over again, a course like that.

Something is changing for me in yoga after all these years. I am no longer subtly afraid of it, nor am I as afraid of teaching. Which is a very big deal.

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Steps stepped: 4705