6 (NOT) to-dos on your Yoga Teacher Training.

I started teaching yoga before I even received the 200 hour yoga teacher training certification. I believed yoga was healing, but back then my belief was still within the physical parameters. My friend started suffering symptoms of a herniated disk in his lower back and I did what I could with the knowledge that I had at the time to teach him a practice that would alleviate the pain and help prevent any further damage to his back. We both noticed how yoga was helpful and I wanted to learn more.

It was almost summer of 2015 and it had been almost 2 years since my 200 hour yoga teacher training. You can read about my first training here. I knew there was more to learn and I was eager to dive into “Yoga Therapy” or “Therapeutic Yoga”. I searched for Yoga Therapy trainings on Google that were to be held in August, a time constraint I put for God knows what reason.

I found a school online that emphasizes on therapeutic approaches to yoga. The website wasn’t so bad, they even had a cute video uploaded by a former student. The school was in Koh Phangan, Thailand, an island popular for yoga schools, backpackers and last but not least for the Full Moon Party. There were so many things that I overlooked. Some practices at the school (aside from the Yoga Therapy) sounded suspicious but I chose to ignore. The teachers that were hosting the therapy training were qualified and that’s all I needed to know. The school was just a venue.

Tip #1: Don’t pick a school just because they offer a teacher training. It’s almost 2020 and all the good yoga schools are well known and all over the internet. If the website is shady and unprofessional, don’t trust it. It’s better to follow first hand recommendations from people who have already gone through the experience.

The afternoon I arrived on the island was atrocious. It took me three flights to get there and since I was an inexperienced traveler I had a lot of luggage. The school promised to provide transport from the airport to my accommodation. They arrived with transport alright, a scooter that would in no way carry my luggage. I managed to catch a taxi myself.

Tip #2: Don’t over pack. If you’re going somewhere touristic or popular for yoga and teacher trainings, chances are the place is well equipped for visitors. Pants, shirts, laundry supplies and everything else you might need are sold at a cheap price – especially in Thailand, India, Bali etc..

By the time I got to my accommodation I was extremely frustrated. I got into my hut and unpacked. Writing this now makes me laugh because in reality everything was fine, it was me. The island just triggered uncomfortable feelings and I was scared. Things only got worse – I took a walk to see how far my hut was from the school, and realized it was a really long walk, I might even need to rent a bike to get to class every morning. I remember that evening really well, I’m sure my best friends do too. I called them both, and I even called my mother. I realized the (minor) difficulties I was facing triggered the feeling of being alone. This was right after a break up and I just didn’t want to face any difficulties by myself. “I don’t need to do this, I don’t need to be here” I expressed to my friend. She tried to calm me down and remind me about the long journey I took to get there. “Just stay one day for me Rawan and if it’s still bad tomorrow, you can come back”. I was so hard-headed and still insisting on booking a flight back home. I called the school, informed them that my expectations weren’t met and I wanted a refund. In between phone-calls and flight searching I heard a knock on my door.

Tip #3: If you panic, don’t call a parent. To this day I regret calling my mother and crying on the phone. I can’t imagine how she felt hearing her daughter crying and feeling unsafe halfway across the globe. Stay calm and think things through. Call a friend or ask for help.

A man dressed in white was at the door. He was very gracious and introduced himself as the director of the school. “I am so sorry that you’re disappointed and I wish you didn’t want to leave”. I tilted my head and forced a smile. He hugged me. It felt uncomfortable but I felt I needed the hug anyway. He kept a firm grip so I wiggled between his arms and gave him a firm pat on the back indicating this hug is over now. He then suggested I eat: “How about I apologize by inviting you to dinner – just here at the accommodation’s restaurant? And you can tell me what’s on your mind.” I agreed. I don’t know what he said that night that convinced me to stay but I guess after having a human interaction the island didn’t seem so bad after all. If I could be civil and have dinner and a conversation with this strange man, there must be plenty of other people on the island I can meet and converse with.

Tip #4: Don’t get lost in any experiences and be mindful. There are many people that are in the yoga business who are in it to take advantage of the gullible and desperate. There are women desperate to heal and are convinced that their path to healing is to engage in sexual intercourse – in the name of yoga and kundalini* of course. That if they submit themselves all their problems would be solved and they would reach “samadhi” or eternal bliss. *If you are going to do a Kundalini training, see Tip #1.

The next morning arriving to class I noticed there were only 4 other students, hence the director’s desperate attempts to keep me registered in the course. But I was happy to meet all four students and the teachers. I was so excited to learn about yoga therapy. The training focused on modifying the Ashtanga Primary Series to accommodate seniors, arthritis, spinal disks and so on and so forth. Writing about this course 4 years later I can say how most of the training was actually impractical. I owe a part of my knowledge to that training but I can say it’s very far off from my current method of teaching. I am grateful for those teachers. Even though I rarely manually adjust students now unless necessary, I did learn the best techniques from them. It was the venue that continued to disappoint, not the teachers.

Tip #5: Don’t absorb everything you learn. Not everything you learn is true. Not everything you study on teacher training might resonate with you. It’s ok to exclude things from your mental library that doesn’t seem practical in your context of teaching.

As we carried on with our training, there would be another class from another training happening simultaneously. The other classes seemed to be inappropriate and it didn’t look like the students were doing the practices right but we just chose to ignore. I remember my teachers were even annoyed with the venue but tried to make peace with the conditions. My fellow female students told me that even they shared uncomfortable hugs with the director, similar to the one I shared when I first met him. Part of our daily routine was avoiding this man’s hugs – escaping to and from class or blocking him with a firm handshake! I then came to the realization that I was uncomfortable with the heightened sexual energy of the island. I mean even dogs were humping uncontrollably in between tables at public restaurants.

Apart from the school, and the excessive sexual energy everyone and everything seemed to have, the island was magnificent! I enjoyed local fresh fruits and vegetables daily. I enjoyed riding my bicycle every day and I would hop on the back of another student’s scooter every once in a while. I discovered a few magical beaches and slept one night on the shore. Another fellow yoga teacher was in Koh Samui, another island also completing her teacher training. We met a couple of times which I was really grateful for. We explored the islands – hiking through green mountains and diving between coral reefs. She even convinced me to go to the Full Moon Party, something which I was avoiding. But since we were both sober and we left the party early before it got really wild, we managed to have a good time and stay safe.

As I look back now the training itself doesn’t matter much. Especially when I realize that training was only a small part of my journey in Yoga Therapy. What I do remember are moments on the island and how they made me feel. I remember the time I accompanied a fellow student to get her first tattoo. I remember an honest conversation I had with my friend Sara in Koh Samui, I remember being sober and watching everyone get lost in their head after having a (mu’shroom) shake and smiling about it. I remember being so happy swimming in such clear waters!

Tip #6: Don’t complain. Enjoy your time. Having fun and being in a good mood is a choice – despite the circumstances. Make the most out of the place and the training.