My Yoga Teacher Training Experience: Abroad in Bali
Introduction
After a few years of being pretty consistent with my yoga practice I decided I want to take the next step and become a teacher. I was already planning a backpacking trip across Asia and wanted to start my travels in Rishikesh, India where I would do my 200 hour YTT. I booked a flight to India and I was so excited! But unfortunately Canada (where I’m from) and India had a political conflict leaving me unable to get a visa to India. I was unsure of what to do next so I rearranged my travel plans. As you can guess by the title of this post I ended up in Bali!
My School
The school I chose was the Bali location of World Peace Yoga School. What attracted me to this school was that they had teachers from Rishikesh. It was important for me to have teachers from India because I wanted to have as authentic experience as possible. This school was also within my price range and price varied depending on the accommodation you chose. At my school you could choose a private room, or shared with 1-6 people. I chose 6 people but ended up only having 4 roommates. I originally wanted a private room because I thought I’d want alone time to reflect. But, honestly everyone is going through the same thing as you and people will respect your wishes if you just want to be quiet and not socialize.
Training Schedule
Everyday looked pretty much the same unless we had a special workshop. The free days we had were on sunday but, even on our free days we had activities or workshops so they weren’t really free days where you could do whatever you like. This is what my day usually looked like:
5:00-6:00 Meditation and Mantra
6:10-7:30 Ashtanga
7:45-8:30 Pranayama
8:45-9:30 Breakfast
FREE TIME/SELF STUDY
12:30-1:30 Philosophy
2:00-3:00 Lunch
3:00-4:30 Anatomy and Alignment
4:45-6:15 Hatha Yoga (sometimes it was vinyasa or yin)
6:30-7:30 Dinner
Class Breakdown
Meditation and Mantra: In this class we chanted mantras and practiced various meditation techniques. It wasn’t just straight meditation for an hour which was good. We would go back and forth between different techniques and different chants for various lengths of time.
Ashtanga: I had a love-hate relationship with Ashtanga. I had only done it once before my YTT and I was quite nervous as it can be quite intense. If you’ve never practiced Ashtanga it follows a set sequence that never changes. We learned the Half-Primary series which takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was physically very demanding and some days I hated it. But, the incredible thing about a set sequence is you really notice how much you progress. And you really do get so much stronger. It requires so many chaturangas which I was never able to do before ashtanga! Overall, I’m really glad I got to learn ashtanga even though many days I despised it.
Pranayama: We learned various pranayamas throughout this class. I had only done basic pranayama prior to this course and really enjoyed learning new techniques. I felt such an improvement with my breath retention from the beginning to the end of this class.
Philosophy: My favourite class! We learned about the history of yoga, hinduism, the vedas, the 8 limbs, yogic diet, chakras and more. My teacher was Balinese and was incredibly open when teaching us. He would teach us theory but remind us we don’t have to believe in what doesn’t resonate for us. Also, having a Balinese teacher opened up a whole new perspective, so we learned about Buddhism as well as Hinduism. I didn’t have a lot of knowledge on the philosophy of yoga before so it was amazing to learn.
Anatomy and Alignment: We would spend half of our class discussing areas of the body, the muscle groups and bone structure. The second half we would focus on a specific pose or set of poses and learn proper alignment. I thought I had pretty good alignment in most poses but, almost every pose I had something slightly off. It was a remarkable class and I learned so much on how to create proper alignment on myself and others.
Hatha: This was a physical asana class. It varied day to day from vinyasa, hatha, hatha flow or yin. I had a great teacher and enjoyed this class a lot.
It was a long day to say the least but I seriously learned so much everyday. I loved all my teachers and they taught me so much. Some of my teachers were from India and some were Balinese. I really enjoyed this mix because they all taught me something new!
Workshops and Activities
We had a few extra workshops and activities. We went to the Titra Empul water temple and completed a purification ritual. This was a really unique experience and incredible to do it as a group. Our workshops included a special meditation class, kirtan, injury recovery workshop and an aerial yoga class.
Exams
The real truth is, you aren’t going to fail. The exams are more of a formality than a pass or fail situation. We had one written exam, it wasn’t long and had a few multiple choice and short answer questions. For ashtanga, we had to complete the whole sequence on our own without being led (mysore style). If you forgot a pose, the teacher would make you restart a section of the sequence. And lastly we had to teach a yoga class, we did this in pairs. Ashtanga was second nature to me at that point after doing it everyday so I found that one quite easy. The written exam was simple enough. The most nerve racking is actually teaching for the first time. But, it was such a supportive environment and we were comfortable around each other which helped a lot.
Personal Growth and Transformation
The time I spent in Bali was transformative but came with challenges. It is quite physically and mentally demanding to be in and out of classes all day for three weeks straight. Ashtanga was the most physically challenging yoga I had ever done and I was really sore for the first few days.Waking up before 5am everyday was a big adjustment and I won’t lie I missed a few meditation classes because I was just too exhausted. I also spent the three months prior to my training solo backpacking and going from complete freedom to following a tight schedule was a big adjustment. But, overall all the hard work was so worthwhile and I got used to our daily schedule.
Physically, I felt so much stronger when I finished my YTT. Learning proper alignment was a game changer and allowed me to do poses I had never been able to do prior. I finally got my headstand and was able to do chaturanga consistently. Mentally, I felt grounded and so grateful for everything I was taught. But, I also felt like I still had so much to learn and that I had barely scratched the surface of how much there is to know.
I am really happy I chose to complete my YTT abroad because you are able to live in this bubble for a few weeks. You are surrounded by like-minded people, being fed delicious meals and following a set schedule. It’s not real life and you don’t have to make many decisions. You just get to fully immerse yourself in this world and focus on yourself and your studies. It is such a unique time and I’m incredibly grateful for my time spent in Bali.
Conclusion
Completing my 200 hour YTT was a huge milestone for me. It was hard, sweaty and challenging 3 weeks. But, they were part of such a special time in my life. My fellow trainees and teachers made me feel so supported throughout my training. Going abroad for my YTT was definitely the best decision for me and one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
