Almost five months ago I packed my backpack and my yoga mat and flew off to travel in India.
As someone whose day revolves around movement, I knew the best thing I could do for myself was to travel with a mat – so no matter where I was or how extreme the conditions, I could always roll it out and move my body.
In India it was quite easy to find places to practise yoga.
In India, yoga is an inseparable part of religion – just like going to the temple, being vegetarian and chanting mantras several times a day. What not many people know is that what we call "yoga" is only the physical part of true yoga! The real name of the practice is "asana".
Classes in India are different from classes in Israel.
Every practice begins with the Om mantra – a mantra that brings all the practitioners into a state of quiet and focus in the moment.
Most teachers open each class with a full mantra (much like a prayer). At first it felt quite strange and a little awkward, but before long I found myself remembering whole mantras and chanting along with the teachers.
In my third month in India I started a yoga teacher training course.
It was a very intense month. Every day started at 5 a.m. with two hours of practice – meditation, breathing and physical practice.
Then came the hardest part: the theory – philosophy, anatomy and practice.
The difficulty wasn't the material itself but everything around it.
India being India, most places have no air conditioning, and we found ourselves sitting on a boiling roof at 38 degrees and 80% humidity, trying to follow a teacher with a heavy Indian accent.
After three hours of study, lunch finally came. The amount of white rice I ate on that course will probably last me a lifetime – it's all we ate for a month!
The yogic diet uses as few varied ingredients as possible so food can be digested as easily as possible. So what we ate was white rice, not-very-flavourful curry and cabbage.
In the afternoon we practised Ashtanga yoga – a 3-hour practice in almost 40 degrees, and of course with no air conditioning and no fan! Remember that next time you ask your instructor to turn on the AC 😝 When the body is warm, practice feels better and you can reach bigger ranges!
That month I was surrounded by twenty people from all over the world who came together for one purpose – to learn about the world of yoga. I made friends from France, Germany, Spain and India. It was amazing to see how yoga is gaining momentum in the Western world – and in my opinion there's good reason for it: the purpose of yoga is to slow down our thoughts and the pace we live at, and to help us focus on the moment and breathe.
The tools I learned on this journey are tools I carry with me every day, on the mat and off it.
I hope more and more people will try and discover this deep and amazing world called yoga.
Can't wait to come back and share what I've learned with you,
Karin ❤️
#yogainindia
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