Day passed by and it's already Thursday again. I spent my day on nothing and I don't know why I become self-absorbed right now, zero mood in creatively thinking about my plan or even make a short term goal, I just not in the mood. My further test will begin in 3 days more where I supposed to cover 45 minutes classes, with the same sequence like last week, just with an addition to inversion and back bending sequences.

I consider to have a group study with my friend, so I can practice my sequence and have a better preparation. Well, I am even not making any sequence right now and what is on my mind about the next test I should find the connection from arm balance to inversion pose. What is on my mind that have the best possibility to link the pose from crane pose is going to tripod headstand but its too advanced for the basic class.

So what we have for arm balance that we could connect to the inversion? As long as I remember because I am too lazy to read on my text book which is on my home, we have crane pose, side plank, and lateral plane (this pose looks like bridge pose just without bend to the knee). This inversion would be leg to the wall, or the real pose, shoulder stand, and headstand.

I would like to give shoulder stand or leg to the wall so the transition from arm balance would be lateral plane as this is the counter pose of that inversion. And the shoulder stand is an easy gateway to do most of back bending pose, wheel pose and so on. That is what I could think right now and the pose might change depending on my improvisation during the test later.

So this is what I will be giving in the next 45 minutes test, hope I could finish it all on time because last time I was 8 minutes late.

Opening > Pranayama > Sun breathing > Surya Namaskar Series > 5 Standing poses > 3 Standing balance poses > 1 Arm Balance poses > ? Inversion pose > ? Back bend pose.

In 5 Standing pose, the best possibility is start by chair pose/ Utkattasana since this is the easiest pose to execute and help to reserve my energy for the next challenging pose, then I begin with W1, W2, Trikonasana, and end it with Parsvakonasana, do the different side then move to standing balance, starting from Tadasana, Tree pose, Padangustasana A, and finish it with Natarajasana, do the relaxation to the feet and do the different leg. Just to be careful on the mirror teaching on what leg should be lifted up.

Now we are move to arm balance, make a sequence to downward facing dog, make it a side plank (because I find it hard making a smooth transition with front lateral to inversion) and after that back to down dog and do the different side, in the end, finish this pose with down dog. Well, after I browse around 1 hour my search was wander to some random stuff and here I declare temporarily, I could not find any suitable transition to inversion.

My next plan is to talk to my friend and lets see if I could find an inspiration. For me it is not possible from any arm balance position given except from crane to tripod headstand. However that pose is not going to appear in basic yoga and the possibility is just you start from down dog and get into child pose. Since child pose is the reset pose, you could start again with all body on the mat then you could play with shoulder stand.

I am going to make the list for the material that I ever collected in one of my game so I will continue to talk about my life later and I will be having a yoga class today on 6 pm, hope I also could talk with my yoga teacher about this.

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Before graduated from this yoga teacher training, I need to pass 5 different test of leading a simulation class which requires mirror teaching and Asana alignment and today is the third test of it. The test comes in five phases which I already finish two of five, starting from the presentation of Sun Salutation Classic with two types of instruction, by breathing execution and the name of the pose in English or preferably in Sanskrit. On the last week, I need to perform 15 minutes class of the sequence from the opening to the Sun Salutation B. For today, I need to do all those 15 minutes with 3 different types of poses; 5 from standing pose, 3 from standing balance pose, and 1 from arm balance pose.

I have no preparation on this week, and I only had one time to perform Sun Salutation with my friend, even that is not really fluent at all. In the last night, I really want to study but my procrastination power win above my necessity and I did not touch the book, which I supposed to study for the test today. What more, I could not sleep yesterday and I only get 4 hours sleep which is inadequate to study in an intense training program which last for 10 hours consecutively.

I feel less energy today as I wake up, but I made a promise with my gym mate to go to the place with her so I need to stay in the decided place to wait her pick me up. Later we arrived on 7:20 and the class are not really crowded, there was around 5 to 6 persons in it. Because my body is too tired as yesterday I went to a yoga festival and take one class with some challenging poses afterward, I take a short nap. It was a nice sleep as I can feel the energy level a bit rising and I realized that I had not taken much breakfast but I don't want to eat it because we are going to warming up at 8 am.

The owner of this yoga teacher training is not coming in the morning because he has to attend the yoga festival conference which I went there yesterday so the lesson will be lead by his alumni. The class started on 8:05 and there was 2 persons which are not showed up in the morning, one were one hour late and he got punished for performing Sun Salutation series in front of all student in our batch. It was a good lesson for him though to memorize the sequence before we going through the test which begins after the lunch break. Later, our instructor said that this type of punishment is just to make us keep it professional after we graduated, that the member and the studio owner has put their time and money on it.

Later the instructor picked randomly three persons to try their skill and readiness to perform Sun Salutation. After it, there were 5 persons who have not finished with their 15 minutes test last week in standing poses, so they need to perform it to the class. There is a good feedback from the instructor, said that we had a quick improvement to speak up clearly and lead the class. He said that the most important thing to start your teaching is to move your heart, which is still filled with some nervousness and anxiety that you can lead the class confidently. Some of us show great improvement, and one of the students perform a Sun Salutation with full English instruction.

After all the warming up which takes 2 hours more, we are introduced with balance pose, separated by standing and arm type. These two will be used in our next 30 minutes presentation so everyone need to learn fast and implement it to their sequencing. Some pose which is considered harder for us were just eliminated from the book. My head got dizzy since I did not take much food and I went to the bathroom three times, I know I am not ready to present the 30 minutes but I need to do it in the next 2 hours.

Done with the sequencing in standing and arm balance pose, we are allowed to take a lunch break for one hour and a half. I ate my lunch box which is full of bread (my mom made 6 sandwiches can you imagine) and left two pieces then I went back to the class. I am not in the mood of study, my body need to take a rest so all the remaining time, which most of the student spent for preparing their exam, I spent it on my nap.

It was a beautiful sleep I ever take as my body are fully recharged now. I looked out to the material which we just studied and absorb it all, with my imagination of how I will perform it on the test and then while I was studying, the teacher comes up and divide us into five groups. Three group will be on the different room and the remaining two group with the founder. Well, at this time my luck shines because the person who will examine my test is my instructor in my local gym and all the member of the group is from my local gym, could you believe that.

The first class was lead by my friend, and from what I saw in last week, she shows significant improvement from the last test, as her voice goes stronger and she is more confident. Her performance was great and it makes me more nervous because I had not prepared anything. The second time lead by another class friend whose her husband is my friend brother. She owns her gym and she is certified with Les Mills program, she even had a several year of experience in teaching in the studio so her performance was magnificent.

Then comes to my turn, I open the class with a broken joke and all of them just smiling, turn me more nervous. However, after my test the teacher said that only in my performance, there was an option for the first timer in yoga class. My Sun Salutation went well as far, and I only made two mistakes; In the transition of Sun Salutation B, which I don't need to go to Urdva Hastasana then Uttkatasana but I could go from Utthanasana to Uttkatasana. Another mistake is I did not use the Hatha yoga method of Sun Salutation transition, which I eliminate the part of Tadasana and Samashiti. The teacher told me to reduce the confusion and to prepare my mind with the upcoming sequences.

For the standing pose, I carefully execute what I remembered and it went smooth, yet the problem comes from the standing balance, it was a short break of me getting confused on which feet I need to be grounded while other need to be in the position. My standing balance pose was Warrior 3, Half moon, and finish it with Dancer pose. The teacher told me to smoothen the transition from Half moon by bent my knee from the leg in the air, and slowly give an instruction to shift the hand from my hip to the toe. For my arm balance, the suggestion is just for the real pose, by stacking the feet, not crossed it altogether.

My execution was overtime. The expected time to finish the test was 30 minutes but what I spent it already 36 minutes. Later the teacher gave us the scorecard and the comment, so I compare the time that I took from the class opening to sun breathing took too long, which takes 14 minutes while some just need 8-10 minutes to do it. I went it overly detail so I sacrificed 4 minutes that is useful to be more on time. It was a lesson for me to begin the class and give a brief instruction.

It was raining heavily outside just after we done with the test, so some of the students prefer to stay inside. Well, my body was tired and I am pretty sure that I will get another muscle sore tomorrow so I am not spending more time there, I could spend it next week then I headed home. By the time of walking to my house, I saw my parents car coming up and they noticed me, then they asked if I want to have a dinner with them and I went up with them. Today my experience was good, as I could perform good, just for the lesson on the next week that I need to motivate myself to work on my 45 minutes test which is going on the next week. So, have a nice Sunday guys.

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Hi there and welcome back to my blog. I just came back from local yoga festival in the afternoon and spent the time until the sun goes down. Basically, my main purpose of going there is just for having fun, meet with my friend and only want to take one yoga class but because the time I went there, the class had started and you can see the class from the outside, so I don't need to pay the entrance.

I came there with my dad, and he is not busy so he could bring me up to the place. Before getting there, I expect the event is going to be big, such as the past yoga event I ever attended. My dad a bit confused with the direction and since he trusted his phone application too much, we went to the wrong direction but it is Saturday by the way, so there is less traffic.

My first impression of the event is crowded and full of yogic booth but when I stepped in through the side gate, there are fewer people, the stadium only filled with 20 to 30 persons and it only has three stands, and in the center, there are around 15 booths that are selling yoga product and green food.

I look around and the park seems more interested than the event, but I came here to learn about sports massage so I look around for my class, and surprisingly, it already started. The good thing is I could watch the class from the outside and since the instructor were using a microphone, I could hear his voice. It was good until the third pose my dad want to grab some foods and considering that he need to leave at three, I decided to accompany him to find the food.

He was planning to bring me to the place he ever eats before in the past, we walk down the road around 10 minutes and found out that the place had closed already. Later we decide to take any kind of food and the decision fall into a Vietnamese restaurant, we ordered one Pho soup with steamed spring roll. After taking some lunch, He went to his friend event and I continue to the festival.

I saw my gym friend was there taking the class I planned to take it and he was too kind, he gave me one free pass to take the evening class, said that he has enough with the yoga and he want to turn around and have a talk with his friend. The evening class which I took is about Sports Yoga and today his focus is to make everyone execute Utthanasana (standing forward bend) pose correctly.

Before the class start, he asked if any of us has a problem with their bone structure such as Scoliosis or Kifosis, and some of us admit that they never kiss their knee with their head, in more serious cases, some also suffer in Osteoarthritis too. The class focused on the lower body muscle group, the ankle, the knee, and the hips. The teacher said that we could possibly reach the forward bend by lengthening our spine through the stretch of the lower body.

The first pose is same with Surya Namaskar, with a modification of wider hips. Later some of the poses come to the modification of the teacher, for example, the original pose is a chair pose/ Utkattasana, comes in two variations, in heels up with the hand and body alignment such as Ardha Utthanasana and both heel down with a ball of feet up.

Some of the pose I already know what it affect to the muscle group and in a lower body, I experienced some of the Triangle pose (with modification of a ball of feet), the Beam pose (with modification of Ardha), all the pose you can imagine to lengthening the lower body. There is one new stuff I found in the exercise that can help a polio type of legs, by opening their leg facing to opposite direction (instead of standing with both legs heading to the front, this standing pose require left leg heading to the left and same thing with right leg). It was okay for a class although I learn almost nothing, it just feel like an exercise.

In the festival, I meet my friend who taking the same training with me, and she pursues her study in Pre-Natal yoga. We talked with our class and later she went to try a different class. After finished with my class, I decide to get some picture of the park before I went back home with my friend. In his car, we are not talking about the class but many things about his experience of talking to a girl in one of the class. He is interested in learning how to control our life energy and fortunately, the girl whom he talked ever studied in that field.

She learned from her teacher about chakra and the function of it. He shares many thoughts but when I asked him about her contact, unfortunately, he did not ask for it. In his car, we share our experience about the energy flow by helping from our fingers pointed to the forehead and visualize that the flow of breath comes in and get out from our sixth chakra, Ajna.

Later he dropped me near my house and I come back, preparing for my test tomorrow, which I need to present 30 minutes yoga exercise starting from the opening of the class to standing balance pose. Wish me luck for tomorrow and have a nice weekend.

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Today I have the opportunity to try Yin Yoga, my friend in the community whose a member in the different gym have a free one week trial. I was curious with Yin Yoga since I already heard the name and some friends who experienced it said it was meaningful practice makes me more curious to try this. I have asked for last month availability but due to our schedule, it was delayed and somehow forgotten. Right after I done with my teacher training on Sunday, suddenly she brought up the topic again and this time, we agreed to try it together on Tuesday.


After I read the confirmation of class schedule, which is start at 4:30, I rushed from my home to the place. It was one point of traffic, I got stuck for 5 minutes but I could make it on time. It is not to find the park too though but I still got 10 minutes left, then I called her. Later I was waiting for her since I could not go through, and later she show up and told me to put my stuff in the locker room first.


I am a bit confused with the locker room since they used the electronic card so I asked another member there and they were helpful. Done with locker stuff, she was waiting out there and we proceed together to enter the class. The class already begin 15 minutes ago and there is a sweet mellow flute instrument flowing through the class, all member were quiet and hold to one pose, which is fire log pose. I am familiar with this pose but this class is Yin Yoga, so we use zero force and let the body fall to gravity.


In Hatha class, we are supposed to prepare the pose with keep the spine straight, open chest, and arms reach to the farthest possible. The focus of this exercise is to relax the knee and unite the shoulder. Yin comes in a different method, the spine fall naturally, following the gravity works, the shoulder relax and falling to land, in this pose, Yin focused on glutes and knee joints. We are using a props (yoga block) to put our forehead and we hold the pose for 5 minutes.


The transition from one pose to another goes smoothly, starting with the lift up the neck, then slowly straighten the legs.

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I set my expectation low on the first training since I got such unprofessional manner from the person who will be our teacher. I felt that and my subjective judgement to him came from the last minute announcement of our training schedule that will last for a month and a half and some information were unclear, no specific description whether the food is included and the teaching module. On that day, I don't want to think much, I already paid for it already and hope for the best outcome from this training.

Some of you might be confused with my decision if the pre-experience you feel not alright then why I drop the decision on this teacher? Well, I have been done a research, to select the right course of my yoga teacher training and my judgement mostly based on the graduates teaching experience, I knew three of the graduates teach well in class and we also develop a friendship by sharing information about yoga and its technique. Two of them recommend me to take a teaching training to study deeper about yoga foundation of teaching and philosophy.

Later from that, another yoga teacher whom I met also recommend me to take teacher training at their previous place. I understand there are many yoga schools and thanks to them, it shorten my research time since qualitative data is harder to get. Later I do a background checking of the founder, stalking their information through social media and watch their words in it, to see if they really have a heart for teaching or just for generating money. Don't get me wrong, even in this health and green business, there is always a way to monetize it.

I am not saying monetize health based product or service is bad, but some people did it without consideration. Just imagine a greedy public religious image have a business and do politics, which is possible but far from what it called "enough". Well, what is that idealistic thinking by the way since the concept still alive but people abandoned it. Everyone need to eat and live up and that is their own choice but still, I just feel bad for a person who become a yoga teacher just for getting money, do they still care with the purpose of teaching? I don't know.

So we back to the discussion of why I choose this teacher. Well I have answered point number one, his personal background, what makes him a teacher, what is his teaching experience, how long he has been teaching yoga, how about his alumni, and if it possible, do they provide the teaching curriculum so we know what we will cover (some place kept the secret of their curriculum). Point number two, I also have talked on above, how he create a teacher from his teaching, do the student know the correct alignment, how to adjust correctly, how to survive and win in this industry? All of this information is important to keep a teacher updated and sustain to the new change.

Point number three, somehow I want to put this to point number one. The place, price, time, availability and limited seats per alumni. Yoga teacher training takes time so I don't want to take it out of my city, and it is not fun to have a huge debt in renting a place. Price not so important here, most training cost similarly same, but the price can be doubled up if the teacher is a foreigner. Since my work can be done in off-hour, time does not play a big part but some office worker considers this the most important decision point to decide their training. Availability also important, some training only opens twice a year and I don't want to lose my vibe and time just for waiting. In this point, I take serious consideration on seats, as I understand of how the class filled with 50 students and 15 students. It has huge differences in learning as more private is better.

Everyone should understand that there is no guaranteed job after teacher training, one should seek his own way to teach, either voluntarily teach in the local community, charity event, yoga studio, gym, doing a private class or open their own studio. There is the way to at least increase your credibility of your training certificate by choosing a programme which already registered globally under certified yoga certification standard. Some YTT does not provide with the international standard and this may bring a hard time for graduates find his first teaching job as their certification doesn't recognise. Even some gym (mega gym) asking for actual teaching experience or I called that voluntarily teach somewhere to have a teaching experience.

Point number five relate to the curriculum itself and if I could not find it on the internet, I will gather the information from the alumni. What is the curriculum will heavily on? Is it poses, alignment, theory, practice, or teaching? This is so important because what they learn makes them as their teaching character. I experienced not all teacher can teach correctly. I am not a hard fan's of alignment but bad alignment reducing the effectivity of training, even lead to injury. Some teacher is so detailed to one pose, can lead a class bored.  I even found a teacher training that has mantra practice and game with other participants, which I look down to it. The reason is simple, we are paid to learn not having fun. What important for me is after graduation, whether the graduate will be teaching or not, they are ready to teach.

In the end, there is some process to choose the right program and I felt my approach already enough to give me the best program, which enables me to be a good teacher afterwards. If it not, there is room to learn as the learning process never stop, finishing a teacher training program is just another step of learning and it doesn't mean my yoga journey is over, there is always a new thing to learn in this field.

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I have free time in this night, nothing important to do so i want to make one hour of this free time a bit productive so i try to find an free e-book about yoga, since i had a conversation between my yoga teachers that before he teach yoga, he learn some skill that is not covered up in his teacher training nor his teacher taught in the internet so i browse the google and what i found about yoga, comes in different branch, starting from the challenging one; Ashtanga Yoga to the yoga for relaxation, Yoga Nidra. Today my search about yoga will be focusing more on the Sivananda Yoga, founded by Sivananda obviously. This branch of yoga comes from Hatha Yoga so expecting the exercise will be similar from Hatha.

In Sivananda Yoga, the level of difficulty consider as beginner though it can be increased through variation. The exercise is focused on the constant breathing in Asana and relaxation. The philosophies of Sivananda Yoga are summarized into five principles, starting from the Asana (exercise), Pranayama (breathing), Savasana (relaxation), Vegetarian (yogic diet) and Dhyana (positive thinking and meditation). With given principles, my subjective opinion this yoga type suitable for those who want to try the basic of yoga with given limited requirement and easy to follow for the pose.

The beginning of the exercise start from meditation phase, either from Savasana pose or seating position, Sukhasana. The preparation is essential to shift your mind from current routine, makes it focused to only what happened in your body, listening to your own heartbeat and focusing on breathing which can clarify your mind. After we done with preparation, the next step is about Pranayama which comes into Kapalbathi or Skull Brightener breath, starting from Oojayi inhale, then we contract our low belly, forcing out the breath in a short burst.  the benefit of this technique to cleanse the respiratory system, lungs and sinuses and also help to prevent illness and allergies.

Right after pranayama exercise from Kapalbathi or alternate nostril breathing (which i will write about this later), our mind are ready and the body already got heathen up, so we will begin to start the Asana. In Sivananda Yoga, the beginning of the Asana were just same as Hatha yoga, starts with Surya Namaskara or Sun Salutation. Starting from the Sun Salutation A for two or more times depending on the instructor then continued to Sun Salutation B. 

After Sun Salutation, here come the 12 Asanas, which makes the exercise differ with other yoga branch. The series below illustrate the twelve basic postures.

                                         
    Sirsasana/Headstand       Sarvangasana/Shoulderstand       Halasana/Plough

                                            
     Matsyasana/Fish                    Paschimotonasana                Bhujangasana/Cobra
                                                    Sitting Forward Bend

                                               
      Salabasana/Locust                Dhanurasana/Bow              Ardha Matsyendrasana

                                                                                                        Half Spinal Twist

                                              
         Kakasana/Crow                    Pada Hastasana                 Trikonasana/Triangle
                                                 Standing Forward Bend            

Image courtesy by: Sivanandayogavietnam (Link here)

One full class of Sivananda Yoga usually takes 90 minutes so before the class, 

the practitioner need to prepare their body, not taking much food before two/ three hour of class and drink enough water during the practice considering the duration taken quite long for one class. If you want to try the class then my personal advice is find a qualified Sivananda Yoga class near your place so you can get the insight of the exercise from the experience and ask the question related to the teacher. Have a safe practice!

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I was planned to do a yoga photo shoot and yoga video for my professional website. I already think about this 2 months ago and the problem is i don't know where to start and i just find the information piece by piece so it leads me to nowhere but frustration. Now this idea popped again and i know what to do now, by breakdown the production and start listing from the most important. To making an outstanding production of photo shoot and video, i need to start with a concept.

Concept

Concept means to what target do i make this video, is it an tutorial, instruction, promotion or just having fun with transition? everything should be clear in order to construct the idea of it. After know what is my concept, i should know what content should be in the video, how many detail of hand transition, face close up, transition and where do i take the inspiration from? from the inspiration, study how they shoot the video and how they put the sequence in the line.

Content

Detail of the content, list all of the specific Asanas that want to be appear on the video, in how many second the video appear, the music being used, either use microphone for instruction video or background music (licensed), how long the duration, the brightness condition, the harmony between the vinyasa and the background music if possible that this technique require advanced video editor, the person in the video, the cloth match with the environment, shooting angle during transition, the lightning used in the video (either use a natural light from window which require the shot in the morning or from other source of light), the place as i know outdoor in the morning consider the best to shot yoga video, or other static place with no people at all, in the temple, near the river, on the cliff, do the imagination on how you do Asana in that place.

Talent

The team or single fighter, who shoot the video and direct the movement, in this section i call it the talent. This step is important since it makes the shot more varies and has different combination from different perspective. Imagine if you only shot video from the camera hold by tripod, then the viewpoint is static, only on one view point. If you only have one option to shoot by yourself, no need to worry since you can make the good video too. If this is your choice then the most important point is getting the right angle, show the surrounding perfectly from photography perspective with you in the video.

Tools

Last step, the tool for recording the video, do we need to use tripod or drone, all of it depend on the budget. Not to mention about the special effect which require special equipment but for my project i will not use that except i have a close friend with lightning or stage specialist. The next tools is the editing video program, do you need and have the ability to run a complex video editing software or not since to learn again requires time and effort and if you short of time you will got frustrated.

All the point that i mention is just the basic to record a good yoga video, even it possible to record your video from your phone, i recommended to find a static object to avoid the shakyness during recording. The easy way to make a video is by study the video maker sneak peek and learn how do they shot the video.

So here is the example of my project next month and hope i could finish and published in this blog:

Concept: Having fun with Asanas. The outcome for viewer (yoga teacher and practitioner) is to give them an idea about the new transition

Content: Example: Ashtanga Advanced flow, variation from HS to A, i will go deeper and make the timeline of the video. I will use instrument as background music, the duration around 2 to 3 minutes, enough light as long as the model is not covered in shadow, if possible i will match the move with BGM, i can slow or speed the pace of video in particular sequence, the uniform of the model can be half naked with short or training pants, i will find a good place  (you know my country is too crowded and a bit hard to find an empty building or place)

I will try to shoot single so if my project is successful, i could find another talent to do the next project. In the next yoga article i will write down my detailed content and the time i will shot the video. Wish the best for my project, thanks.

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