Just for the formality of getting registered as an “experienced and qualified yoga teacher” for the records, I travelled my body and mind to Nepal Yoga Home in Kathmandu because they seemed to be the only Yoga Alliance registered school offering a 500hours course within one month time. I signed up, felt excited but, assuming I would probably be the oldest and most experienced attendee I had little expectations. Never make assumptions. Before I entered the school I met Gail; an awesome dream-coach from the U.S. counting 68 years and along the course were more people of my age and even one lady that had double my teaching experience. Around us a bunch of youngsters and all very warm and openhearted. I found it hard to cope with the excessive talking of a few within the group, which made me yearn for some sacred stillness. But the teachings appeared to be great and since we were most of the time in class I did not have too much time to be bothered and if I did I withdrawed from the group and seeked for me-time. I brought my guitar and co-sponsored a new harmonium for the yogaschool so I had time to practice some mantra music. I hoped to learn some advanced yoga poses since I never really took the effort to practice them at home and little yoga classes in town would offer such. The asana didn’t seem very interesting in the first place but I stayed away from the ‘been there, done that’ attitude and jumped in as a beginner. Which was great enthusiastic fun after all. But what I really hoped for were serious spiritual teachings since I felt that is missing in the yoga industry back home. And luckily, I got very well served with profound teachings of yoga philosophy, pranayama and meditation. By awesome teachers such as Prakash, Yogi Raj, Dr. Sam and Dipendra.
I learned how to prepare my body, mind and heart to receive the powerful cosmic energy that comes in the form of light, from the sun and all galaxies behind it. It takes a deep understanding of the whole of it, before being able to commit to a serious daily practice. That is not just the bending and shaping the body but creating new pathways to infinite happiness and ultimate freedom. By balancing the sun and moon forces in the body, clearing the energy channels, tuning the energy crossroads we can tune in to the language of the universe. Rishis and yogis did so, for thousands of years already and were able to bring their realizations into the societies of today. I feel so ultimately blessed and grateful for having the genes of a teacher and being able to dedicate these teachings to yoga.
To work with this subtle but so powerful energy takes a deep understanding of the relevance and importance of it; without that it might remain a bit ‘new age woohoo’ as I have seen in so many places. After my many years of yoga practice and doing so many retreats and workshops, studying so many books and visiting India so many times, it is just now that I realize that the ultimate goal of yoga is so deep and so relevant for our daily balance and happiness and so powerful to help others to heal themselves and their surroundings. , and it would heal on such a deep level, that I can no longer ignore my mission to share this knowledge in a different way than I have done before. I am going to stand for it for 200%.
First thing I developed as soon as I arrived home, was “Mind Release”, a 8-weeks pranayama workshop including meditation, visualization, some basic chakra knowledge and yoga nidra. I started to apply basis pranayama techniques in every class as well as mantra.
Also the number of bhakti flow classes doubled since I arrived home; people really seem to like it and they do recognize my passion for yoga and knowledge . Currently I am working on the next challenge: one week teacher training in the mountains of Switzerland and uplifting our Mystical India trip to teacher level as well. Many more things to follow. Nepal Yoga Home, where I went “just for the paper” has been the catalyst for my next level in being, living and teaching. And I am deeply grateful for that.
More info about the teacher trainings: www.nepalyogahome.com.
Send them my love!