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Why Staying Home During COVID-19 is Like Yoga Teacher Training
Hoping to learn some surprising lessons from staying home, just I did in when I stayed in an ashram for a month
“Yoga is the journey of the Self, to the Self, through the Self.” Bhagavad Gita
Several years ago, I spent a month in an ashram in Kerala to get certified as a “yoga teacher.” I had been practising yoga for almost fifteen years, beginning with an introduction in the gym at my workplace in California. For almost a decade however, I had engaged in solitary practise at home, at least five days a week.
My disciplined practise of yoga had been the primary reason I had remained healthy and sane during a traumatic period of my life. Not a subscriber to celebrity videos or YouTube channels of other new age gurus, I swore by my copy of B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga.
When a good friend chanced upon a 200-hour teacher-training residential program that was certified by Yoga Alliance and asked me if I was interested in joining her, it seemed like the right time to embark on this bucket-list activity that I had been putting off. I was intrigued by the curriculum that included Bhagavad Gita and Vedanta lessons and required a written final exam. How hard could this be?
