Rethinking Zoom
Week one of the Foundation course, here we go!
The Yoga Therapy Foundation 100 H is an intense course where we learn the essential foundations of Yoga Therapy, from which we can build up further towards the other Yoga Therapy Diploma hours. These 100 hours are part of the Yoga Therapy Diploma 550 hours and the IAYT-accredited Yoga Therapy Diploma 850 hours.
Fifty plus people on Zoom, from all over the world. Some people in tank tops, some in sweaters. Sometimes we see a spouse, child or cat pass by on our screens.
A sense of community online
I didn’t want to take this course in 2020, because I thought it would be much more fun to experience the classes on location. So I applied last year in september for 2021, thinking we would all be out and about again. Hahahahaha, wishful thinking. I thought I would miss a sense of community online, but I was wrong. It’s there, we are a global community and I’m proud to be a part of it. All of us want to help, help those who are suffering on a biological, psychological, social and/ or spiritual level. We learn in depth how they are all intertwined. We learn how the yoga philosophy we learned in our previous teacher training can be applied to yoga therapy. We even learn how to find and read a scientific paper online in a fairly easy way. We hear about cases and we see case studies. We learn a lot, but I notice a good balance in variety and enough breaks in between to recharge.
Listening to each other’s stories
We get split up in groups and I have a conversation with Monika from Poland who lives in Thailand. How cool is that? What would have been the odds of meeting her if It would have been on location? I am really rethinking this Zoom teachings, so much so that I decided to apply to 850 hours, mostly online. And on a personal level I learn something as well.
Time for me
I feel like Montserrat is speaking directly to me, when she is telling us to relax more. Stop always trying to learn more and do more yoga, to do something else! Showing us a Spanish gossip magazine she is reading, telling us she loves to watch comedy’s. I do that, but only in the evenings when I am usually too tired to do anything else, but I decide to give it a try in the foundation week and I love it. I don’t want to give it up, so I continue trying to be aware of it. I still listen to podcasts and read books about some form of health. But I also take the time now to listen to, read about and watch things that are not related and do not have a lesson to be learned.
How relaxing to watch and read things that do not require action. No soul searching, no mental notes, no improvements to be made, nothing that needs sharing. I didn’t realise I was doing this, since there is so much material available on things related to health it didn’t feel I was overloading myself. But I was, and now I find myself less tired in the evening.
I have decided to continue this personal practise of taking it easy, watching Netflix, reading gossip, or a romance novel. I am really looking forward to the second week in May, but first the Asana module next week. You will read all about it, in my next blog.
