Emerging from 4 Weeks Offline (Downloads from a 300hr Himalayan Yoga Teacher Training)

May 13

Hellooo friends and family! It feels as though I’ve been on a bit of a sabbatical from this blog, but hardly a sabbatical from life. Needless to say, SO much has been happening offline – including deep soul work during my month-long 300-hour Himalayan kundalini/meditation/breathwork/yoga teacher training at Sattva Yoga Academy in Rishikesh, India.

With each of the 28 days starting before 6 a.m. and ending by 9 p.m., I made a concerted effort to unplug from my digital life and be fully present with what is, that which rests beneath all of the chatter. It’d be impossible to effectively summarize my experience without addressing some of the most profound healing work I encountered.

To lay the foundation of how this deep soul dive came to be, each day was comprised of the following:

6-6:30 a.m. Puja
6:30-7:15 a.m. Meditation by the river
7:15-8 a.m. Tea break (time for silent reflection & conscious journaling)
8-10/30 a.m. Morning Practice… Sattva Yoga Journey with Anandji
10:30-11:30 a.m. Breakfast
11:30-2 p.m. First session (history of yoga, yoga philosophy, yogic lifestyle and practices, principles of Sattva Yoga)
2-3 p.m. Lunch
3-5 p.m. Second session (hatha, pranayama & kriya breakdown)
5-5:15 p.m. Tea break
5:15-6:45 p.m. Third session (typically another practice/integrative journey)
7-8:30 p.m. Dinner
8:30-9:30 p.m. Fourth session (wisdom talk, satsang/Q&A, exploration of Yoga Sutras & Bhagavad Gita, chanting, sangha & time for personal reflection)

During the four weeks there, we had 3 days where we could go into town after breakfast, though we had to surrender as we rarely knew when that day would be.

Sounds a bit intensive, yeah? It simultaneously was and wasn’t. Very early on I committed to being present at 100% of the sessions (as was the expectation), even though I recalled from previous teacher training experiences that, at about the ¾ way mark, skipping a session or two often feels energetically necessary, given how much presence is required day in and day out.

But this training was different and I am not the same student I was during those. Additionally, I have great reverence for these source teachings. I came all the way to India for this, and with the past few months of travel I felt especially open, primed and ready to transcend in ways not yet known to me.

Perhaps I’ll get into the teachings on this blog, maybe I’ll teach them in person – we’ll see what transpires – but I think it’s at least relevant to share that the tools and technologies I learned during this training/retreat are those of non-localized, timeless knowledge. That is, inherent wisdom which came through to the rishis (great seers) who collectively downloaded and orally shared these techniques starting over 5,000 years ago.

These technologies include working with mantras, energy, sound and rituals, to better comprehend the nature of reality and the nature of Self. Over time, these sacred tools have evolved to elegantly meet the need of the hour in order to stay relevant and serve humanity.

In the climate of today, the need of sharing this information is so great that the yogis collectively determined these teachings will better serve humans by relinquishing the limitations of teaching strictly one-on-one, master-to-student. It is still of paramount importance that these profound, life-changing teachings are shared with respect and to deserving ears, but ultimately, we need more light-workers now than ever before.

Whew! I hope that makes sense… I was going to dive into my own journey a bit more in this post (namely that on healing deep-seeded addictive behaviors related to eating), but I think I’ll keep this high level for now and touch on that next.

The biggest takeaway I received during this month was the significance of NOW, as that is truly all we have. The more I leaned into the presence of

each breath (like those cosmic breath pranayamas),
each moment (like those in Vedic meditation),
each intense kriya set (like those with my arms raised for more than 30 minutes straight),
each bite of food (like after blessing each meal),
each lecture sat in (like those reminding us how short this life actually is)…

The more I leaned into all of that, because that’s where presence was so adamantly demanded of me, the more I was able to lean into the smaller, quieter moments. I found new awareness in

lingering eye contact with another human, because there was no need to rush away from connection
laughing at something insignificant, and staying in that laughter longer
the soft moments before drifting into sleep
simply laying in the grass, gazing up at the infinite beauty of a tree and the way sunlight catches each unique leaf
observing my thinking behavior and patterns, and beginning to replace it with mantras or chants
noticing when stress would arise and then inviting it to pass because there was truly nothing I could do about that thing at the moment

How we approach our external world is a clear reflection of our internal sphere. Through these practices (which can be as simple as holding my hand in a mudra to help alleviate anxious thoughts, or as complex as a 2.5-hour emotional journey, intuitively taking me to the shadows and fears I sit with, culminating in an ecstatic dance party before breakfast), I began to recognize that every moment not spent appreciating the current state of being is a moment lost to the past or future.

This isn’t to say that the past or future are irrelevant, they are. However, we often lose so much of ourselves in the egoic mind, begging to narrate our lives. We are not the effect of our surroundings, rather we are the creators. Victims no more! We can begin to take radical responsibility of our lives.

By tapping into the present, by regularly sitting in the here and now, we can start to consistently make spontaneous correct action, enhancing our environment, our relationships, and the world we live in.

This is the only reality we have: now.

This is all we know: this very moment.

So, what will you choose to do with it?

As we find our thoughts shifting to fear, attachments, depressive states, escapism, etc., it’s imperative that we acknowledge the thought and, just as promptly, acknowledge that there’s absolutely no need to identify with it. Elegantly, return to the present moment with the breath and think/announce, “I am breathing.” An entire universe of bliss resides within the breath, and you deserve it. We all do.

Here’s to finding presence in each moment we’re gifted! Life is as short as a cosmic sneeze, why not make the most of this time we have?