Costa Rica YTT - Week 1

Beautiful entrance to our Yoga Shala

As you know from the last post we all made it safely up the mountain in Nosara, Costa Rica. We really are quite the eclectic group from all over - from Vancouver BC, Ecuador, Egypt, Costa Rica, NY, Denver, Seattle, Connecticut and SF of course. We started the evening with a group dinner, small chit chat and excitement over finally being able to put faces to names.

5 Rhythms

Following dinner, we jumped right into a 5 Rhythms session with Amber Ryan. 5 Rhythms (flow, sticatto, chaos, lyrical, stillness) is a movement meditation – think music and dance with different themes or focus on a particular body part. I’d also describe it as a different form of self-expression and communication with others (sometimes there are moments of pairs).

I struggled with this session – it felt awkward and uncomfortable at moments. I barely know these people, but maybe this is what we needed – to get our bodies moving and to learn to be comfortable in our own skin. Luckily I can report that later on in the training we had two additional 5 Rhythms sessions and I absolutely loved those. 

Sankalpa

Our first day, we worked with identifying and refining our Sankalpa (Intention).

In my YTT application my intention was Exploration. What is yoga? What’s it al about?

For me, Yoga is a tool to ease and open my body and mind through asana, meditation, study of ancient text and breathe work. Yoga is a practice – which I still have a lot to discover. I have begun to explore my physical, mental, energy and spiritual body. What does this all really mean? How are they connected? How can I tune into each of these experiences. Here we’ve already started learning techniques to understand and be more aware of each of these states.

Here were some other definitions we discussed that resonated with me: Yoga is…..

Path for self-discovery, embetterment, release of negative energy. Lifestyle. Process of building a relationship with myself. Slowing down. Freedom. Mindfulness.

Refinining my intention to include Maintain.

At first I didn’t understand why maintain came up for me, maintain what? As the days progressed it became clear – I intend to sustain/maintain all that I learn during this experience when the 21 days are over. Sounds easy, right? But in reality a lot has already came up during this time and it is hightly important that I take those lessons into my daily life and life returning to the corporate world. A lot those lessons are on the mat in my physical practice, but many more of them are lessons off of my mat and remembering who I am, what’s important to me and so many other things.

Koshas

Koshas are our body sheaths. We began really paying attention to the 5 Koshas and what each body sheath – physical, energetic/pranic, mental, wisdom, emotional/bliss – are telling us.

It’s been amazing to slow down, pause and become more aware. Being aware and present is very import to understanding your body and to deepen your practice. Whoa. A lot has been unfolding for me in the last couple weeks. Especially when we started using the Kosha’s to identify our Samskaras.

Samskaras

Samskaras are our habitual patterns/imprints that create our personality.

“Samskaras can be positive—imagine the selfless acts of Mother Theresa. They can also be negative, as in the self-lacerating mental patterns that underlie low self-esteem and self-destructive relationships. The negative samskaras are what hinder our positive evolution.” – Stuck in a Rut

Once you are able to identify these patterns, the best part is that we all have the ability to shift and create new patterns! Here is one in particular I have been working with:

Using Sankalpa (Intention) to shift Samskaras: Joyful Acceptance

One of my main focuses has been on self-love and self-acceptance. I am my worst critic and not in a constructive way. I think it’s very common on in all of us. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Sarah mentioned something that resonated so strongly with me: “If I treated my friends the way I treat myself, I wouldn’t have any friends”.  I have been working towards loving who I am and treating myself as I would my very best friend.

I have also become more aware of my speech, to myself and others. I have many patterns of speech that are not healthy.  I have a tendency (samskara) to throw out the “can’t” word - when really I am not able to YET. I’ve been amazed at how making the small switch of ditching “can’t” has been empowering and uplifted my attitude.

I’ve been amazed at how far we all have already come mentally and physically in just a week. To celebrate we ended our first week with a trip to the beach for some play, beach yoga and a group dinner dinner out. I can’t forget to mention all the new wonderful friends I’ve added in my life :-) What a beautiful process this training has been so far…

Here are a few photos. Many  more to come! 

One of our many amazing meals

Jamie, Wendy, Me and Rachel loving the pool

Playa Palada

Beach Yoga at Playa Pelada

Dinner at La Luna - Rachel, Jen, Lili, Kristin, Kori, Wendy, Me, Jamie, Chris and Sarah

Costa Rica Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) – Starting the Journey….

Costa Rica Yoga Spa Yoga Shala where we lived and breathed for 21 days straight

What brought me here to this Yoga Training?

Beyond travelling and learning Spanish I decided that I wanted to explore more about this thing called YOGA. Yoga is an activity I picked up to battle corporate stress and get some exercise. I always end up feeling so much better after a yoga class, but why? Why does yoga work for me, and so many others? What else does yoga offer? These are some of the questions I had and want to explore.

My first experience diving deeper into Yoga was last year at a retreat led by Chrisandra Fox and Katie Silcox. (http://8dropsyoga.com/about/). I was amazed at how after only 4 days how great I felt – the best I had in years (I’d also done a 5 day raw/juice cleanse before the retreat). I also felt so renewed and intrigued to learn more about yoga and Ayurveda.

I started seeking a retreat or training that was somewhere in Central America during March or April 2012. There were various options and I felt a bit lost so I turn to Katie Silcox for clarity. Her reply back really hit home, although I had location and time constraints, the teacher was the most important part. If I was going to spend my time, money and energy on this experience it is vital that I have a connection with the teacher and a desire to learn from them.

After that realization, I started to lose hope. I’m in Guatemala…how am I supposed to discover if a connection is there with these teacher profiles I read online?! I started questioning the whole idea of participating in a Yoga Teacher Training and thought maybe this was not the time for me. I was seeking an experience to deepen my yoga practice and spend time focusing on self-development. Me, a teacher?? I think not! I’ve only been practicing for 4 year on and off.  Am I even qualified or ready for a YTT? Even if I did do a training I don’t have the intention to teach, or at least not in a traditional yoga studio setting. Self-doubt was present. Then, BAM!

Tristan Prettyman’s Blog --> Yoga Tropics Site --> Costa Rica Yoga Spa Site --> Ashley Ludman’s Blog. Immediately butterflies were present:

1. 1.      Ashley happened to be in a village just across the lake from me in Guatemala. What? Wow!
2. 2.     Ashley was leading a YTT in Costa Rica from March 10-31 at Costa Rica Yoga Spa

Ashley and I met the next day in Guatemala and it all clicked. Application was sent off and the rest is history!

This training is where I need to be. So here I go on this 21 day journey with all these lovely ladies and mr. christopher michael :-)

Me, Wendy, Ash our amazing teacher, Lili, Jen, Sarah, Rachel, Chris, Rania (only here for a 1 week retreat), Kori & Jamie (not pictured is Kristin who joined us a bit later). All of us on this journey of discovering our Inner Power

Where we spend all of our meals - beautiful view!

Roomies in the Unity Room

Top Bunk is all mine - this our room before we cluttered it all up; last time that table looked like that ha

Ahhh Hammocks

Pool and our Yoga Shala - "Ranchito"

How amazing is this structure? 

Me, Sarah, Jamie and Chris playing around at sunset

Beautiful sunset over the ocean from Costa Rica Yoga Spa

Yoga. Meditate. Study. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

Typical day in our life at Costa Rica Yoga Spa's YTT

6:00am - 8:30am: morning meditation, journaling, practice, pranayama (breath)

8:30am: breakfast

9:30am - 12:30pm: lecture, group integration, asana (physical  yoga practice)

12:30pm: lunch

1:00pm - 3:00pm: "free" time - often lots of studying

3:00pm - 4:30pm: lecture, group integration

4:30pm - 6:00pm: sunset yoga session

6:30pm: dinner

7:30pm - 9:00pmish: thai massage, group integration, lecture

Clearly we are quite busy! A good busy of course, but it will take adjusting. Thanks Ash for being patient and sharing so much with us.

Nicaragua - Traveling to & San Juan Del Sur

I choose to get it all out of the way and pay a bit more on the King Quality bus which went direct to Managua in one day. The lovely journey from Antigua, Guatemala to Managua, Nicaragua  began at 4am. Thank goodness for the Guatemalan patience as my alarms did not go off!

To be honest, the King Quality buses are quite spacious and they gave us burger king for every meal (which was included). They also played some pretty decent movies which made the journey move faster. You actually rarely have to get off for all 4 border crossings - the customs people come onto the bus to you which was sweet.  I also met a new Slovenian friend, Tom, along the way which was awesome to have a travel buddy for the journey.

Tom and I on one of our many bus journeys together

A funny moment along the way – at the el Salvador, Honduras border I was talked into divulging my facebook information to the immigration officer…so far luckily no contact has been made ha. All in all the bus went pretty well for being stuck in one place for 21 hours. We made it to Managua at 1am, haggled with a taxi driver and then found a place to crash for the night. Tom and I headed to San Juan del Sur (SJDS) the next morning. SJDS was an interesting place and honestly I have no interest in going back. It was wind hell, so windy you couldn’t lay on the beach without being blasted in the eyes with sand. The power went out a lot because of the weather, but Kieran, Tom and I made the best of it. Great surfing up at Maderas – but weird that the main beach at San Juan del Sur you don’t really chill at or surf at all so you have to hire cabs for the day to shuttle you to other nearby beaches.

Playa Coco, Nicaragua

Doing my thing in Nica

Beach time baseball with some local kids

Sunset at playa Coco

My highlights from this quick trip was this awesome bbq joint, meeting Tom and Natalie, reuniting with Kieran and Carley, beach yoga, jenga and cards.

Best bbq chicken ever

Jenga one afternoon with Natalie and Kieran - let me tell you, it was intense!

Playa Maderas

Yayyy Headstands with Tom and Kieran

Good times with friends in SJDS

The rest of my photographs are on Picasa:

San Juan Del Sur - Nicaragua

Sealing the day with the Sunset

On Lake Nicaragua with Ometepe in the background

This post was inspired by the sunset above that I saw last night.

Pause. Reflect. Enjoy.
The funny thing is I was irritated to find out right before I hopped on this 15 hr ferry that there is actually a 5 hr bus for half the price I could have taken. When in actuality I needed to slow down and let the journey go on as it was meant to be and be grateful for this stunning sunset that I would have missed if I had taken the bus.

One of my favorite moments during the day is sunset. If I could I would vow to take 20 min of my day to watch the beauty of the sun fall. Luckily on this trip I've been able to more times than not. Not sure how im going to work that back into my corporate life when I
return :( here are many happy reflective moments I want to share:

Lake Tahoe

San Juanilla Costa Rica - Flying for the first time with Kristin!

San Juanillo, Costa Rica - CRYS March Teacher Training <3 and miss you all

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Right near my house in SF - Sunset & Croquet, great day!

Outside of Seattle, WA

Playa Carillo, Costa Rica

San Francisco, CA - near Sutro Baths with Julia Marino

Big Island Hawaii

We were in bliss watching the sunset on the Big Island - with my mother and stepfather Marv :)

What's the most beautiful sunset you've experienced?

The first memory that came to my mind was this sunset at the sutro baths near ocean beach in SF:

Ocean Beach, San Francisco

 This was before I lived in SF and was shared with Lauren Mallery, David and Changiz. It was a quick but memorable akpsuli reunion. Thank you lmal for bringing me to one of my favorite sunset spots ever!

Me, Changiz, Lauren & David

Adios San Pedro, Hola Antigua - Guatemala

Lo siento for my absence here on my blog. I’ve had an intense, amazing and busy past 21 days in Costa Rica. I promise I’ll get caught up super soon. Okay let’s rewind a bit – back to saying my goodbyes to San Pedro and spending a few days in Antigua, Guatemala.

Ruinas La Recoleccion

Antigua is a really unique, colorful city with the beautiful backdrop of Volcan de Agua. The building architecture is really neat. I would describe it as pretty romantic – lots of boutique hotel and really nice dinner spots (luckily that’s in addition to hostels and street food J). Antigua was definitely more expensive than being on the lake, but I’ll need to get used to that since I’ll be heading to Costa Rica – which is about double for everything.

Here are some spots I highly recommend:

Eateries: Rainbow Café for live music, La Vieja Cocina for dinner or lunch, Y tu pina tambien (good coffee and breakfast), Sabe Rico (amazing food with tables among the gardens), Cerro de Santo Domingo (nice walk and view of the city, artwork , sculptures – pretty expensive, just have a drink)

Places to Stay: Jungle Party Hostel, Posada Dona Luisa or Posada La Merced

To do: Antigua Futbol game, Ruins of Recolocciones, Antigua Mercado -  cheap cheap, Walk around some of the amazing churches

La Merced

The Arch of Santa Catalina

Right near Parque Central

How adorable are these lil sisters?

Beautiful colors and details of Antigua

Antigua Futbol Match

Chilling at the Futbol Match

Sunday Procession that runs something like the 5 Sundays before Easter - they march throughout the whole city all day

Mmm Mmm Mmm

You can find all of my pictures on Picasa:

Antigua

Antigua