Yoga Teacher Training in India

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I started working on "***" (just to avoid problems) in Chile on January 2015. At first, the job was amazing. My workmates were from all over the world, everyone was young full of travelling experiences, and the job itself was something new, a topic I didn't know about so I was happy with it.

After a while (a broken heart from a colleague, a shitty boss, fights and boredom), I decided I needed to get some fresh air and bought a plane ticket to India, to get my Yoga Teacher Training in Arambol, Goa. All I could think of was India, what was about to come. It was my first time going to that far away, mysterious country. I was half afraid, half excited. My family was 75% afraid, 25% worried more than anything.

So the day arrived, and I left. 33 hours of flight, 4 stops before arriving to the final destination were preparing myself to 28 days of 12 hours per day learning, and by learning, I mean LEARNING.

I arrived in Arambol a bit later than expected, and missed the opening ceremony, and when I got to the yoga studio, the ceremony fire was off, but everyone was waiting for me. I introduced to my "classmates", and my three teachers and we went to have dinner. Then, everyday passed so fast, so much learning, so many new experiences. At one point I felt I needed to sink everything down or else I was going to explode, but I kept going on, and it was the best decision to make.

We were 6 in the whole month course, 4 american girls, one English and myself, and we got along so well that we were all surprised about it. We achieved this beautiful connection that wouldn't be possible in other situations.

Arambol was the perfect place to act as an introduction to India. It's a small beach in the region of Goa, the ex Portuguese colony. Locals are pretty used to tourists, so more than the typical in India is accepted (meaning for example, not having to wear long clothes in the street). It is much more expensive than the rest of India too. Having traveled in South East Asia, I was surprised of the prices of the hostels and food (still cheaper than what we are used to, of course). The town is full of hippies, russian, naked babies running around, sellers of crafts and clothes, street singers, cows and dogs; it's just beautiful. Of course, it is not the real "India Experience", so I really have to go back to that beautiful country that has so much to offer, but at the same time, scares the heck out of me!

Going back to the course, we woke up everyday at 6 am to be at the studio at 6:30 ready for meditation and breathing techniques, followed by a coconut break (drink and eat fresh coconut), and then two hours of asana (physical yoga). At 10 am, our stomachs were hungry enough for breakfast at Happy Banana, a small shop were we had our daily fresh juice and fruit-muesli breakfast. After an hour, at 11 am, we had to come back to theory and anatomy classes (the anatomy teacher was just a dream come true, I had to say it) til 1 pm, and had lunch in the list of our allowed restaurants (we had a strict meal plan as we were trying to detox ourselves too). After that, back to the studio to have half an hour of questions (to our wise amazing teacher) and then alignment and more theory, to finish the day with Restorative yoga (perfect for the end of a long day).

After each day, we usually went to the beach to watch the sunset, being surrounded by live music, artisans, dancers and all you can imagine. The vibe was amazing. In one of these sunsets, I met the singer of the band that played every evening in the beach, he seemed the most beautiful thing at the moment. For some time he remained like that. If was fun though.

Anyway, yoga, music, beach, emotions coming in and out. Everything was incredible, and I am really missing it, so much.

I really know this now, it is really important to surround yourself by people that make you a better person, and you will be much happier. The people I met in India really made me a better person.

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