I decided to tag along one of James' out of the country work trips. This time, he was leaving for 2 weeks in Bali, Indonesia. I booked a flight and went with him. Usually on trips like this, he stays busy with work, and I do my own thing. My itinerary composed of wandering around the city, and looking for unique experiences. Though it starts out as a nice quick break from all the hustling back in Manila, trips like these usually take a turn for the busy. Not necessarily a bad thing if you ask me, since most of the time, I bring the busy bit upon myself. For this trip, what started out as a 2 week trip to the beach, turned into a 40 hour teacher training course on Sky Yoga, an Aerial Yoga brand here at Radiantly Alive, one of the bigger studios in Bali.
The studio is in Ubud, a one and a half hour trip from the hotel James had booked. So for this trip, I left him at Sofitel in Nusa Dua, and and booked a villa that was just walking distance from Radiantly Alive. It was a refreshing experience being in close proximity of where you need to go. I needed to be at the studio everyday at 7:30 in the morning, so having to travel that far was not something I wanted to do. Bye James.
So this is where the next 5 blog posts will come in. This is me treating my blog as an actual blog. No deadline, no concrete goal as of now. Just notes that I would like to remember, as fresh as they happen. I will still try to be as coherent as possible. So, if you're with me on this, here is post number one.
DAY 1: Meatless Mondays and an Over-Sized Bag
My mornings will start out early this whole week. I woke up at 6:30am to get ready for the first session. It was around the same time that the sun went up. The place I'm currently staying at sits near the mountains. Before my alarm went off, I woke up to the busy sounds of chickens, insects and birds. A much better alternative than my phone if you ask me. The night before, I told the staff that I'd be headed out a bit earlier than the set breakfast time. Since the sessions start early. I requested to have the food delivered to my villa a bit earlier than scheduled. This discussion however, seemed to have been forgotten. It's all good though since I always have food on me. I usually keep it for times when I don't like what is on the table. A slightly more polite way of saying NO when offered food I don't like. Well, at least that's what I tell myself. Anyway, I went straight to the studio munching on my granola bundled up in a zip lock, walking from my place. I used to hate walking. But today I realized that I don't anymore. In fact, I would go as much to say that I actually enjoy it. One of today's wonderful revelations.
I arrived at the studio and signed up. In our class are 9 other people, everyone coming from a Yoga background. Except for me. Was I bothered? To be honest which is the point of this post, it did scare me a little bit. Not the skills part, mostly the belonging part. We were asked to share our intentions in the beginning of class. This was what I wrote down for mine:
As teachers we are always in a position to share, and in order to do this, we must constantly seek to learn. The more I think about it, the more I realize. That a class is an experience. All the other benefits; it's effect on our body, are all secondary. Our job as instructors, is to make sure that people who seek us, get an experience that is good, nourishing, and powerful. That's why I'm here.
I've been brewing these thoughts fro quite sometime, and never got the chance to piece if together with words. Right now, this is me sharing with you where I am in my teaching journey. I like these little breaks where I get to reassess why I've taken this path. To ask myself if what I do is still something that resonates with me enough, that I might share it with the people I meet in the studios that are my many homes.
Today, the answer was still -- YES.
I was vegetarian for an entire day. A first for me. I had my granola for breakfast, and then they served me a fruit crepe for lunch, then some curry vegetables for dinner. It's not an easy lifestyle back home in Manila. Options are not so readily available. Curious to see if I can carry this over tomorrow, and for the rest of the training. Right now, I need some sort of motivation that is other than the training. Hopefully that motivation comes soon.
During my walk home I realized that my bag was too heavy. Considering that I only live a kilometer away, there is no need to bring too many things. Tomorrow, I'll try to bring only what I need.
That's all for now. Goodnight!
xx
