I recently completed a 30 day teacher training course in yoga at an ashram in India. The experience was fantastic with some life changing lessons that I captured from my stay. Here are the top 5 lessons that I learned in no particular order.
Lesson 1: To change yourself to be better you need to discipline yourself. No one is going to make you change to better yourself than you. In order to push yourself to a limit you need to recognize that change is necessary and only you have to create a reason to change. Ashrams are a great place to control your thirst for cigarettes, alcohol, and lots of other habits. I noticed immediate changes from some of my guru-bhais (brothers) in the ashram in their ability to control their attachments to things. The key is to take these habits and make it part of daily ritual and this takes personal drive and discipline.
Lesson 2: Setting expectations is pointless. The training provided an opportunity for those who choose to do so to get a spiritual name. The catch was that the trainees weren’t the ones selecting their name. The name was given to them by the spiritual teacher. One of my friends initially reacted negatively to his name only to realize a bit later that it was the best name for him – all it took was a little bit of time. There will always be resistance to change but sometimes when the dust settles the air is fresher to breathe. Give change a little bit of time and you may like your new environment.
Lesson 3: All things are temporary. I knew in 30 days I would be done and moving on in life. The friends that I considered as family during my stay will also move on to their respective families and continuing adventures. We will not be in the ashram forever. In fact this was the very lesson to be learned – that we are nomadic individuals destined not to remain static. All things in life will change. Nothing is constant – not friends, not family, not time.
Lesson 4: Self-less service is the best way to give back to yourself. As part of the Ashram routine, we had to do Karma Yoga (self-less service). My job was to help clean the temporary dorm. While my initial reaction was to question my action, I realized that this was a great way to keep the living space clean and provide an environment for my fellow Guru-bhais that was free from dirt and clutter. Volunteering to give back to others directly was an act on myself to surrender my questions and simply act to create an environment that gave me greater joy by unconditionally giving back to others.
Lesson 5: Your attitude is the ticket to success in life. The schedule in the ashram for the teacher training course (TTC) was intense. Waking up at 530am to participate in morning meditation/ chanting, having 2 meals a day, 4 hours of yoga, 1 hour of karma yoga, 1 hour of lecture on chanting/Gita, 1.5 hours of philosophy discussion, and completing daily homework was no easy task and there were days where I was completely burned out. The key was not to give up and keep a positive outlook. We had an exam at the end but passing the exam was not the only thing to learn from the course – it was our overall attitude to the training that was being judged that was one of the most important aspects to pass the training. Keeping a positive outlook on everything in life is living life.