I had great intentions of blogging regularly while on my yoga teacher training in Bali but a combination of 5.45am wake up calls, 11 hour days and well, all of Bali to explore when I’m not on my yoga mat has meant my laptop has been rather neglected these past few weeks. I’ve been keeping an almost daily diary on my Instagram but wanted to delve a little deeper into what life on an intensive yoga teacher training is really like.

Today I’m sharing a typical day from the early morning alarm to lights out. Given that we have to fit the bulk of 200 hours of yoga instruction into one month, a 200 Hours intensive is going to be, well, intensive! My time in Bali has gone by so fast and I’ve enjoyed every single day, whether that’s learning how to adjust yoga students, designing a class sequence, learning about the history or yoga or taking a well-deserved day off to laze by the pool. We get a total of three days off and two days where we take group trips – remember when I said it was intensive?!

A typical day has looked like this:

5.45am – Alarm goes off, it’s still dark outside but the sun rises while I pull on my yoga gear. Tip number one – pack lots of yoga gear!

6.15am – Leave the villa which I’m sharing with two other yoga-teachers-in-training and walk to the beautiful Under The Banyan Tree shala. Tip number two – if you can pick your accommodation yourself, stay as close to the shala as you can.

6.30 am – Pranayama practice. We are taught a variety of breathing techniques, both for our own self study and practice and to teach.

7.15am – Asana practice. We are working on a sequence and building on it each day, today’s sequence is a sweaty one with lots of twists and some handstand practice.

9.30am – Back to the villa for breakfast. Our breakfast is provided by a local homestay – I have my usual order: ginger tea, a fruit plate and granola with almond milk which tastes so good after a two-hour yoga class.

11am – Wander back to the shala for our morning lecture. Today we talk about the “eight limbs of yoga” and how these can be applied to the modern world. Tip number three – learn how to be comfortable sitting on the floor! We spend the entire day sitting on our yoga mats so grab as many blocks/bolsters as you need, otherwise it feels like being back at school…

1pm – Lunchtime! We walk to Paddy Point, a local warung that serves us an amazing, three-course, veggie or vegan lunch everyday. My breakfasts and lunches are included as part of my course fees which is really great as it’s so important to eat well when the day is mentally and physically demanding. I will miss the food at Paddy Point so much!

2.30pm – Back to the shala again. Today we learn how to safely correct, adjust and assist yoga students in poses. We take it in turns to play student and teacher and don’t take ourselves too seriously.

4.30pm – We end the day with a brief restorative practice and meditation.

5pm – Time to tidy up at the Shala and head back to the villa.

6pm – My villa-mates, boyfriend and I head out to Alchemy for dinner. There are so many amazing foodie options nearby that it’s going to be hard to visit them all by the end of the course. We switch it up between visiting somewhere a little more fancy and just going to a local warang where a meal and drink is under £5.

9pm – Back at the villa I quickly run through my teaching sequence (we all have to teach a one hour class as a graduation requirement) and practice my Sanskrit pose names while Harry looks slightly confused.

10pm – Lights out after setting my alarm for 5.45am, ready to do it all again tomorrow!

All my posts from my yoga teacher training journey can be found here.

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