Indonesia - Step 7.2: 21 days in the ytt Bali; a unique, memorable experience

I'm sitting here, in a fancy-bali-cliché-digital-nomand-hippie-vibe cafe in uluwatu, trying to put into words what my experience was in the 21 days of YTT. I need to write it down so that I can process it step by step.

Like many times in my life, the YTT was one of those moments when you realize the consequence of your actions: I click somewhere online and think "ok, I'll book a yoga teacher training in Bali". A few months later, you're sitting in the sky-shala with a bunch of beautiful souls, doing yoga from 6 a.m. every day learning about yoga philosophy, anatomy, teaching and more.

To be honest; I didn’t expected anything from that, as I decide theses things quite impulsively. But what I got was way more then I could ever expect. The understanding I had from „yoga“ before was just a tiny part of that experience and I came to realise the expansion of it to all parts of life. The last years I was always learning, listening to podcasts, reading books, expanding my mind in a lot of matters and topics around self-exploaration, psychology, soul-path, consciousness, meditation, the mind etc… and all that was yoga in the end.

Besides the wisdom that was shared in house of om (the place I did the ytt) there was so much more about it. First of all - and I mentioned it in my last post: the food. I was looking forward to every breakfast, lunch and dinner for the most amazing buffet which was almost entirely vegan. Fresh fruits and vegetables, smoothie bowl, chia pudding, porridge, banana bread, soups, tempeh, tofu, vegan sushi, pizza, burger, pasta, brownies and more. I answered the question about the food in the review survey with “I will miss it every single day in my life until I die "and it wasn’t a lie.

Furthermore one of the most mind-blowing parts of that time are the people I met. If someone would have told me “you will meet a like-minded, open hearted soul-tribe with amazing, inspiring and uniquely beautiful women from all around the world” - I wouldn’t even be able to imagine what that means. And it is still hard to understand. Never in my life I found myself in a space that judgement-free, open and loving. Because what we all experienced together in this magical place, after a short period of time, we already felt like close friends and family to each other. Without exception.

We laughed, cried, talked, danced, meditated, exercised, sweated, ate, screamed, stayed silent, enjoyed, suffered, explored, felt, loved and learned together. We build connections that will last for a lifetime. We spontaneously decided to go to australia.

What was also very unexpected for me was the amount of the potential of growth that I experienced. Even though so far it sounds like a hippie-fairytale: physically and mentally it was a challenge. With everything that we have been confronted daily, a lot of things came up. I had many moments of realisation, emotional breakouts, understandings and also the feeling of being overwhelmed by all of that.

I needed to take some notes and journal daily in order to process. But this was enabling me to grow more into the self authenticity I am gaining for. I think it was the combination of the energy that the space provided, the people surrounding me and the external triggers that came to me in the form of daily yoga, chanting, pranayama, knowledge, reiki sessions, acro-yoga at the beach, tarot reading, soundbaths, meditation, yoga-nidra, ice-bath, silence mornings or days and over all a very unique once-in-a-lifetime setting in the jungle in Bali.

So writing this blog for me, is just a small step to process all of this, because that will take some time.

After we all graduated, holding the certificate, that allows us to call ourselves a yoga teacher, in our hands, in the middle of rice fields; a kind of weird, melancholic feeling came over me. I knew it is time to let go of this place, the friends, the routine I enjoyed so much, the vegan buffet and go out of this bubble back to the “real world”. Which in my case means: travel, stay in hostels, meet new people week to week, letting go of structure and the urge to control every step of my travels.

Luckily a lot of the beautiful yoga teachers stayed in Bali a while after that.

I knew after more or less staying in this yoga bubble in the Amerthan Villa for 3 weeks, I should maybe take the come back slow and maybe book a private room for 1-2 nights to process. Nevertheless I booked myself into a party hostel in Canggu. The contrast couldn’t possibly be more intense.

Anyways. The hostel was very nice (a thing I found out about Bali; almost all of the hostels are pretty nice). The people, the vibes and of course it offered a party every day. So the first night I went out to Old mans with a big group of the ytt. After 21 days of getting up at 5:30 a.m., yoga, no alcohol, om shanti and spiritual growth - we were all excited for a night of music, drinks, chats and dance. (Or: as much as you expand a rubber band in one direction, as much it will bounce back in the other, as our yoga teacher warned us)

The next night my hostel organised a pub crawl. There I found myself, with a portuguese guy I met in my dorm, talking about life-experiences, travels, soul tribes, self acceptance, yoga, the universe, vipassana and more - in a room with 80-90 people drinking, partying and playing drinking games.

After 3 days in Canggu I made my way to Uluwatu to meet up with my yogi-girlies. This is where I a sitting right now, trying to write down my experiences of a very intense chapter of my travels.