Divinely Timed: My First Two Weeks of 300-Hour Yoga Teacher Training
300 Diaries — my first two weeks of 300-hour yoga teacher training in Koh Samui: hatha, ahimsa, a soul sister, my new favourite subject, and a very wise osteopath.
Two weeks in, and what a ride it's been. So much has happened that I've rolled my first two weeks into one diary — so grab a cuppa :-)
If you missed my last diary, week one brought my first triggered response: the cat, the vole, and a release I really didn't see coming. It caught me off guard coming so quickly, but it reminded me why I'm here. This training isn't just about what the body can do. It's about what the body has been holding on to. But there's been so much more going on around it, so let me take you back to the very beginning.
Divinely timed
Our mornings are with Kosta, the founder of the retreat. Lovely guy, really knows his stuff, and he's been on quite the journey himself — you can feel it in the way he teaches. Every morning we have two and a half hours of asana (the physical practice), pranayama (breath work) and meditation.
Day one opened with Nauli, one of the Shatkarma Kriyas — the cleansing practices of hatha yoga. You create a vacuum under the diaphragm, drawing everything up and in, and then (with a lot of practice) you start to churn the abdominal muscles in a rolling wave, to get things moving that have been stuck. It's mesmerising to watch. Then we went into two full hours of hatha.
And here's the thing I somehow hadn't fully clocked when I booked: this 300-hour training is hatha-based. My 200-hour was hatha too, but since then I've mostly taught vinyasa, kundalini, yin, restorative, hormone yoga and Pilates. Yet over the last few months I've fallen in love with hatha all over again. Since we added Róisín's Thursday night hatha to the timetable, I've been going every week, quietly prepping for this course. It all feels divinely timed. I trusted this was the right training for me, and it absolutely is.
There have already been some incredible sequences that I cannot wait to bring home. There's a slightly sadistic part of me that can't wait to put you all through your paces — but mostly, I just can't wait for you to feel them in your own bodies. The beauty of them is that they are all beginner friendly - but just think LONGER HOLDS ha!
Hot, sweaty and honest
It's hot here. Very hot, even on the days it rains. And for those first couple of days, my period decided to join me, so I wasn't anywhere near top energy.
In one afternoon sequence, my body simply hit its limit. So, in a room full of experienced yogis on an advanced teacher training, I lay down for the final half an hour. I didn't push through. The first of the yamas — yoga's ethical guidelines — is ahimsa, non-harming, and that includes how we treat ourselves.
I want to say this especially to anyone who's new, or nervous about coming to a class: I know the feeling. You don't want to stop. You worry people will think you're weak. I had exactly the same thoughts — as a studio owner and teacher, on a 300-hour training. Those thoughts don't disappear with experience. But resting when your body asks you to isn't giving up. It's the practice.
Resting when your body asks you to isn't giving up. It's the practice.
Stronger and more tired, at the same time
It's now been two full weeks of daily practice, a minimum of two hours at a time, and I can feel my body getting stronger and more tired at exactly the same time. I didn't know both were possible. They are.
One morning with Mikey — a former firefighter/ PT from the UK who's been out here for around ten years, and very much the joker of the group — we started with Uddiyana Bandha, Nauli and Kapalabhati, then breathed consciously for 40 minutes before moving into a sequence. I have never sweated so much in my life. And on another morning with Michael, despite waking up exhausted, turned into my strongest practice yet.
These long breath-work sessions have got me itching to offer a longer class at the studio — at least two hours — where we can properly get stuck into breath work and hatha together. Watch this space.
The people
I can't write this without mentioning the people. My fellow trainees are all so different, and the teachers are oozing authenticity. Kosta, Mikey, Nikki — a beautiful, salt-of-the-earth soul — and her husband Michael, one of the owners. They all share the same passion I have, and I can't tell you how much I'm loving it.
If I'm honest, I've never really had someone I'd call a mentor before. Being on this journey alongside mentor-like figures has shown me how much I've been missing that. And it isn't only the teachers — my peers are teaching me just as much.
A soul sister
Then there's Melody. She was the very first person I met here at Vikasa who was doing the YTTC— she wandered down to the pool, we got chatting, and we just clicked. She'd already read my blog before the course and recognised so much of her own life in it. We sit together, finish each other's sentences and somehow keep turning up in matching outfits. Everyone assumes we knew each other before we came.
In our Making Magic sessions — all about looking after our energy, being emotionally intelligent and building real rapport as a group — we've had some beautiful moments together. In one, we each wrote an intention to stick on a window as our daily inspiration. Mine was:
I trust and embrace that discomfort and the unknown are gifts.
In another, Nikki had us shake our bodies with our eyes closed for 15 minutes, then walk around the hall looking only at our feet — and, eventually, walk towards the next pair of feet we saw. I stopped in front of a pair and thought: I know those toes. It was Melody, of course. Of everyone in that big hall, the universe pulled us together. We slowly lifted our eyes until they met, had a teary, giggly moment, and then Nikki told us: this is your angel for your yoga teacher training — the person who'll check in on you if you're struggling. Energy really does meet energy.
Energy meets energy. Like attracts like. It's real.
Yoga is a service
One session that really stuck with me was a yoga business class with Michael. He used to work in the corporate world, came to Thailand, met Nikki and completely changed his career — which, again, shows the power of yoga.
He spoke about how many yoga teachers struggle to merge yoga with business because it feels wrong, as if asking to be paid cheapens the practice. But yoga is a service, and a fabulous one. That really landed. I opened Inner Lifetime on instinct and passion, on a path I simply surrendered to, without ever having run a business before. I'm so looking forward to going deeper into this and bringing what I learn home to help the studio grow. I've since updated the Home Page of the website - let me know what you think? :-)
Yoga is a service — and a fabulous one.
My new favourite thing
Then came philosophy, and it is by far my FAVOURITE part. It started with Kosta's Evolution of Yoga sessions — the ego, spirituality, ego death, paths to enlightenment, and the idea that this whole life might be a kind of simulation. Very Matrix vibes. I absolutely loved it.
Now we've started philosophy properly, and it's authentic yoga philosophy, not the Western interpretation. I'm completely hooked. It's even helped me realise that if I ever return to my degree, it's the philosophy — not the psychology — that truly lights me up. I'm already thinking about doing one of the guest teachers' 300-hour philosophy courses at some point next year.
And they keep reminding us: advanced yoga isn't about advanced poses. It's about going deeper — through pranayama, meditation, bandhas and mudras.
Advanced yoga isn't advanced poses. It's going deeper.
Meet Tito
I've also been seeing the loveliest osteopath called Tito. He's from Norway but now lives on the island, and he has such a wise, grounded energy. He really knows what he's talking about.
At my very first session, I felt immediate relief in my right shoulder, which had been bothering me for months. When he put my neck back into place, I got unexpectedly emotional — you know those videos where people well up after something clicks back in? That was me. He was so compassionate that I gave him a hug on the way out.
Since then, he's cracked the vertebrae in my neck back into place twice, because of the frankly obscene amount of tension I'm carrying there. That's been alongside some very intense muscle work and dry needling. I'll be honest: the dry needling has been very, very unpleasant. He described my neck as "a brick", which isn't ideal when you're a yoga teacher lol.
He's also popped my SI joint and lower lumbar spine back into place, twisting me into positions I genuinely would have thought impossible. But jeez, it feels amazing. My QL, my piriformis and my neck muscles have all been in spasm, so this kind of work takes time.
It just goes to show that yoga can only do so much in yoga. I'm seeing it as my body still holding on to years of stress and chaos, so while it's uncomfortable, I'm treating this time away as the perfect chance to get the physical work done. I want to come home much lighter.
The flip side, as some of you will know, is that this kind of bodywork can bring things up and leave you far more tired than usual. So it's safe to say I'm going through a lot of energetic, physical and emotional release over here. And what a privilege that is. I'm not focusing on the challenge of it. I'm grateful to be in a position to do this at all. Every day I remind myself that I'm on a tropical island, doing what I love, taking care of myself in a beautiful setting, surrounded by beautiful people. Is it easy? No. But discomfort is basically my middle name at this point, and I'm here for it. In some ways I'm even enjoying it. Short-term pain, long-term gain, and all that.
So if you're working on something in your own body right now, let this be your encouragement: fixes rarely happen overnight. Keep showing up for yourself, and let your body do what it does best, with a little help where you need it. I'm feeling really hopeful that I'll come home with a significant improvement.
The night before our last day off, I had another session with Tito, and bless him — I'd booked an hour, but he ended up spending two hours on me, really getting into my shoulder and giving the dry needling time to do its work. Unpleasant? Definitely. Uncomfortable? Very. But I'm feeling so much better for it.
Letting it come up
That night, I had the most vivid dream about a man I used to be very good friends with. Through the entire dream, I was coughing up gunk. And the harder I tried to force it up, the less it moved. But the more I simply allowed it to come up freely, the more it eased and released.
I may be reading too much into it, but I genuinely felt lighter the next day — as if something else had been purged. This man was probably the first really close male friend I ever had, and he ended up betraying me. I haven't thought about him in years. So maybe this was a sign that something very deep and very old, stored in my body, has finally been released.
The harder I forced it, the less it moved. The more I allowed it, the more it released.
It's a lesson that goes way beyond dreams, isn't it? So often, healing isn't about pushing. It's about allowing. I'm very much on a journey over here, and I'm finding it all fascinating.
Choosing stillness
As the course goes on, I'm also getting much better at protecting my energy. More and more, I'm taking time to be still and retreating to my room to restore — and it's been so good for me.
Something has shifted in my meditation practice too. I've moved away from guided meditations towards meditating in silence — something I've always found much more difficult.
If you find meditation hard, please know you're not alone — it's taken me a long time to get here. For years, guided meditations were my way in: a voice, a story, a place to rest my attention while my busy mind settled. And that's exactly what they're there for.
I see guided meditation as a stepping stone. It teaches you the foundations — noticing your breath, coming back each time your mind wanders, simply being with whatever's there. Silent meditation comes later, and only with practice. There's no rush to get there, and no prize for skipping ahead.
Guided meditation is the stepping stone. Silence comes with practice.
So if guided meditations are where you are right now, that's exactly where you should be. Keep showing up, keep practising, and trust that, in time, the silence will start to feel less like an empty room and more like home.
What I'm bringing home (so far)
Some seriously good hatha sequences (consider yourselves warned/ lucky).
A plan for a longer breath work and hatha session at the studio.
A shaking meditation and a feet-to-eyes connection exercise I'd love to try with you (likely in the Homrone Yoga classes) .
A fresh way of seeing the business side of yoga: it's a service worth offering well.
A renewed belief that resting in class is a strength, not a failure.
A silent meditation practice I never thought I'd find so nourishing.
A reminder that healing is often about allowing, not forcing.
And a neck that is (slowly) becoming less of a brick.
So that's life so far: amazing, exhausting, and no two days the same. I'm so grateful to be here, learning from people with such depth of experience.
Speak soon, from one very relaxed neck (eventually),
Jade x
Come and practise with us
I can't wait to bring everything I'm learning home to you. If you've been thinking about trying yoga, your first class at Inner Lifetime is on us: use code 1STCLASSFREE_IL when you book at www.innerlifetime.com.
Inner Lifetime, Unit 3, 421 Newark Rd, Lincoln LN6 8RS
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