Author: Sage Harrington

Yoga adventures await! Now I need to pay for them.

I have this really great opportunity to go to India for an intensive 3 week long yoga workshop this November, and I’m so excited about it!

I recently completed yoga teacher training at High Desert Yoga here in Albuquerque—it was such a rewarding process. I’ve been teaching yoga classes (come have fun yoga times with me, btw) and have really been enjoying learning more about yoga, my body, and how postural and anatomical function can deeply affect the emotional body and overall well-being.

When my friend and yoga teacher, the lovely Avery Kalapa, was accepted to this really special yoga course in Dehradun, India, I figured I’d apply too. I wasn’t necessarily expecting to be accepted to the program, so I was very suprised and delighted to get the acceptance letter from the Yog-Ganga Centre For Yoga Studies.

Please help send me to India!

While the program itself is pretty affordable for me, the plane tickets aren’t really! If you can, please donate to send me on my merry way to India!

Iyengar-aligned training

One of the reasons I’m so excited to study with Rajiv Chanchani this November at the Yog-Ganga Centre—along with the fact that he is a knowledgeable and revered yoga teacher—is that he has worked closely with BKS Iyengar, who has been credited with bringing yoga to the west.

BKS Iyengar has an amazing story—he struggled with illness as a child but started practicing yoga and received many health benefits from the practice. He taught many people the discipline of yoga during his lifetime and is revered in the yoga world.

I am so looking forward to deeping my yoga practice through the lens of an Iyengar-aligned yoga course held in India, a place I’ve never been to, and I am so excited to visit. Here are some photos of Dehradun, where the Yog-Ganga Centre is located.

Agenda/how I’ll be spending my time in India:

We’ll begin our journey to India on November 1st and return to the US at the end of the month. We’ve (my yoga and travel buddy Avery and I) have included a few buffer days in our plans to allow for time to adjust to jet lag and see some of New Delhi before our return!

Housing: Rajiv and Swati Chanchani, who own and run the Yog-Ganga Centre, have made arrangements with families who live near the Centre. So I’ll be the guest of a nearby family who will house and feed me for about a month, for a small fee. I’m so excited about—among a bunch of other exciting new experiences I’ll have—enjoying a lot of delicious homemade food while I’m there.

I’ll be attending two hours of asana (yoga posture) intruction each morning, with two hours of pranayama (breath work) or lecture in the evening. The Yog-Ganga course includes 22 lessons in asana-pranayama (42 hours) and three lectures (3 hours).

During the day I’ll have plenty of time to practice yoga and integrate all the fascinating things I’ll be learning. Also, there’s a library on site which I imagine is filled with fascinating reading about yoga practice and yoga philosophy. Not to mention sight-seeing and enjoying the fact that I’ll be in India!

I’ll also definitely be bringing my ukulele and plan on practicing a bunch and writing a lot of songs. 😉

I’m raising funds for this special trip:

The cost breakdown:

$300—3-week long yoga course at Yog-Ganga Centre!
$1240—plane tickets from Albuquerque to Dehradun, India
$300—housing (about $10/day!)
~$120—food for the month (anywhere from $1.50 to $10/day)
~$60—Visa fee

Total cost of trip: $2020

Click here to donate money and help send me to India!

I am so excited to take this yoga course and would so appreciate your help getting me there.

Money raised so far:

$300 donated by a super-special friend, J. F. 8/18/16

$300 donated by an extra-generous individual, V. H. 8/26/16

$555 donated by someone super-special! J. T. 9/22/16

$50 donated by super sweetheart J. M. 9/28/16

$30 donated by sweet thing T. H. 10/3/16

$1235 of $2020

***update 9/22/16: Thank you so much for your help!  I’m so happy that the funds for this trip are coming together, it’s really helping to put my mind at ease. I’ve never taken a long international trip like this and taking a whole month away from making money seems a bit crazy on the surface. I wouldn’t be able to do this without you. Thank you so much! <3 <3 <3

I’ve never done anything like this before!

This is the first time I’ve planned a trip overseas. I’ve never been to India before and can’t wait to explore this special part of the world, while immersing myself in a rigorous, intensive yoga course. I hear from folks that have taken the course before, that the way Rajiv teaches has changed the reason they practice yoga. This is bound to be a paradigm-shifting trip.

If you have questions, email me or ask in the comments below 🙂

Please help me pay for this really special trip and yoga course if you can—I’d so appreciate it!

Love,

Sage