Yoga teacher training students travel to Northern India to study and volunteer

Langara students interested in yoga are getting to go on a trip of a lifetime next week.

A group of 15, including program coordinator Anuradha Hannah and esteemed yoga therapist Nicole Marcia will travel to Northern India from March 4 to 21.

The program runs every two years and was created by Naseem Gulamhusein in 2010, the creator of Langara’s yoga teacher training program.

The program gives students 50 hours of teacher training to add toward their 300- or 500-hour teacher certificates.

Students will experience India’s culture while training

During the retreat, students will be taught how to be a yoga teacher and educated on the history of India.

The trip also includes a tour of attractions such as the Lotus Temple, Mahatma Gandhi Shrine and museums in Agra.

“The architecture is breathtaking. You feel the energy of thousands of years, and are amazed at the intricate work from so long ago,” Hannah said in an email.

After the tour, the group travels to Rishikesh, where the ashram they will be studying at is located.

Classes begin daily at 6 a.m. and continue throughout the day.

Hannah said “entering the discipline and simple life of the ashram,” allows students to strengthen their own practice through daily routine.

Students will give back by volunteering 

The group then spends time at Sri Ram Ashram, an orphanage for more than 600 abandoned children.

The children grow up together and stay at the ashram until they are old and educated enough to leave.

Hannah said many locals refer to this ashram as “the jewel in the jungle.”

“You go, thinking you will help them, and always leave with so much more than you could give,” Hannah said about spending time at Sri Ram.

Marcia, who has been a yoga teacher, therapist and trainer since 2004, is joining the trip for the first time this year.

She became involved in yoga after she was sexually assaulted.

“I used yoga to cope with the aftermath of that traumatic event,” she said in an email.

“I’m most looking forward to the chance to go to the birth place of the practice that has made such a profound difference in my life,” Marcia said.

 Reported by Megan Bobetsis