Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

SPECIAL REPORT: STAFF REFRESHER, 2015
Staff Refresher, 2015
By Swami Gokulananda
The Idea – the objective
Some years ago the TTC Refresher appeared on the Sivananda
scene: A one week course to inspire teachers to deepen their
practice and fine tune their teaching skills. Every year it was
a big success, teachers enjoyed the week and came back
inspired. What seems to be as important as improving teaching
skills is the feeling of unity. As many teachers live far from
a Sivananda Yoga centre there is a deep need to reconnect,
to do Sadhana together, and to refresh and get new inspiration.
Why not do the same thing for the Swamis and staff? Their
needs seem to be not so different from the teachers’ and
students’. The Staff Refresher was born.
The vision
Three weeks, 17th April to 7th May 2015, Sivananda Ashram in
Orleans. All Swamis, Brahmacharis, and main staff were invited
to participate in collective Sadhana, to deepen the teaching skills,
go one step further in managing Centres and Ashrams, and last
but not least: rest, relax, recharge, reconnect and refresh.
Preparation
When I first heard about it, I was enthusiastic and a bit skeptical
at the same time. How would we organise the Centres with all
their duties? How would we find people to help? Were we to
leave the Centres in God’s hands? It seemed to be a big challenge.
Finally, however, everything came together as if it was God’s will:
the response from teachers and students was very positive and
many people offered help. Some centres were cared for by
teachers, some had younger staff staying behind to take on the
challenge of running the Centres, tackling new tasks, and
experiencing more responsibility. Teaching plans were adapted,
tasks handed over, staff and karma yogis trained on accounts,
teaching plans, boutique organisation, and other tasks they had
never done before. The remaining staff were as excited as the
departing staff and, by the grace of the masters, we all could
make our way to Orleans.
Arrival
Our meeting point was the Sivananda Yoga Centre in Paris.
It was a joyful atmosphere with people arriving one after
another throughout the day, and the Centre became more and
more orange and yellow! Many of us had not met for quite
a while and we were happy to see each other again. By the
evening, everybody had arrived and we travelled together
to the Sivananda Ashram in Orleans on an organised bus. The
bus ride seemed to include a tour through Paris, we saw the
Eiffel Tower and many other sights in the sunset and despite
many traffic jams and several hours on the road, we finally
reached Neuville aux Bois. Once in the Ashram, we had a warm
welcome with dinner and hot showers. I could hardly believe
that we had all made it.
How to refresh?
The first day was smooth. The schedule was set: Karma Yoga
was distributed; time for Sadhana, lectures, and workshops was
defined. An exciting, and packed, schedule included Vedanta,
social media, anatomy, and asana correction. The next morning
we started with a Homa in the temple with the two priests,
who were with us during these three weeks. The weather was
splendid and the mood was very good. It still seemed a bit like
a dream come true. It felt like coming home.
“It was beautiful to witness the depth
of teaching experience present, and see
how powerful it was to bring all this
knowledge together ”
Trainings and activities were manifold
The day started with morning Satsang. We took turns to lead the
Satsang with a short reading from the book Sadhana by Swami
Sivananda. This was followed, between 8am and 10am, by
Asana correction workshops. The objective was to look into the
12 basic postures and the sun salutation, and see how Swami
Vishnudevananda would teach these postures. It was beautiful
to witness the depth of teaching experience present, and see
how powerful it was to bring all this knowledge together. It felt
good to have time to look into details, ask questions, and clear
doubts. Pictures and notes were taken to put all the information
together as a future guideline for teaching.
The main lecture was at lunchtime. There were several
topics, each lasting 3 or 4 sessions. One of the first topics was
social media. How do we use all these new media – Facebook,
twitter, you tube, skype, slack, and many more – in an
intelligent and sattvic way and not get distracted by them?
Are printed brochures still needed or is the modern way of
communication only virtual? How do we communicate better
with each other, and how do we share ideas, pictures, and
documents? How do we work in teams while in different
locations? How do we put into practice ‘Unity in Diversity’ in
terms of the corporate identity of the Sivananda Organisation?
Swami Durgananda’s lectures brought us back to the
spiritual dimension of doing all this: not to get lost in the
hyperactivity of social media, running Centres, teaching and
taking care of students. Not to burn out but to be intelligent
with self-management, keep up the Sadhana, practice what
we teach – Asanas, Japa, Mouna, Svadhyaya – and be creative
with the yogic teaching. Never forget the goal, why you joined
the Sivananda organisation. Swamiji’s inspiring stories from the
42 YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015