Dear Yogis,
I wish to welcome you all to this journey of self-growth and discovery of how Yoga can help transform our lives. It’s a special marker in your life when you decide to commit to understanding yourself more clearly and take care of your health and well-being.
Finding your voice and expression of yoga as a teacher, is a beautiful way to deepen your understanding and share the blessings of what you’ve learned. To truly convey the heart of yoga, one requires to live a life of yoga, practice consistently for sometime and grasp the most subtle of understandings, the nature of oneself.
Our exploration together spans over 9 months, like a pregnancy, we grow in the womb of Sama Yoga practices and assimilated life values, cultivating healthy habits and emotional stability and open heart.
We move, chant, sing, pray, stretch, breathe, challenge, accept, assimilate, invigorate and learn to listen to our hearts. On behalf of the great SamaYoga team we are honoured and inspired to share with you what has profoundly blessed our lives in every way.
A wish for all students:
May the students/teachers of Sama Yoga gain the blessing of Moksa (liberation from a sense of limitation) and have the capacity to share with comfort and confidence the true teachings o yoga. May all beings have freedom from suffering. Sky.
WHY IS THE SAMA YOGA TEACHER TRAINING UNIQUE?
1) Emphasis on Self-Development
Sama Yoga presents a full yoga lifestyle, how you can live in harmony with your environment, and most importantly how we can mature and grow into responsible, stable, spiritual people that honors and lives a life in accordance with human values. We learn about asana, meditation, Puja, Prayers, Devotion, Emotional management, proper chanting, Mantra, and meanings of mantras, psychology and how the consistent practice of these disciplines earns us grace and blessings in the life.
2) The yoga classes are uniquely presented
The Yoga is delivered straight from the heart, from a deep trust in the yoga wisdom and knowledge to flow from teacher to student. It is delivered as a prayer.
3) The physical presentation
It is an integration of Hatha Yoga, Kriyas, Qi gong and heart opening mantras, intuitively delivered in a relaxed way, that honors the students and lets them feel comfortable the whole way through. There’s a sense of continuous flow even in the stillness, the poses lead gracefully from one to another allowing the practitioner to go deeply into the sensations feeling the more subtle aspects of the pose.
4) Learn how to teach with your heart and full presence
While teaching Yoga we take great care to use language that is appropriate and non-manipulative, so the students can truly trust and relax.
5) It takes a commitment
The students get a good understanding how to perform the Asanas and practice teaching them to the group. We devote 2 classes per day to being on the yoga mat and engaging in Hatha yoga, both in flow and structure, solo and group work. Yoga is a commitment to cognitive and emotional maturity! The teaching is there and guides us as to how to do this. We commit to practice Yoga Asanas and Pranayama as a means of stabilizing the mind and body. See what happens when you commit to a daily practice of nadi shodana for 6 months or longer!
6) Personal programs are prescribed for all Teacher Trainees
Sky meets all students individually, seeing where they are at, what is the physical/emotional state of the person and what they can focus on in between the 3 segments. Personal programs are not set in stone and sometimes altered accordingly to the changing needs of the student.
7) We learn and practice Japa Sadhana –repetition of Mantra
This is a rich resource for the student, and all students are initiated into Mant raJapa. They are encouraged to chant every day, and over time they can gain deeper and deeper focus and devotion in the chanting. This is a great way to learn to manage our thoughts, when we repeat the same sacred words over and over we clearly see what thought patterns pop up.
8) We get to travel to Bali
The 10 days in Bali are special indeed. By the ocean, warm, away from all familiar forms, on a magical, spiritual, island where the people are living in prayer. To grow we need to stretch our comfort zones, sacrifice some of our personal likes and dislikes – see what happens when we show up in a different culture.
9) We get classes with a very rare traditional teacher
A Swamiji (master) who deeply understands the purpose of yoga and has practiced it, lived it thoroughly and taught for 40 years.
Swami Vagishananda Saraswati has been an important aspect of this training, teaching us traditional Vedanta and yoga lifestyle as taught in the Bhagavad Gita. Swamiji takes the role of a seeing-eye dog and guides us with words to see what we truly ARE, to see the essence of ourselves that is unaffected by the various states of the body and the mind. We get to ask questions about the nature of oneself, the world and God. The purpose of this teaching is to help us be content in ourselves, by ourselves, no matter what happens in body and mind. Sri Swamiji is a rare jewel indeed, we are blessed to have classes in Bali with a teacher so deep and so available to share this knowledge clearly.
For more information, visit www.samayoga.info/teacher-training
“This experience has been such a blessing and gift in my life. Made me feel so connected to heart, body and soul.” -Teacher training student 2016
meet the team
TEACHER’S BIO
SKY
Sky is dedicated to living a life of yoga, and since 1991 has studied and taught several styles of yoga, always coming back to the simple and deep principles in the tradition of Hatha Yoga. Gracefully incorporating wisdom from Qi Gong, Ayurveda and Bhagavat Gita (yoga shastra) into his classes gives his delivery a certain integrity and well-rounded approach.
Sky has studied Vedanta since 2001 with Swami Vagishananda and Swami Dayananda, giving a good grounding in the purpose and practices of Yoga as a way of achieving balance, harmony and total fulfillment in this life.
His classes are always spontaneous and deeply honoring of his students. As he says, “I’m like the milkman, I just deliver the milk, fulfilling the sacred and even unspoken orders of the students.” Taught with relaxed passion, humor and clear understanding of the poses and their benefits, one finds his unique classes inspiring and rewarding.
Sky is the main teacher during the education and teaches about 70 % of the classes.
SANNA JONSSON
Sanna Jonsson has always had a deep passion for growth and has been committed to a daily practice of yoga & meditation since she was 16. Her interest spans over all the aspects of yoga including Advaita Vedanta (self knowledge, what gives happiness and peace), Sanskrit, traditional Chanting & Ceremony as well as Yoga shāstra.
Her name is very appropriate, it means “truth”, which has been her motivation and goal for as long as she can remember. She radiates an honesty and openness that invites immediate comfort and trust in all her students and clients. On the teacher training she offers personal life coaching
Sanna brings a cheerful and dedicated presence to the courses which really supports everyone, especially the students in their processes. From her diverse background, which has included engineering, animals, physically challenged children, sports competition and extensive travels among other things, she has gained a deep humility and respect for each individuals journey and the ability to inspire and uplift whoever she meets.
ANA SUNESSON
Anna Sunesson is a dear friend and yoga student of many years. She is devoted to yoga life, teaching and maintaining a steady practice, self-reflection and exploring her passion to grow. At the Sama TT she assists in teaching Samayoga, keeps contact with students before and during course, and takes care of holding space for the group at the steps. It´s with her you´ll be in contact with for questions and application.
Her heart is at home in the earth, offering her home-grown foods and her knowledge of nature is a deep part of who she is. She truly values non-injury (ahimsa) and lives in harmony with nature with her feet in the earth. Anna has great organizational skills and ideas plus the ability to implement them in course form. We have successfully run several yoga courses together and they’ve always been smoothly run, heartfelt and well appreciated by all. I’m grateful to work with her in this capacity and grow the Samayoga garden into a deeply nourishing School for all who come. She is teaching Sama yoga regularly in Järna, Sweden.
MORE at Shambala
“Set by a magical beautiful lake, this charming ”get away” offers heart-felt and nurturing workshops, courses and retreats by very competent teachers, and is hosted by such beautiful souls, who make sure to create a cozy solidarity, and treat you with healthy food cooked with love.”
GALLERY
How to get here
Shambala Gatherings
Borntorpet 1
Skinnskatteberg
Sweden
Located just two hours away from Stockholm in Skinnskatteberg, Sweden, the area is easily accessible by air, train and car, making a great option for a short break wildlife destination.
- Coming by air: The nearest airport to Shambala is Stockholm Vasteras. The second nearest airport is Arlanda airport, the main airport in Sweden. You can easily take a train all the way to Skinnskatteberg from both of them.
- Coming by train / bus: We are fortunate to have a train / bus station at Skinnskatteberg only 5 minutes ride from the center. We offer free pick up services from this station in summer.
- Coming by car: Simply open this Google map on your navigator and follow directions to Borntorpet 1 in Skinnskatteberg, Sweden.