By Penny Jones
I enrolled in Introducing Sadhana in mid-2015, because I wanted to develop and maintain a home practice. I had attempted this a few times before, drawing on books as well as what I had learned in class, but I found that I didn’t quite have the knowledge I needed. Introducing Sadhana helped me change that.
The course runs much like an online university class, without the long essays and exams. Over a period of ten weeks, students study the principles of yoga through short videos and book excerpts, then answer quiz and short-answer questions to test their learning. At the start of each fortnight, they plan their yoga practice, drawing on suggested asana, and then at the end of the fortnight, they report on all classes and practices using stick figures for each asana. The guidance starts out very specific, and then gives students more latitude to develop their own sequences. In addition, students have access to audio files of Alan’s classes.
For me, this structure worked very well. Taking detailed notes of each class and practice helped me identify the sequences and patterns of the asana. The audio files enabled me to have a ‘class at home’, and these as well as my regular classes encouraged me to explore different ways of structuring a practice. In addition, the gentle pressure of needing to submit my practice logs each fortnight made sure I practiced regularly. The course was flexible enough to incorporate hotel-room practice when I needed to travel, and the website coped with slow internet when I had to use my phone as a wireless hotspot. By the end of the course, I’d developed a regular home practice routine, combined with the confidence to design my own practice sequences – exactly what I’d been looking for.