A Day in an Ashram Yoga Teacher Training

Namaste. Prospective students often ask me, half hopeful and half afraid: “What will my day actually look like?” The schedule on a website is just a list of times. Let me walk you through a real day at our ashram — the one our students live during the 200 Hour training — as it feels from the inside.

05:30 — The river wakes you

Before the alarm, usually, the Ganga is already speaking. Herbal tea in the half-dark, wrapped in a shawl. The town of Rishikesh is silent except for temple bells across the water. Nobody talks much at this hour, and nobody minds.

06:00 — Prāṇāyāma and mantra

The day begins with breath, not movement — this ordering is deliberate and ancient. An hour of prāṇāyāma and chanting while the sky lightens. Students tell me these mornings are what they miss most when they return home.

07:30 — Āsana practice

Ninety minutes of traditional Haṭha practice — fewer postures than you might expect, held longer than you are used to, with alignment and adjustment made possible because the batch is never larger than ten. By breakfast you have already done the deepest work of the day.

09:30 — Sattvic breakfast

Fresh fruit, porridge, herbal tea — simple food cooked according to yogic principles. Meals are unhurried. Some of the best philosophy discussions happen unofficially, over a second cup of tea.

11:00 — Philosophy

The Yoga Sūtras, the Bhagavad Gītā, the Haṭha texts — not as history, but as manuals for the life you are living that very week. This is where postures start becoming yoga.

13:00 — Lunch and rest

The main meal, then two hours that students learn to treasure: sleep, journal, wash clothes, sit by the river, or simply do nothing at all — a skill the training quietly teaches.

15:00 — Anatomy, teaching methodology, Yoga Nidrā

The professional heart of a teacher training: how bodies actually work, how to sequence, how to hold space for a class — and on many afternoons, Yoga Nidrā, the practice of conscious deep rest our lineage is famous for.

17:00 — Evening practice

A second āsana session — softer, slower — or guided meditation as the light turns gold. The day’s effort begins folding inward.

19:00 — Dinner, and 20:00 — Satsang

A light dinner, then the day closes as it began — together and quietly: meditation, sometimes chanting, sometimes questions and stories. By 21:30 the ashram is dark, and sleep comes easily — a fact that surprises every city dweller in the first week.

“The schedule looks demanding on paper. Lived, it feels like the opposite — as if someone finally removed everything unnecessary from your day.”

What the schedule does to you

After a few days, something shifts. The constant low-grade hurry of modern life drains away, because every hour already knows its purpose. Students describe it as remembering a rhythm they never knew they had lost. This — not certificates, not postures — is what you actually take home.

If you would like to feel this day rather than read it, our next batch begins 2 December 2026 — ten seats, by the Ganga. See the course overview or simply write to me.

Hari Om Tat Sat,
Renu Singh