Vallie | Portugal 200hr YTT Testimonial
Hi, I’m Vallie! I went to the June 25th – July 15th 2026 200Hr Mystical Yoga Teacher Training. To start, it was everything I wished for and more. I had wanted a Teacher Training with a lot of emphasis on the more spiritual and philosophical parts and this was it. Yoga truly is so much more than just the “postures” and to learn about it all in such depth for me was… words can’t describe. But for now, let’s start with the retreat center and location in general..
The house had that clean, airy and light feeling while still feeling cozy and like a home. There were windows and glass doors everywhere that were always open, letting a lovely breeze come through the house keeping the place at the best temperature even on the hottest days. My room was gorgeous with a floor to door window taking up a whole wall with a glass door onto a little porch. The sunset over the Atlantic? The most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my life. Looking back at the pictures I’m still in awe. The sunset’s there were out of this world.
A lovely beach was just a fourteen minute walk away from the house. There were hardly any people there unless it was a weekend. There was a little beach bar there that had fresh squeezed orange juice and iced teas (as well as many other drinks/foods). A small cafe and bakery was in Geraldes, also a fourteen minute walk. The nearby (larger) town of Peniche was just a fifteen minute drive away. You could get a tour from there to the nearby nature reserve island of Berlengas. A group of us did it on our first day off. It was so beautiful. The water was turquoise blue or just completely clear all the way down. Wow, would describe it well I think.
Next, the food. Divine, is I think the best way to describe it. Mari, our fantastic chef, made vegetarian meals that were so much better than I expected. Let me begin by saying I am not vegetarian… at all. I have grown up around many vegetarian communities however, so I am not opposed to vegetarian food at all. In fact some are quite good. However, this food was GOOD. Also, people with food allergies were well looked after (I know, me being one of them, and one of them that has many allergies). Meals were also prepared for us all even on days off. So we could eat out if we wanted, but there was always food at the house.
Moving onto the training itself, the classes were fascinating and I could feel my mind expanding every day. The afternoon asana lab was amazing and it was so cool to feel how the proper alignment of postures felt SO different from how I was previously holding my body. Even if I wasn’t doing it “wrong” per say. We had two teachers, Krystalyn and Janani. Both were fabulous and their teaching styles and niche topics complemented each other very well. Janani was more the philosophical, spiritual, “what if”, kinds of topics and Krystalyn was more the anatomy, technicalities and science behind it all. Though these are more generalizations as they both had a little of each. I’m both very analytical and also creative (a conundrum to many teachers of mine in the past) so having both types of teachers was very valuable for me. Both were an absolute wealth of information.
The daily schedule went as so. We woke up just before the sunrise -staying in silence and usually got tea and maybe a piece of fruit before heading down for our 6:00am meditation. Meditation was for a half an hour. We then often had a short ten minute break. After our break we had about twenty minutes where we were given a few journaling prompts to write about, often having themes of which cycle we were in (Serpent, Jaguar, Hummingbird or Eagle). Morning yoga asana practice was around 7am, after the journaling. The first two cycles of the course were spent learning a set Hatha flow. The second two cycles were spent learning a set Vinyasa flow. Regardless, we had an hour and half yoga practice before heading to breakfast at 8:30am.
After breakfast, at around 10:00am, was our first class of the day, usually about yoga philosophy, anatomy or other special topics. This was a heavy notetaking class and was often in the living room with cozy blankets and cups of tea. After the first class was a ten minute break (morning silence ended here) before the second class of similar topics began with our other teacher. At 1:00pm was lunch, which started with a sanskrit meal blessing. This was our longest break of the day. Some would go to the beach after eating, others to the property’s pool.
The asana and adjustments lab (called the art of teaching/the art of touch) began after lunch, at 3:00pm. We would learn the proper alignments of the postures in our set flow, (Hatha for the first half of the course, Vinyasa for the second) and how to properly cue that alignment, verbally and physically. In the middle we had another 10 minute break followed by continuing asana and alignment lab. After that (the last class of the day), was dinner at 6:00pm. Every few days the wonderful chef would make a dessert as well! Around 7:00pm was usually the evening gathering. This ranged from games we would play, ceremonies, dancing and music or calmer things like sitting around to smell different essential oils and incense or story based guided meditations. The evening gathering was an expansive and fun way to end the day after the entire day taking in a lot of information. After the gathering nothing else was planned and we were free to do whatever we wished until bed.
The final day was a dream. We woke up about an hour later than usual for a morning yoga practice that all of us had created together the evening before. A few of the people were in charge of setting up the space and made a beautiful altar in the middle of a circle of mats. They prepared a selection of three different pots of tea for us all to enjoy as we trickled in. After our morning practice we all went to breakfast. There was a short class afterwards and some journaling before we broke early prior to lunch. A few of us went to the beach and swam for an hour until lunch at 1:00pm.
Our beautiful Graduation Ceremony began at 3:30pm. We all wore white. There was a small bowl of water at the center with the altar from that morning. At the beginning of our training we had a small opening ceremony with it. With new water in it, we held another small ceremony, this time to close out our training. This followed with a small cacao ceremony with lots of music and singing and cups of one hundred percent cacao hot chocolate that was (obviously) delicious! We then went outside to do two Scottish dances (very fun, highly recommend). Our final part of the graduation ceremony came then, which was of course, the graduation. Our wonderful teacher Janani called our names one by one then her and (our other equally wonderful teacher) Krystalyn presented our certificates. We each gave a little speech after and a little dance around the circle before the next person got their own certificate.
By 5:30 that evening we had all become official, certified yoga teachers. Our teachers took us all to the little beach bar in Sao Bernardino and treated us to orange juices and ice cream. The next day we all trickled off on our separate ways. Me and two of the girls got the same hostel for the night and had one more day together exploring Lisbon. The following morning I was off to the airport for my (rather long) journey home.
I want to thank all those at School Yoga Institute from the absolute bottom of my heart. Everyone has completely alleviated any concerns and been so accommodating, helpful, and honestly just nice. I know the following might seem like overkill but this has been something I have wanted for such a very, very (ridiculously, excruciatingly) long time. I had believed I wouldn’t be able to travel much less do an intensive training (due to health problems that cropped up Junior year of high school) despite it being my dream. But ever since I clicked that button to send my scholarship application, it has flowed like water. As if something in my life gave way, clicked and expanded. Magic, I suppose. I know it won’t be like that for everyone, but if it’s calling to you, do it. Truly. Because my life has changed forever. Thank you again. Best wishes. Bye for now.
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