Embarking on the path to share your yoga
experience? There are more and more people doing yoga, which is amazing
and I take it for a positive thing for human kind. However, at the same time ‘popularity’ can
bring too many people offering yoga without enough experience and sincerity.
With the dozens of Teacher Training
options available because of that ‘popularity’, it can be confusing for some to
choose where to start. This whole
‘business’ of yoga has gotten out of hand in the last 10 years of so. But
hopefully it is a sign that we are all closer to enlightenment than ever
before! :)
My Story – When I started to teach
Ashtanga…
In March 2002 I taught my first official
yoga class. I had been practicing yoga
since 1995 but only seriously practicing Ashtanga for just about 6 years. During that time I did yoga asana 5-6 times a
week for 2 hours a day. In addition I
read about yoga and Buddhist philosophy almost every evening and did a short
meditation on the readings. I was doing
my best to incorporate yoga into my daily living: Reflecting on the way I lived my life, the
way I related with others, how my choices affected me, others and the
planet…making the step-by-step changes that I was capable of.
Yoga had transformed me and gradually I
was feeling less nourished and connected to the fashion world I was in. I had a deep feeling that I needed to share
this yoga with others who are suffering in their human body/mind like myself.
I loved learning (still do) so I studied
anatomy, the yoga sutras, a bit of Sanskrit (which I’m still horrible at) and
whatever else I found interesting and relating to yoga. In 2002 the only teacher training I knew
about was by the Sivananda School of Yoga.
I looked into it and considered it but opted instead to stick to going
to Mysore and travelling to study with long-time experience Ashtanga teachers
and of course my teachers!
Over the years I’ve ended up doing a 200
hour Teacher Training with Ron Reid, Marla Meenakshi and Diane Bruni, and
advanced TT with Ron & Marla, a couple of TT intensives with them as well,
a TT intensive with David Swenson, another with Darby and a yoga anatomy TT, 3
philosophy trainings, a pranayama TT and several workshops and retreats,
especially with my teachers but with others as well.
What I missed in my early years of
teaching was the ability to help and understand those with very different
bodies and capabilities than myself. It
was easy to teach a relatively young, flexible, healthy person but harder to
know how to help a tight, middle-aged person with aches from previous
injuries. This is one of the aspects
that is really important in a formal Teacher Training…you learn how to respect, appreciate and teach to others! People who may have different gifts than
you. May have struggles that you cannot
see on the mat (abusive relationships – past or present, self-hatred, bulimia,
a lot of family responsibilities and dozens of other scenarios). People who have just different body
structures or concentration skills. How
can we honor the differences while sharing a structured path? This is the core of being a good yoga teacher
and this is what a good Teacher Training will teach you!
How can we honor the differences while
sharing a structured path?
A good yoga teacher is not necessarily
someone who can perform complicated and advanced yoga asanas one after
another. Success in yoga has nothing to
do with getting your face in a yoga magazine, being liked by many, or becoming
a yoga ‘personality’. In fact, one could
argue that it is the antithesis of yoga! But that’s a consequent of what is
called avidyā (ignorance) in yoga – we see a beautiful or cool person who
speaks smooth, sweet words and seems to be the living dream of something we
want to be a part of. So we make those
people more ‘special’ and end up following the wrong path to happiness. Same on the yoga teacher side – we think that
if a lot of people know us and like us that we will ‘be’ somebody and this will
bring us happiness – forgetting all along that we will only find true happiness
within. Forgetting that finding peace
within is true success in yoga, simply being
rather than being this extra special person, in fact, seeing the sameness in
all!
Success in yoga is simply BEING rather
than being this or that.
It’s so hard to stay sincere and not
lose sight of the goal. Our senses pull
us to the outer world. They don’t
naturally bring us within or help us see ourselves clearly. Their role is to bring us towards the things
we need to survive and make us go away from the things that can harm the
prospect of survival. But the problem is
with modern society the senses are all confused. Most of us live with sensory overload. They can’t tell us with wisdom what is truly
good or harmful for us. Therefore,
without the wisdom of the higher mind the senses will mistakenly lead us in the
wrong directions. For instance leading
us towards fame and fortune rather than peace and equanimity. Without wisdom we won’t be able to see the
subtleness of our motivations and desires.
This is why we have yoga practices. Techniques meant to teach us to see ourselves
as we really are – techniques that should lead us to health in the body and
mind – help us remove impurities so we see clearly and can make decisions for
ourselves from a place of truth.
As a teacher, we don’t want to encourage
people putting us on a higher pedestal than others – we want to encourage
people to see us as people with some experience and knowledge to share with
humility. Also, it is important that a
teacher encourages us to use the teachings to think for ourselves. To go inside and see what is best for
us. We don’t want to be needy children
we want to be informed adults who can use the techniques of yoga as mirrors of
observation to better know ourselves.
Our teacher will encourage us to make
decisions about our practice that are nonharming, healing, energizing and
empowering while working towards integration of the ego, humility and a calm
peaceful mind.
Who gives you permission to teach
yoga? I often get questions such
as…after I finish the training will I be able to teaching? ...is your training officially recognized?
Both these questions are awkward to
answer – the first because technically anyone can teach yoga. There are no governmental bodies prohibiting
anyone to call themselves a yoga teacher or give public classes unless a
certain license or diploma is obtained.
Pretty much the yoga business is self-regulated. Which leads to the 2nd common
question of our training being officially recognized. I guess because of the lack of recognition
there have been a few people who have elected themselves authorities. Funny that most of the yoga “Federations” in
France are run by yoga teachers or schools who give teacher trainings and of
course, recognize themselves as being fit to teach and authorize others to
teach.
Our teacher will encourage us to make
decisions about our practice that are nonharming, healing, energizing and
empowering.
However, the most well-known is the
American based, internationally know Yoga Alliance. Honestly I’m not sure of the original
intentions of YA. I think it was the
reaction of people in the business realizing that some regulation was needed
because anyone and everyone were deciding to be yoga teachers. (Gerald and I were approached by a couple
that wanted to give classes at AYP who had started teaching after a 2-week
retreat that “changed their lives”!
Being from marketing and business backgrounds they’ve managed to accumulate
a massive following – but not at AYP! J
)
Yoga Alliance has very basic standards
of qualification and if one can prove to possess the qualifications one becomes
a Registered Yoga Teacher. And, if you
run a TT program based on their recommendations then you can become a
“Registered Yoga School”. Gerald and I
are both “Experienced 500 hour Registered Teachers” and AYP is a “Registered
School able to give 200 hour and 500 hour teacher trainings”. We pay our dues to YA of something like 600
euros a year just to be able to make some people feel more comfortable that we
are “Internationally Recognized”.
Sorry to say this for those who love
little stamps of recognition…but it is a farce.
J
Yoga Alliance never checks up on the schools – I know many programs don’t even
follow the recommended hours of anatomy or philosophy, for example. And, honestly even if YA tried to check up,
who would do it? Each school of yoga has
its own principles and even within the different schools some base more
attention on different things.
It seems there is little emphasis on the
number of years a teacher trainer should have been practicing and teaching to
get their training recognized by YA. And
once you pay the fees there are very few services given – besides some advice
on how to use social media to get yoga students. Anyway, we keep paying to this huge
organization feeling trapped.
So, if the stamp of recognition isn’t
the benchmark for choosing a Teacher Training program, what is?
I’d say first do a Teacher Training with
the yoga school you regularly practice at.
If not, then investigate…how long have the teachers been practicing and
teaching? How long has the TT program
been running? Does the school and the
teachers at the school have a good reputation?
Does the program emphasis giving the trainee the foundations essential
for learning the techniques in a safe, holistic environment? Does the program include anatomy and
philosophy of yoga? Is there testing and
evaluation? Do the teachers seem kind
and generous? Does the program seem
organized and professional? Those are
some examples to start with.
I hope this article brings some light to
the prospective yoga teacher, giving ideas to consider and investigate into
themselves, their motivations and deepest desires.
Namaste,
Linda
