How do I become a yoga teacher?

Me, teaching outdoor yoga as part of the Climate Festival in Wellington last year

There is a great conversation going on over at The Yoga Lunchbox on the subject of how to become a yoga teacher.

I've contributed my thoughts over there and decided to reproduce them here because I'd love to hear your responses and thoughts as well.

So how do we become yoga teachers? Speaking for myself, this is how I became a yoga teacher.

First I become myself. Yoga helps me bring my head and heart, body and mind, breath and spirit all into alignment. As I have become more my own authentic, healthy self, I have become of more service to everyone around me. For me, teaching yoga is part of that service.

So first there was my own process of unfolding and reuniting with myself through yoga. Then there was a deepening of my desire to serve, which seems to have arisen naturally from that process. In that deepening was a desire to share this process, yoga, which have given me so much.

Then came the work of equipping myself with the skills to teach. Teaching yoga is not the same as practicing yoga, nor is it quite the same as 'instructing' yoga.

There is a process of deepening into the role of teaching yoga just as there is a process of deepening into our yoga sadhana. Teaching is predominantly about a relationship between the teacher and the student. The quality of that relationship plays a large part in determining the quality of the teaching.

It's a symbiotic relationship, the learning and the rewards flow in both direction. But there is a specific responsibility upon the teacher, so ensuring that I have the skills and knowledge (as well as the personal practice and commitment to our own constant unfolding) to teach wisely and safely is a fundamental requirement for me.

There are many ways to develop those skills and that knowledge. Some of us will have teaching, coaching, mentoring and communication skills from other areas of our lives that will serve us well as teachers of yoga. Some of us will learn to teach yoga predominently from our own yoga teacher, in the process of being taught. Others will attend specialized yoga teacher training courses. All these are valuable paths. None of them can guarantee us that we are ready to teach.

How do we know if we are ready to teach?

For that we have to be honest with ourselves and listen to the best teacher we all have, the wise and profoundly truthful voice within us that already knows the answer to all our questions."

Comments

[Abbie]

Love this post! I feel like I'm getting close, and I'll just know when it's right :)

[a.q.s.]

Thanks for this...

I am currently floating in NYC where there is a yoga studio and yoga instructor around every Starbucks--you get my point. Initially that might sound GREAT...yaay world revolution through yoga. Finally. However, that is not the case, unfortunately.

I began my yoga journey in 2007 and discovered an instructor who understood his "gift" was to bring that gift unto others. He transformed my life-physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. I could write a book about this yogi!

But what ended up happening is that I could not go to ANY other instructor or get the same results after a practice as I could and did from his classes. So much so that I even followed him to another yoga studio completely out of the way for me. And if I was not in NYC I didn't even do yoga (not good at all!).

I have had a hard time pin pointing what did he have to offer that I could not extract within myself through other practitioners. And I believe it is this: "Teaching yoga is not the same as practicing yoga, nor is it quite the same as 'instructing' yoga." I wish more teachers realized this.

Since last July circumstances have been such that I have not had access to that yoga instructor and I do not have an effective practice on my own. Nicely put...my dreams of finally feeling ready (physically) to start a yoga instructor course have to be put on hold as I feel that I am below ground zero having not done yoga in months. I went the other day and had to FEEL the pillar of yoga: accepting where you are. My body and I were as if I had never done yoga.

Sorry for such a long reply...just wanted to share what an impact this realization can be for other yoga teachers: "as well as the personal practice and commitment to our own constant unfolding) to teach wisely and safely is a fundamental requirement for me."

Thanks,

~a.

[Marianne]

You will know - and if like me you are lucky enough to have a true yoga teacher then they will also know and might give you a gentle nudge. My teacher offered me one of her classes to teach before I thought I was ready. I was ready, she was right. A good teacher will help you recognise your own readiness if your modesty or fears are getting in your own way. 

Namaste!
M

[Buy Generic Viagra]

The second and more recent sense of the word art is as an abbreviation for creative art or fine art. Fine art means that a skill is being used to express the artist's creativity, or to engage the audience's aesthetic sensibilities, or to draw the audience towards consideration of the finer things. Often, if the skill is being used in a common or practical way, people will consider it a craft instead of art. Likewise, if the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way, it will be considered Commercial art instead of fine art.

[d.francis]

Thanks for these helpful tips. You give some good insight and useful tips. Thanks again

[Mike Geary]

Also, I think doing yoga outdoors is much better that doing it indoors(when the weather is good).

[viagra online]

Excellent information to many people like to read articles to learn about these issues of great interest.Oups... my blog disappeared from Les Explorers list ; )So many people leave a coment in your blog, For this we can know that your blog is very Wonderful,Cheers for your performance, I hope you continue to post such good articles.

[replica chanel watches]

Teacher, I moved for you, I love you, I love our class. You are my second mother, this class is our second home

[Juicy Couture On Sale]

Now that Tommy has extracted as much money as he can from Hollywood liberals and Wall Street, he'll try to 'run to the right' - but he shouldn't delude himself into thinking that his track record won't follow him.