Yoga Teacher Training

About Yoga Teacher Training

You may be surprised to hear this, but no one goes into yoga teacher training.  I know this for a fact.  I have been a yoga instructor for eight years, you see, and yoga practitioner for close to 30.  I have studied many styles of yoga including ashtanga, Iyengar, and kundalini yoga. 

I also studied from many teachers, and took classes in yoga styles all around the world.  I am an expert in yoga, but I never set out to be. Although people do occasionally make the mistake of going into yoga teacher training figuring that it will be an easy path to an easy career, the fact is that the ability to teach yoga only comes about as the result of intense study. 

I have known many great yoga teachers, and not a single one set out to be one.  What they did do is what all great teachers do, no matter what the field. They fell in love with the subject matter that they were studying, and proceeded as far as it would take them. 

Although this does often involve taking a program and yoga teacher training, this is only done as a way to advance the study of yoga.  You do not learn yoga as a way to complete a class in yoga teacher training.  You complete yoga teacher training as way to learn yoga.

If you have been drawn to yoga teaching as a possible career path, I would like to ask you to reconsider this idea.  Instead, find another way to make money. 

Ideally, you should find one that will involve as little time commitment as possible while giving you enough money to live on comfortably.  Then, you should study under a teacher who you know and respect. 

If your teacher does offer a course in yoga training, so much the better.  If the teacher does not, this does not mean that you should go find another teacher. 

Study with the teacher until you can learn no more from them, and then find someone else to teach you yoga.  Yoga teacher training, after all, should only be a step in your quest to master the study of yoga as fully as possible. 

There are many courses that will give you a piece of paper.  But what people want to know is if you have studied with good teachers, and if you understand the yoga yourself. You should never leave a good teacher just because they cannot give you the certification that you desire.  It is easy to get yoga teacher training.