om yoga teacher training guide
Getting ready to embark on a journey of a lifetime?
Gopala Amir Yaffa offers some hints to get you game ready
Game on
C
ounting the days till your first yoga teacher training starts?
Excited? Apprehensive? Below are a few adjustments and
enhancements to attitude that will help you get the most
out of your training:- Be excited
You need to be motivated. Sleepy bored students rarely get much
out of anything, including a yoga training. To be a great yoga
teacher, you need to have passion. If yoga doesn’t make you feel
thrilled and excited about life, then maybe being a yoga teacher
is not for you. Get as excited as you can about your training by
meeting inspiring yoga teachers, reading books about yoga, listening
to podcasts and telling everyone how you are going to change the
world by being a yoga teacher. - Practice yoga regularly and get fit
Yoga teacher trainings often have long hours and intense physical
demands. If you are not in good shape, you are putting yourself at a
higher risk of injuring yourself while at training. Being yoga fit is not
about reaching your toes with your nose or putting your leg behind
your head; it is really more about endurance, and your ability to do
the practice for long hours and still totally enjoy it. Practice a variety
of yoga styles, and be exposed to as many teachers as you can in the
time before the training. This will help you in developing strengths in
different areas of the practice, as well as keep your mind open to the
endless ways that yoga can be used to enhance wellbeing.
3. Be open
Be ready to receive new information. Don’t come thinking that
you know it all already. Even if you are a very experienced yogi,
know that there is more than one way to do it. You may not agree
with some of those ways to start with, but it’s worth giving them a
good try before negating them all together. Everything is good for
someone; nothing is good for everyone. And along the path and with
the passage of time, you may find that some tools you have learnt
become irrelevant to you and that it is time to pick up new ones.
Therefore, agree with yourself to withhold judgement just for the
duration of the training, and empty yourself of your own ideas just to
give it a chance...even if at the end you may need to agree to disagree.
Blind faith is not a good quality, even in yoga, and post training
you can take what suits you and leave the rest behind.
With the right attitude, your training is sure to be an enriching
experience. You will definitely receive a lot of tools to teach and to
live, and with some healthy criticism, you will most probably also
learn at times what not to do.
Before, after, and during your yoga teacher training, remember that
yoga is not set in stone. Yoga has been possibly evolving since the
beginning of time, and there is no reason for it to stop now. Learn all
you can, then make it your own.Gopala Amir Yaffa is co-founder of Rainbow Yoga Training
(rainbowyogatraining.com)