om yoga teacher training guide
1 Get ready to expand your definition of what yoga is
You are about to be initiated into the world of yoga beyond the one
hour class. There are many components of yoga that go beyond
asana (poses). There are also different categories of yoga, and I
am not talking about the different ‘styles’ attributed to different
teachers. There is Hatha yoga, Raja yoga, Bhakti, Tantra and others.
A good teacher training course will give you a good grasp of these
different traditions.2 Be open to what is taught
It is good to be skeptical and to question things but try not to
be too quick to dismiss things as “not yoga”, “not something I
want to teach” or “too strange”. You may not subscribe to all the
philosophies presented right away, maybe not ever. Otherwise,
you are just boxing yourself in and ultimately putting limitations
on yourself. What you are actually saying is: “This is me. That is
that and things don’t ever change.” Be open to your experiences.
Be expansive.3 Mentally prepare yourself through
meditation practice
Preparing for travel and getting together a packing list is easy.
Getting fit and practicing your asanas is also easy. Your teachers
will even be forgiving of poses that you cannot do as long as you
can instruct the poses safely. What I find lacking in most students
is mental preparation. Students don’t realise the spiritual and
psychological work involved in a YTT. I teach a YTT that gives equal if
not more attention to the spiritual side of the practice, Even when a
YTT is not heavily focused on spirituality, the intense amount of work
you do on the asanas and pranayama itself opens up your chakras
(energy centres), emotional and psychological purification happens
as part of this process. In my experience, I find that the students who
already have a good meditation practice are the ones who handle
these experiences the best.4 Adjust your motivation
The amount of your obstacles and the strength of your hesitation
depends on how weak or how strong your motivation is. It isn’t
enough to be doing YTT for yourself, you must extend your
motivation to include your future students. In Mahayana Buddhism
(which is preliminary to highest yoga tantra), our practice is to adjust
our motivation before receiving any teaching. The highest motivation
is to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Taking this to your YTT, think that you are completing the YTT for
your future students. With a motivation such as this, you will find
the tapas (great discipline) to complete the course and you gain the
blessings of the master yogis before you.5 See everything that comes to you as a blessing
This is one of the most beautiful teachings I have received from my
lamas and it speaks for itself. Try it for yourself and see how your
world slowly changes with this view. Best wishes and may you reach
your goals very quickly!Sunshine Ross is head teacher at RainbowLight Yoga YTT, a
spiritually focused training rooted in Indian and Tibetan traditions.
http://www.rainbowlightyoga.comthings to help
you through
your course
STUDENT SURVIVAL GUIDE
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