Learning to deal with your emotional issues
before you become a yoga teacher. By Esther Ekhart
E
veryone who has ever been on
one of my yoga teacher training
courses will probably have run
into some old, unresolved,
probably painful emotions
at some point. Most teacher trainings
(especially the intensives) will have even told
you beforehand that that is likely to happen.
My take on it is that a yoga teacher
training course should be designed to help
you meet your deepest emotions. That it is
even something to look forward to.
Why? Because traditionally yoga is a path
to wake up to your true self. The only way
you are ever going to evolve on that path
is by pausing, feeling, being, and meetingDitch
those parts of yourself that you have been
suppressing, so you can become whole again.
Teaching your teacher trainees to sit
and hold the space for their own pain
(so that eventually they will be able to do
that for their own students) is one of the
biggest gifts you can give your teacher
trainees and one of the biggest gifts you
can receive as a student. You will become a
wise, compassionate sought-after teacher,
because yoga students will feel this
intuitively and seek you out.
When you can sit with your own pain,
without being afraid or holding back, and
you have seen and understood your own
deeper mind, you are no longer afraid oruncomfortable to sit with someone else who
is trying to do the same. And in my opinion,
this is a quality that, as a teacher, is just
as important as learning about anatomy to
prevent physical injuries.Finding your self
I feel strongly that any yoga teacher
interested in helping people to become
stronger, more relaxed and free, as well as
to help advance them on their spiritual path,
should embody this quality of being able to
be with themselves and others in pain, to
watch and witness without judgement and
with compassion.
And thus, as a teacher trainee youbaggage
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om yoga teacher training guide