Jean Danford charts the ebb and flow of a typical yoga teacher training course

Tales of

a yoga

teacher

H

aving guided many students and yoga aspirants on

their journey to become yoga teachers, I now know

the pattern that any training course will follow – a

sine wave of experiences, excitement, confusion,

clumsiness to grace, hitting the highs and diving into

the depths. My patient and group-aware partner will look on with a

weary eye. ‘Formin’, stormin’, normin’ and peformin’, he will say, and

that is true to some extent.

A new group will start full of excitement and eagerness, and then

rapidly reach saturation as they wrestle with anatomical names

(Latin) and traditional names for postures (Sanskrit). Suddenly

they are learning new languages, studying biology, philosophy and

theology, along with skills of communication, lesson planning, and

even psychology. That is the richness of yoga.

We unpick the class, separating its components and study each

part – what is happening to the body, the mind, the energy – and

then we piece it all back together. Is it in the right order, how does it

flow, do we know its health benefits, and contraindications? How can

we inspire others, show by example, not simply in our asana practice

but in our dealings with others, and our way of being?

A group of people coming together with a common aim form a

bond; the group has its own energy and becomes its own entity.

As the sangha forms, it begins to breathe and live according to the

vibration of the participants and the tutors. As the bond is formed,

trust builds, and we begin our journey together.

The training group, whatever the length of training, will go through

the same sine wave-like pattern. I often say that any yoga training

course should come with a life warning, and especially on a two-year

length training. Life happens. Expect to want to change your life, job,

partner, where you live, your friends, we laugh during the course.

What students mostly expect is to be polishing their asana

practice, becoming adept, going deeper. What they find is that

yoga is offering much, much more. Learning the history of yoga, its

background and philosophy, will change their lives. From the familiar

breathing, asana, moments of stillness, experienced in the average

weekly class, yoga asks that we dedicate ourselves to practice, to

choose a path that feels right.

Midway through the course it happens: as students begin to live

a yoga life, apply Patanjali’s rules for living, things look different,

and are valued differently. There is an opportunity for change.

The supportive nature of the group environment is often in sharp

contrast to life experience. Ups and downs are now measured

in context of Patanjali’s wisdom, or the Bhagavad Gita, and our

outlooks on life change.

And then the magic happens, in the second half of the sine wave,

students begin to clear out what is in the way for now, and they

begin to move forward, confidence builds, Sanskrit has a familiar

ring, practice is established, and balance is achieved. The experience

is always transformative.

Jean Danford is the principal of the Real Yoga training school,

offering training for teachers and accredited yoga therapy trainings

and is the author of Yoga Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease and

Multiple Sclerosis (realyoga.co.uk)