Why you should do a Yoga Teacher Training
No intentions to teach? No need. A Yoga teacher training will immerse yourself into the teachings and philosophy of this ancient practice.
By Melanie Kiss
Most people do their 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training to teach yoga. But is it worth doing when you have no aspirations to teach? My personal answer to that is yes; most definitely yes!
I was blessed to take my first yoga teacher training in Bali with a wonderful teacher. She had experience from all around the world and had set the course up to be intense, all the while fun and life changing. At first, I wasn’t quite sure about how I would make use of this course but decided to take part anyways. I mean who wouldn’t want to go to Bali and learn about yoga right? So my adventure began, as did my sudden need for learning more.
Yoga teacher training is a wonderful experience. The tuition is high but so is what you get with it. I have always believed that investing in yourself is money well spent. Even if you don’t think you gained that much knowledge, every experience teaches you something.
My 200 hour yoga teacher training course consisted of hours and hours of yoga postures, breathing exercises, meditation, theory and philosophy. With that, I began to adapt new ways of living and creating new habits into my life.
One of our seemingly simple tasks was to be silent every morning until the end of our first two hour yoga practice. Which meant I had to wake up, eat breakfast with others, walk with my friend to the yoga shala and greet everyone with a smile as we prepared for our morning yoga practice. This may not seem too challenging to many, but it was different for me as it was to be done six days a week for a month. But for me, this was quite the experience. It was a time to wake up and bring the focus within. A time to turn inwards and see what happens without the distractions of your outside world.
Learning different breathing exercises proved to be very successful in calming the mind and relaxing the body. I had used many different styles throughout my life even as a quick remedy in moments of stress.
Meditations that were guided allowed me to practice mindfulness, body awareness and fully being in the present moment. These experiences helped me strengthen my higher self rather than my ego. It also helped me continue my practice throughout the upcoming years.
During my time in the course, practicing yoga poses and sequences was nothing short of time well spent. I learned how to perfect each pose so it does not cause any injuries, how to flow from one posture to the next, how to incorporate the breath into every movement all the while strengthening my practice and body. The yoga classes taught me so much about postures and about myself.
We had wonderful theory, anatomy and philosophy classes, where they incorporated spiritual teachers into our study and had experts attend our classes. We learned about the Yamas and the Niyamas, Ayurvedic nutrition and also some history. We had to write essays, journals and sequences and practice them on our on time. With this we had been exposed to a yogic lifestyle. We even had strict rules about no gossip. There was to be no drama but acceptance of each other. Namaste. Luckily, we had a great group of people who were eager to learn and made this task very easy to accomplish. I had started to incorporate new habits into my life, which allowed me to start seeing the difference it made in my world.
I remember meeting two wonderful individuals there, whose main purpose with the yoga teacher training was to improve their lives. They had no intention of teaching but of getting a spiritual experience to better themselves. Did this apply to my experience? 100%. I began my journey there to strengthen a spiritual side that thankfully was already awakened by my parents. Practitioners of yoga are eternal students and a yoga teacher training is a way to immerse yourself into this ancient philosophy and lifestyle.
Are you looking for a yoga teacher training or even a place where you can host your own training? The Yoga Loft has you covered! The next YYT with Chrissie is in April and here’s the link to our ‚Host Your Retreat‘ conditions! Or just send us a mail via the contact form!
