Teacher Training
I came across an interesting Yoga Journal article today. Fourteen members of Yoga Journal’s editorial, publishing and digital teams started a 200-hour yoga teacher training (YTT) together recently. In the article, the magazine’s editor-in-chief talks about her personal experience with the teacher training so far. Guess what? Even though she’s excited about the project, she’s also a bit nervous about it too. Her honesty is what I loved most about this article. Funny because just today I was thinking about how I was excited, but also nervous about my own upcoming YTT starting at the end of February.
The article talks about four different, common fears people should get over when they start YTT. The four fears are, “I’m not advanced enough”, “I don’t want to share super personal information”, “As a teacher, I won’t know the answers to students’ questions and will feel like an idiot” and “What if I don’t see bad alignment?” The first fear, “I’m not advanced enough” really hit home with me. No matter how excited I am about my own upcoming YTT, I can’t help but wonder if my own practice isn’t good enough to help me be a great yoga teacher. I see a lot of amazing images on Instagram of super fit women putting their beautiful bodies into some pretty awesome postures. These online yoginis have a ton of followers who like their pictures 1,000s of times and are probably swarmed by their followers flooding the classes they teach. Then I look at pictures of myself doing some of these yoga postures. My body doesn’t look like these bodies, not even close. I don’t think my body can even move in the same way as some of these women. How in the hell am I suppose to be a successful yoga teacher if I don’t have a yoga body and can’t do all of these postures perfectly?
My YTT insecurities stem from not having a consistent practice over a long period of time. Even though I took my first Bikram Yoga class back in February 2010, I haven’t been able to practice consistently over the last six years. I’ve been able to practice for three months here and three months there, but school, work, moving and life have always seemed to get in the way of being able to have a regular practice.
Three months ago, I made a commitment to get myself into a regular Bikram Yoga practice. I managed to complete my second 30-Day Challenge and broke out of my Bikram shell and gave Hot Yoga a try. Now that I’m able to practice yoga consistently, I’m so much happier. I feel amazing! Yoga makes me a better person both mentally and physically. I sleep better, my flexibility has improved and I sit straighter at my desk during the day. I find myself being much more productive both at work and in my personal life. Practicing yoga on a regular basis makes me want to do yoga every damn day!
With my own yoga practice stronger than ever, I thought this would be the perfect time to dive deeper into my practice with YTT. I have to admit, I’ve had a few doubts circling around in the back of my head such as not having a yoga body and not being able to do all of the postures perfectly. I constantly wonder if my own practice is good enough to help me be a great yoga teacher.
After reading this article though, I realized all of these doubts are complete nonsense. Apparently I’m not the only one who’s had these same doubts either. Thank you Carin for being so honest in this article and sharing your feelings about your YTT experience so far! This article has helped me realize the whole point of teacher training is not to be a master yogi. It’s about enjoying the journey instead of focusing on getting to the destination. It’s a yoga practice and isn’t designed to be perfect. So why should I waste my time worrying about not being perfect or not being good enough to teach my own yoga class one day? Everyone has off days, even the pretty ladies on Instagram.
Now more than ever, I’m really excited to get started on this next chapter of my life. Yoga Teacher Training, here I come!
To read the article mentioned in the post above, check out “Inside Yoga Journal’s YTT (Yoga Teacher Training): 4 Yoga Teacher Training Fears You Should Get Over” by Carin Gorrell