Do You Want To Become A Yoga Teacher?
Written by Becky Khalil
There are so many yoga teacher training courses out there that it can be a hard decision in which one to do. There are all different types of courses: long, short, one style, multi-style, retreat based, studio based and now a huge array are online. You also also have 200 hour, 300 hour and continuing education programs (CEP). So is this avenue right for you and if so which course do you select?
There are two fundamental questions that you must ask yourself first:
- Why do you want to become a yoga teacher?
- What is it that you want to teach?
You could even go a little further and think about where and to whom you want to teach, either now or in the future. This may help you determine the type of niche that you want to be in. For example, Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Yin Yoga, Meditation, Pranayama, Mantra / Kirtan, Kundalini. There are many styles and niches that offer different traditional backgrounds, techniques and benefits. Some of these styles can be, and are, taught together and some are supposed to be taught individually. Nevertheless, they each promote benefits within the 5 dimensions of the body: physical, energetic, mental, emotional and spiritual.
So I can imagine you are thinking about which one is right for you. I get it, it can be very confusing. Especially if you are new to this terminology. A small disclaimer… there doesn’t have to be a million reasons why you want to teach Yoga. It could be simply because it positively impacted your life so much that you want to learn how to spread the benefits to help impact others lives. I believe that if every person on the plant was a yoga teacher, there still wouldn’t’ be too many. Why? Because everyone has their own teaching style, experience, message, uniqueness to the education they bring forth. Not every teacher will be for every student and vice versa.
Let’s go through what some of the training courses stand for:
#1 Long Courses
These courses tend to offer a great foundation for becoming a Yoga teacher. Longer courses are where you can find what ignites your passion in Yoga. It also gives you more time to allow questions to arise. Long training courses can be very challenging. Not only from an educational standpoint but also emotionally and energetically. This is a good thing as it shouldn’t be easy to become a Yoga teacher.
#2 200 Hour
200-hour courses are the baseline for anyone to learn if teaching Yoga is the right avenue for them. While 200-hour courses do give a lot of information, by no means do they properly prepare someone to teach. A 200 hour is a starting point and one should go with an open mind that this is a start of a very long journey. It is easy to get yoga teacher syndrome at the end of a 200 hour, thinking that you are ready to go and know everything. But a 200 hour should be repeated every several years if you are serious about teaching Yoga.
#3 Short Courses (Continuing Education Program)
Short courses are a really great way to top up your knowledge, experience, technique as well as to learn from the other participants. Short courses can range from 2 or 3 days up to around 14 days. These should be taken yearly in order to keep developing. The beauty of a short course is that is can be easier to take time out from whatever else is going on in life, to attend. There is also an incredible amount of short training courses that offer you a wide variety of different styles, education and benefit.
#4 One Style Courses
These courses are dedicated to a specific tradition or lineage. There are many branches of Yoga philosophy and it can take many years to gain the foundation of just one. Committing time to these types of courses, such as Yin Yoga teacher trainings, Yoga Nidra teacher trainings or Meditation teacher trainings, it allows you to go deeper into the teaching. Unlike multi-style courses, these “one-style” courses really focus in on multiple aspects of the lineage rather than skimming the surface of many different aspects.
#5 Residential / Retreat style training courses
Need a break from every day life while attending to a yoga training course? A retreat based or residential course is one of the best ways to learn. On these types of courses, you get an immersive structure that promotes so many benefits for integration, application and experiential learning. The trainers are always around for you to ask questions and they become a home away from home, with a like minded community, you will often find you gain more than the education you signed up for.
Our Yin Yoga teacher training courses are all retreat based and I can whole heatedly say that the benefits that people gain, even after just 12 days (100 hour continuing ed program), are new visions, patterns, habits, higher confidence, answered questions, new friends, new collaboration partnerships, and feeling rested and ignited for life! This isn’t always something that you will get in a studio-based course where the students come, learn, and all go home in different directions. There is something very special about retreat-based courses.
# Online Yoga Teacher Training
Since the unfortunate and horrible pandemic of COVID-19 has happened, there has been a huge influx of training courses and offerings that have shifted online. There are many advantages to a training course online and if structured well enough, you can still get a lot of one on one time with the teacher, and learn from the other participants in the discussion groups. With a variety of audio and video classes you can learn from different experiences, all the while taking the opportunity to revisit the content as many times as you like. Even if you attain the online training and then later do the same training in person, the online course means that you will have constant access as your teaching path evolves!
There are many courses to chose from, all over the world. Select what resonates with you best and make sure to keep returning to more training courses.
We have a variety of Yin Yoga training’s that keep topping up your heart, mind and soul:
Yin Yoga Teacher Training Online:
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 100 hour Functional Anatomy and Chinese Medicine
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 100 hour Pranayama, Meditation and Mindfulness
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 80 hour Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 50 hour Neuroplasticity and Mindfulness
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 50 hour Essential Oils and Emotional Intelligence
Residential Yin Yoga Teacher Training:
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 100 hour Functional Anatomy and Chinese Medicine
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 100 hour Pranayama, Meditation and Mindfulness
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 80 hour Yin Yoga and Yoga Nidra
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 50 hour Neuroplasticity and Mindfulness
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 50 hour Essential Oils and Emotional Intelligence
Yin Yoga Teacher Training: 200 hour 5 Bodies Approach
Locations:
Yin Yoga Teacher Training Bali
Yin Yoga Teacher Training Thailand
Yin Yoga Teacher Training India
Yin Yoga Teacher Training Spain
Yin Yoga Teacher Training Australia
Yin Yoga Teacher Training Guatemala
We also have a variety of Yin Yoga Retreats and Yoga Holidays:
Yin Yang Yoga Retreat Spain: Rest and Revive Retreat
Yin Yoga Retreat Bali: Sacred Space Yoga
