When are you ready to become a yoga teacher?
How do you know when you’re ready to become a yoga teacher trainer?
Yoga has been a part of my life since I was a little girl, watching my aunt doing her morning kapalabhati as she walked around the house cleaning was as normal as learning to ride a bicycle. It’s only after turning 25 that I really realised how big a part of my life yoga had been.
It happened when I stopped. I stopped practising asanas because £20 a class was just too expensive. Stopped taking those 10 minutes every day before going to bed to really switch off. Stopped being mindful because life was too stressful. What I didn’t realise is that the stress, lack of time for myself & for things that made me happy was even more of a reason to take a deep breath and relax.
I decided to buy an expensive yoga class pass which got over way too quickly. I went through all of the Groupon deals to find myself a cheap yoga studio. I walked around my neighbourhood with the map open and attended every class in the area until I found the perfect place to practice.
A little studio with a glass roof where you could watch the snow falling while being warm in shavasana. A few months in, I wanted to get back home from work just so I could run back out for class again, or stay home and learning how exactly to do downward dog vs upward dog on YouTube.
I found myself wanting to get back to yoga, not as a 90 minute routine, but as a way of life. I asked myself the following questions, which you must if you are thinking along the same lines as me:
1. Do you want to learn more about yoga (even if youre not sure you want to teach)? Yes.
2. Do you want to meet like-minded people who will be able to share their stories about their yoga journey with you? Watch and learn from them and grow with them? Yes, of course.
3. Do you want to do it in London? No, I love the sea and I want to practice where it’s warm and open and I can hear the ocean and feel the sea breeze.
4. Are you flexible and fit enough to do this? What if all the other students are super bendy? No I’m not. It will probably be years before my body (which is used to being in front of a computer 10+ hours a day) is the way I want it to be. But who cares, it won’t stop me learning!
5. Can you do yoga (asanas, philosophy studies, learning from experts about anatomy and history and Ayurveda) for 8 hours a day, 4 weeks in a row?! Hell yes I can! There were no more questions to ask. So I signed up for the course at Power of Now Oasis in Bali, and just like that, my quarter life crisis was resolved.
Prakriti, May 2018 YTT Student at Power of Now Oasis | Instagram @skinnyrant