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| This little girl here is a beginner in hatha yoga and I am developing an interest in it.
having read some of the posts, i am curious how do all of u started yoga and have the opportunited to go on a yoga voyage. What pushes yogi/yogini to be a teacher?
If i wish to be a yoga teacher, what are the basics that i should have and how do i become a teacher?
Hope to know more...  |
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| Hey girl,
you just wrote that you are a beginner in yoga and in the next sentence you wanna know how to become a teacher. My advice is first you have to discover yoga in all its deepness and then, in maybe 10 years from now, you start thinking about becoming a teacher. How bout that?
Shanti
badi |
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| Your question is a difficult one to answer. I would recommend trying to engage a yoga teacher that you respect in a one on one conversation. Namaste, |
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| There is no reason to be impolite. I happen to know many fantastic teachers who have not been studying yoga for 10 years. Please open your mind. |
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| Hi Emily,
you're right, reading my post now it seems to be a little harsh. I'm sorry if it came across that way. To my excuse I can only say that english is not my mother's tongue and so sometimes I'm kinda helpless in my expressions.
Also, since I'm a beginner myself I learned that there is so much about yoga, it'll really take years of practicing, studying and learning to become a good yogi. But that's still far away from beeing a teacher innit?
Maybe I had a bad day when I wrote my reply but still today I feel strongly that Ms. Tearybabe should be a bit more humble with her wishes and aspirations. I wouldn't like to have her as a teacher.
Shanti
badi |
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|  I would think that having an inspiration in mind is better then working blindly. Mayb i sound like i was trying to speed up the practice and with a sole motive of becoming a teacher, but i was not. Its more of curiosity and i thought it will be great to listen to the more experienced and allow the beginners to be exposed to more of a real life experience, such as the experience gain during a yoga voage too or the thoughts that pushes one to be a teacher. |
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It's good idea.Yoga is a teacher ~~ |
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| I think you are right to ask questions. However, there is no substitute for your own experience and education through yoga. Keep in mind that everyone's journey is different. Keep on practicing and engaging people in discussion. Namaste, |
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| I started taking yoga when I was 4 months pregnant with my second child. I didn't know anything about it but felt it would help me deliver naturally- without any meds. After my first class I was hooked. I knew instantly I had fallen into something very specail and knew my life would change because of it. Three years later, I'm still hooked and love every minute of it. Yoga continues to enrich my life and teach me so many beautiful things about the world and myself. I can relate to your enthusiasm- enjoy it, keep your heart open, and know your journey is unique! |
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| I"m also looking into the teacher training programs. I don't know about those who are already teaching, but an experience the other night made me realize that this is probably where I can do my best work. I have always wanted to help others realize their health (emotional or physical) in ways that are not based in western medicine. My interest in yoga grows with every practice and resonates in a way that other paths I've taken haven't.
How long have you been praciticing? |
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| Hi Eva
Did yoga help you with the delivery of the baby? |
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| HI ,
It didn't sound to me in your initial post that you meant anything than other than how does someone become a yoga teacher later on down the road, and how did people get into it. I didn't think you sounded like you were trrtying to rush things.
I started taking yoga after finishing college. I was doing temporary work in advertising (for four yrs) hating every minute of it. But I kept working on my portfolio (a collection of mock -up ads) in order to land a job as an art director so I could make enough money to do what I really want. Which is simply to be an artist. I was taking yoga to keep me sane. Temp work was not a lot fun. It offered me no stability, structure or love in my life. Practising yoga taught me a lot about loving myself. Or allowing myself to love myself and that I didnt need to stay in an industry that I found in many ways to be abusive. I felt was at the lowest end of the "rung" as a temp. One day one of my yoga teachers casually said to one of my friends and I that we should take the yoga teacher training course that was being offered. I mentioned this to my mom laughing as if I could teach yoga. I thought. Before I finished my sentence she asked who she could make the cheque payable to.
I couldn't believe it, but my parents were so happy that I found something I liked and I guess they were tired of seeing me so miserable they were willing to help me out. I took the teacher training, but I thought I wa sjust taking it out of interest, and that I wouldn't teach. But I found my voice. I remembered that I had once been a really intelligent and diligent student, and that hey I was bright and had something to contribute. I love teaching, sometimes I come home & cry after class I'm so happy that I'm reaching people and helping them find their strength, and their self- love. There is so much more to this: you can e-mail me if you'd like. i get really passionate about this.
Happy that you've found yoga. It is a wonderful voyage.
~ Mary
www.dreamexplorations.com |
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| Here is my little history:
I`m happy to have found this group here...I started to practice yoga
in 1990 (I was 12 then). I learned the basics in a yoga school, then I
started to read about the subject.
At the moment I discovered Boris Sacharows book I learned that yoga
(mainly hatha) must have some real-old practices and easier-modern
variants.
I practiced many asanas and pranayamas, which was easy for me, but I
never had any special feelings, I held the toughest bandhas I read
about but nothing happened...
When I look back I`d say I hadn`t enough patience, so I took some off
years.
Just this week I found that online bookshops can let me continue my
search for older books, I still want to know how exactly yoga was
brought down to the form it`s mostly practiced today.
With my gained patience (I learned to juggle, which is an art that is
impossible without patience)I want to go back to it now ;-)
Btw, very interesting texts, Mike. Yust my lack of english knowledge
hinders me a bit to understand every single word :-(
Thanks to all recent writters who had the courage to write about there
own experiences, you encouraged myself to open myself again for yoga
(I decided to stop to talk about it anywhere).
Really interesting URLs for me. (Isn`t it funny to see how hard it was
back in the days to found a single book from Sivananda or Vivekananda
and how easy it`s this days?)
(Written for another board)
Namaste
Mr. Dream
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| Hallo,
mmmh I can understand the feeling of wanting to teach. Altough being in yoga for just some weeks, I'm totally convinced that some years down the road, I will be a teacher myself. I'm a physiotherapist and it already positively influences my work, I'm pracitcing cranio sakral therapy and teaching manual therapy and yoga is like cranio sacral therapy or osteopathy from the inside out. I dig everyone experience in every single lesson, even the unpleasant ones, when I've done something wrong and have a headache like right now.
And I know, from my professional work that someone can be a gifted yogini himself, but is a total failure as a teacher and the other way round. I can see that my teacher (and she is wonderful) can easily admit that some poses can be held more perfect by one or the other student, but she is a gifted teacher, who can transport the important fact through language and body language.
May be if you are practicing yoga for just 4 or 5 years you just start to begin to understand some of the concepts behind, and can't refer to them. But even Iyengar doesn't say he knows it all, and he probably does. So giving to others what you already achieved (no matter how much it is) brings something special into their lives, and that is important. Everybody will find the right teacher for them, if you need somebody very experienced or rich, he will come your way. If you are just starting out and you need someone who can give you the postures to start from, that is fine too.
We all will go through stages, at least I imagine that, and along the way we will come across all kinds of people who will teach us something. Sometimes because they are better in some things, but sometimes because they do things in a way that we don't want to do them.
Even a bad experience teaches you a lot.
wishing you a wonderful weekend
Babsi |
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| i have heard through my experience that taking your hobby or your passion and turning them into a career can often lead to the disinterest in the practice as a passion. yoga has been a passion of mine for the past 9 years and just last year i decided to change course in careers completely. i went through a teacher training program with a yogi i wholeheartedly respect and admire and have been teaching now for the past 9 months. i love teaching and i still practice at least 5 times a week, BUT, i have not committed myself entirely to making a full living out of it. financially it's a strain and that's something that i'm guessing most yoga instructors face. to teach, knowing you love to teach but not caring that you don't make that much money - or to teach and teach with a sales/marketing angle so that you do make a ton of money.
either way, any and all practice with any type of yoga is a great initiation to your life - balancing out mind, body and spirit.
namaste |
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| Why do so many yogis feel the urge to become teachers? Let's face it: Yoga is so great you have to tell everybody about it. It's easy to become a missionary for yoga and share the experience. Especially when you see for example family members and friends who have problems that could be helped with yoga.
Only when I started yoga myself I developed an eye for subtle problems and suddenly I can see how the people around me are suffering from different problems. Some weeks ago I had a dream where I was a teacher and the class was completely made up from friends and relatives. Strange, I'm a beginner and wouldn't have a clue how to teach but still there must have something happening in my mind ..... I can't describe it so I better stop ..................... |
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| Hy, about teaching hatha yoga, a think the first you must familiar with step of all moving your body, like aerobic etc. and second deep feeling for any human emotion activity, third you must go to mountain or field and thinking abut nature and think about can you start to teach somebody, sorry my english not enough good, bye |
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| Stop dreaming Afroyogi  you better meditate before going to sleep
I will never do teaching ... It needs sooooooo much of patience.. |
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| afroyogi - 2004-01-06
Maybe I had a bad day when I wrote my reply but still today I feel strongly that Ms. Tearybabe should be a bit more humble with her wishes and aspirations. I wouldn't like to have her as a teacher.
Shanti
badi
Well I don;t think Ms Tearybabe is showing any arrogance by her aspirations. Maybe in her limited experience of yoga, she feels that this is something that many other people can benefit from, hence her aspiration to teach. I don't see anything wrong with that.
I started yoga after breaking up with a man who I thought was the love of my life. Still not sure why I did it, jut saw this flyer and decided to try it. I was fortunately because as I walked into this little hall, I was the only student, so for my first lesson I got 1 to 1 instruction. It was an Iyengar class that I started with and I continued practising Iyengar for about a year on and off, then got a bit frustated with the perfectionistic aspect of it, and found astanga, which I find both invigorating and relaxing. I tried a few Bikram classes which I enjoyed but have decided to give them away becaue of lack of time/money. Ultimately I am interested in yoga as a healing tool, especially for elderly people, and I am interested in persuing anuara and Desikachar's system, except I don't have acces to those teachers where I live now. But I want to be doing astanga until I am 90 like Guruji. |
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| I have been doing yoga for a good chunk of my life now. I was born with congenital hip dislocation and spent the early part of my young life in a full body cast. Doctors were worried I would be able to have hips developed enough to function as an adult. A friend of the family, knowing what I had gone through began introducing me to yoga and Asian healing massage while I was still very young. At the time, I didn't even know what I was doing was called yoga. I continued doing it as this family friend taught me until when I was about in my late teens which is when I took my first formal class. Up until then, in my conscious mind, yoga was just something I did to keep my hips flexible and strong so that I wouldn't end up in a wheelchair or w/ a cane. It wasn't until when I took my first actual class at a local studio, that I became really serious about yoga and I realized this was something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life--I wanted to teach it and spread the beauty of this ancient science and philosophy. Ever since then yoga hasn't just been something I do, it's become a part of my life, it's become a way of life. I no longer do yoga, yoga does me.
So there you have it, my yoga journey in a nutshell--this short story doesn't really do my yoga experience justice, but if I were to write something that I felt did it justice, I'd be typing until my fingers fell off. |
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| 1. How I started yoga, etc. : see www.authenticyoga.org.
2. What pushes one to teach Yoga - when one gets a solid understanding and beneffit through a good amount of experience (not by attending workshops, or teacher trainning alone), and when one feels that others around him/her should benefit the same way, one starts teaching others.
Neel Kulkarni
www.authenticyoga.org |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| This old thread seems to have resurfaced so I guess I can add my story.
I did yoga in the 60's (I was VERY young...) probably because the Beatles did it and it looked cool. I loved it from the very start. I practiced on my own from probably very bad info from women's magazines and with a TV host called Kareen Zebroff (a very lively and sweet German lady living in rural British Columbia). I even started tecaching my friends back then. I remember my friend Joan practically yelling at me in plough (halasana) that I had claimed she would be relaxed and she was NOT relaxing!
Then I went on and had a life of work and family and always wishing to get back "someday" to yoga. A work friend mentioned that she had a great teacher from a local rec centre but it still took me a couple of years to find time and $$ (kids lessons came first back then) to get to class. After a couple of years of classes I had some other work friends involved and they wanted to practice together and since I was the "senior" student, I got to make up the class and "teach" it. It was the blind leading the blind, I assure you! But one day I mentioned this little group to my teacher and she suggested that I start teacher training. I waited a few months to be sure I had my own practice on track and to get some higher level classes under my belt and the rest as they say, is history!
I love teaching and am finding that I really love teaching brand new beginners. For various reasons I always seem to volunteer to teach our free introductory classes and always feel so refreshed and enegized after teaching them. New faces, new bodies with their own challenges. Its fun. And they don't know my jokes yet so I get fresh laughs  |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 2479
Location: A Blue State | What a topic...my life changed completely when I came to yoga. Years of depression and
poor health turned around, and my attitudes toward the world around me changed. I tried
yoga because it was the minimal thing that I thought I might be able to do, and now I can
do a handstand or backbends or so many other things that amaze me. It's a long story
that I won't get into now, but I can't exaggerate the transformation I've been through and
I can't imagine a life without yoga.
Opps, my wife wants me to come to bed...gotta go. |
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| I came to yoga as a young man through a woman I was seeing romantically (please tell me I'm not the only man on here who found the path in this manner). I studied and practiced yoga diligently for a number of years, even doing a bit of private instruction when requested. Eventually, in my late twenties, I sustained a few injuries in the gym and had to stop pretty much everything physical. When I was finally healed I returned to the gym, but for whatever reason, not to yoga. I think that the six months away had allowed me to focus a bit too much on acquiring the material... more money, better car, more muscles, etc. Bad choices. Within a few years I was pretty much completely off track, depressed, unbalanced, working 15 hours a day, and using substances such as creatine to help acquire more muscle without ever asking if I already enough of anything. Finally, after yet another gym injury, a serious bout of anxiety attacks, and eventually a divorce, I simply ran out of steam. After taking some time off to get fat and feel sorry for myself I returned to yoga and began rebuilding my life. I've been "back" for a year or two now, and back is where I'll stay.
As for the teaching debate.. Do I believe that one must be a yogi for x number of years to teach? That's silly. I have met some absolutely terrible teachers who have been practicing for a number of years, and don't even get me started on the whole NYA thing. The fact that one can hit difficult asanas, or has been practicing for a long time, or has made a set amount of monthly payments to some member of a group that has arbitrarily set themselves up as the authority on everything yogic, is really meaningless. Let us not forget that the core of yoga is not made of judgement. It is made of awareness, and sharing, and service. If one attains an awareness that sharing yoga's benefits is how they wish to serve their brothers and sisters, then that is the path they should follow. Having said that, this person absolutely must take great care to acquire the proper knowledge first. I'm not saying, "Hey, you've had five classes and want to teach? Go right ahead!". But, is five classes enough to know that you want to approach your practice mindfully with an aim to teach? I cannot imagine why it wouldn't be. |
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| To be a teacher is very easy. If you can do asanas very beautiful, you may be a teacher. I think 2 months practise is enough. But how to be a good teacher? It may take you 20 years. |
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RE: can all of you share your experience?
