5 THINGS I LEARNED AT YOGA TEACHER TRAINING IN INDIA
Are you considering joining Yoga Teacher Training in India? Congratulations – you are up for an excellent, life-changing experience! It’s intense! If you’ve just signed up for a yoga teacher training in India, here are the top 5 things you need to know:
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It’s really, really intense!
I spent 3/5 weeks thinking about yoga day and night. We started at 7:30 am and continued until 5:30 pm most afternoons, with homework and self-practice to be completed in the evenings or at lunch break. So you think, talk, and dream about yoga, philosophy, anatomy, Sanskrit names, and sequences around the clock. When I signed up, I had this idea of strolling around rice terraces in Goa in my free time, reading exciting books about self-discovery, and having long deep discussions with my fellow yoga students. Well, it didn’t work out that way. I fell asleep at 9:30 pm latest, didn’t get around to any reading besides my homework assignments, and we mainly talked about stuff like Sanskrit names or our ailments. Don’t plan to have friends or family visiting you, and I promise that you will not have any energy left for them, and they won’t be happy about that.
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People you’ve known for three weeks will feel like lifelong friends
You see the same people for so many hours each day, and you’re all sleep-deprived, muscle-sore, and groggy with all those homework assignments, Sanskrit words, and self-discovery work. You know more about each other than about your closest friends. I miss them like crazy! My fellow yoga teacher students came from all over the world, and they all feel like lifelong friends now!
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You will not get super “advanced” at yoga
I was afraid I would be expected to do all kinds of advanced poses in Yoga Teacher Training India. But while we practiced yoga up to 4 hours a day, my training focused on perfecting basic postures like sun salutations and warriors. As a new yoga teacher, you probably start teaching beginners, not super advanced, yoga students. Therefore you need to know how to demonstrate basic poses perfectly. You’ll get sick of doing sun salutations in no time.
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I was figuring out what to say when teaching yoga is challenging!
A love for practicing yoga does little to prepare you for the other part of the training – the teaching. Successfully teaching yoga means explaining getting in a pose – not only by demonstrating the pose but also by talking your students into it. This is way harder than I expected! I now have a lot more respect for yoga teachers who can give clear oral instructions.
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The most significant challenge? To surrender
Leaving your ego at home and surrendering might be your biggest challenge in Yoga Teacher Training in India. Unless you do your yoga teacher training with someone you have been practicing with already for a long time, you will have to adapt to a teaching style that may be different from what you have learned before. You’ll have to surrender to this new teaching, practice it, memorize it, and accept it.
Are you considering joining a Yoga Teacher Training India, or have you completed one? What are your experiences?