How To Prepare For The Advanced Yoga Teacher Training
Despite the numerous articles and online reviews about yoga, many potential students are still confused about how to prepare themselves for a yoga teacher training. Many still don’t know what to expect. Many wish that they had more guidance to prepare themselves for the 4 weeks of “intensive and advanced” teacher training that leads up to the 300h yoga certification.
The most impassioned yogis wish to advance their knowledge of yoga and evolve further and develop expertise as a yoga instructor. The ideal next step in this journey is the 300 hour yoga teacher training – the perfect regimen that empowers you to evolve and grow as a highly knowledgeable and skilled yogi. However in order to become a well—qualified yoga practitioner and instructor, one needs to prepare oneself – not just in the rigours of practice and philosophy, but also in attitude and mindset.
Based on our experience, we have come up with certain points that we feel would be helpful while preparing for the course.
Expectations
Phrases such as “intensive and advanced” should not scare the hell out of you. Most people expect an advanced yoga teacher training course to be oriented toward intense physical posture practice and a bit of theory – but you could not be more wrong. There is so much more to yoga practice than the mere practice of poses – as it includes history, philosophy and anatomy – both subtle anatomy and physical anatomy.
It’s important to remind yourself that yoga is for everyone. Create a certain mindset that is receptive to all sorts of knowledge and any type of challenges. When you are willing to open up to knowledge and are ready to face any challenge, you naturally assume a neutral perspective in dealing with any situation you’re about to face.
Ego
If you’ve been practicing yoga regularly, you tend to have a mindset that you already know all about yoga. But the training course is not just about the physical practice of yoga, but also about the inner spirit of yoga, its philosophy, community, discipline and concentration.
There can be times when you find yourself lost in the knowledge imparted during the course. Our advice would be not to be impatient with yourself. Realize the fact that education is a lifelong process. You’d want to be curious about all kinds of knowledge as that will expand your horizon and allow you to develop new perspectives on life and yoga.
Emotions
We are all in the habit of avoiding our emotions, especially negative ones. We do not devote enough time to deal with our emotional well-being and tend to keep them at the back of our conscious self. A good yoga programme will allow plenty of time for meditation and contemplation allowing you to deal with situations where your pent-up emotions rise to the surface. This will allow to both acknowledge and release emotions that no longer serve you.
Insecurities
When the training starts to get tough, any so-called-flaws are going to start eating at you in the form of negative thoughts. Starting with your background, physical appearance, abilities to succeed, etc., they are going to be omnipresent and hinder your attempts to achieve your goals.
What you have to realize is that nobody is perfect. There are always going to be people who are better than you in certain aspects, especially on an advanced yoga teacher training. Do not allow this to stop you from achieving your goals. Anyone can achieve what they truly desire. You’ve just got to believe in yourself and fight for it. If you desire something strongly, you will find a way to obtain it.
What you need to do is prepare yourself to be vulnerable and deal with your insecurities. The training course will reveal itself as a great opportunity to come to terms with yourself, as to who you are, opening up the door to loving yourself exactly as you are. Once you’ve acknowledged your insecurities, you will have created the ground for creating a successful yoga teaching career.
Final Thoughts
As ardent practitioners of yoga, experienced in therapy and teaching, we believe these instructions will help bring balance to your lives and in building healthier relationships. Most important of all, we should believe in the limitless ability of our own power of healing. Only then can we fully explore our own limitations and fears, increase the capacity for self compassion, and effectively co-create our own reality.
