How to Know When You’re Ready for Yoga Teacher Training

You Don’t Need to Have Conquered a Freestanding Handstand

There is a misconception that unless you can do a free-standing handstand or wrap your leg behind your head that you are not yet ready to do your Yoga teacher training.

Well guess what: ‘Yoga’ doesn’t care if you can do a handstand or not.

Everyone on a teacher training brings their own strengths and weaknesses, it’s all about YOUR experience. You will learn the foundations of Yoga, it doesn’t matter how strong or flexible, how young or old, what size you are or even how long you have or haven’t practiced Yoga. What matters is that you turn up.

You Don’t Need to Have a Regular Meditation Practice Already

It was on my initial Yoga teacher training that I first meditated. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I wasn’t the only one either. By the end of my training, it was the part of my practice I spent the most time on and what I loved the most. When I meditate I always keep it simple, some days I experience more stillness than others. It is a fantastic way of decluttering your mind for more clarity. For offloading all the identities and labels we often take on as doers and meditation offers a chance to be with yourself.

You Don’t Have to be a Hippie… or a Vegan

I like to keep it real. I can’t run away to a cave and meditate without distractions and nor would I want to.

I came to Yoga as a Group Fitness Instructor. It was my Yoga that increased my fitness industry longevity, physically as an instructor. It’s only after 16 years in this industry that I now teach only Yoga and train Yoga teachers. I live in a big city, run a busy small business and have three kids under six, so keeping things realistic is important to me. I want to stay fit, healthy and happy, I use my Yoga to accomplish all of this. With my Yoga knowledge, I use the asana to keep me fit and release tension from my body. Breath awareness and meditation keep me ‘in the now’, focused on my goals and quite frankly, these practices keep me sane. I look at how I can integrate Yoga into my life. How can Yoga make my life easier with less stress and busyness?

I don’t burn incense at home, tie-dye my clothes or grow my underarm hair (absolutely nothing wrong with these things if that’s what you’re in to).

My family’s diet is clean but not vegan. Yoga makes me more aware of what my family puts in and on their bodies. It creates an awareness of many things including how we impact our environment and what we can do to reduce our environmental impact as individuals. It helps me teach my children, (and my little yogis at the studio), about kindness, compassion and respect. All of these are values that are of importance to me.

You Just Need to Love Yoga

Whether you want to teach Yoga or just deepen your own personal practice. Whether it’s the poses, the philosophy or the meditation that you love, your Level 1 Yoga Teacher Training is a foundation to build upon. It’s about self-enquiry and learning how Yoga can influence your life for the better. It’s through this experience you will be able to guide yourself and your students on their Yoga journey.

Teachers Open the Door, You Enter by Yourself!

I would like to invite you to a complimentary class at One Family Yoga and Fitness with me. I want you to experience firsthand the way I teach, maybe you might even want to try a class with one of the teachers who has completed my Yoga Teacher Training.

In addition, we’re excited to announce the launch of our AyurFlow – Yoga & Ayurveda Teacher Training 200hr and 150hr program in Brisbane, QLD, now available at our Holland Park studio. LEARN MORE HERE!

Here’s what one of my recent graduates had to say about the training;

“Completing my 200-hour Level 1 YTT has been one of the most self-changing, transformative steps I’ve taken in my Yoga journey so far. In a very real way, I feel that doing my YTT (or at least the first stage,) was not only great for my own Yoga practice but for my personal development and even just for developing the ability to find an inner peace with myself and who I am. It’s hard to explain in words something that is only best understood through feeling and experiencing, but I will try.”

“YTT not only taught me about how to teach and guide others with their own practice, but gave me a deeper understanding of myself, and in a far more profound way than I’ve ever experienced before, even after practicing Yoga as a student for many years and after many a lesson learned through the challenges of life. Learning more about the philosophies of Yoga, and exploring the “Eight Limbs” in both a practical and academic way, gave me insight into my previously sub-conscious beliefs and behaviors, relationship with myself and others, and more importantly, the limiting beliefs that have previously clouded my visions of my life and its events. More importantly, these insights have changed me in a positive way, giving me the first steps towards changing my own behavioral and mental tendencies, which have subsequently improved my personal relationships and inner strength.” Cassie, 2016 Graduate

“Lastly, I’d like to let you know that many of my graduates are finding doors open for them to teach Yoga in studios, some do the training for themselves but those who do want to pursue a change of career and teach full-time, have no trouble doing so as my training is thorough, you will teach live to students from beginner to advanced and you also learn Ayurveda, getting to know your own constitution and how to apply this science to others in their practice.”