So You Want to be a Yoga Instructor?
How To Tell if Moving into Teaching is the Right Step
Apr 16, 2009
You’ve been taking yoga for a while — maybe months, maybe years — and you’re starting to think about teaching. But those yoga instructors you know are so intimidating with their skills and knowledge. How can you tell if you have what it takes to become one of them?
Understand That This isn’t an Overnight Change
Alex Iglecia teaches full time, both yoga and martial arts. Yet he cautions others to think about their motivation for teaching, as it isn’t a sure thing.
“Make sure you give yourself six to twelve months to create a base. Do not expect it to be immediately financially rewarding, or equal to your previous income,” Iglecia said. “Make sure you are getting involved for many reasons other than financial ones.”
While Iglecia teaches full time, many - perhaps most - yoga instructors are part-time, fitting teaching in around another job.
Come to Teaching With an Empty Cup
In his commentary on “The Bhagavad Gita,” Sri Swami Satchidananda tells the story of a student who came to a Buddhist monk asking to learn. The monk started pouring tea and continued until the cup overflowed, explaining to the student that until there was room in his mind for new things, anything he tried to add would overflow.
This is particularly true with yoga teachers, who must continue to deepen their own practice and be open to new ideas in order to bring that deeper level to their students.
Teacher Anita Abrahamsen found that teaching has enhanced her yoga practice for just that reason.
“I learn something new every day,” she said. “The students and their questions about everything. This opens my mind and body to investigate my own yoga practice. And it really shows me that it is very important not to get stuck in one's own yoga practice. It is really fun and enjoyable to continually discover new aspects of yoga that you think you knew!”
Teaching is More than Doing the Poses
One thing many yoga instructors caution is that being able to move deeply into asanas doesn’t necessarily correspond to being a good teacher, and vice-versa.
New York yogini Cheryl Geosits has started on her coursework through YogaFit to qualify as a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, and it has given her new appreciation for what it takes to teach a class.
“In class we practiced being teachers and it really showed me that teaching is not as easy as we think,” she said. “I may know my yoga, but the skill of being able to carefully and thoroughly teach yoga is one that is developed over time. The comfort of being able to talk flowingly in class, not sound monotone or boring, to deliver the right cues so that each student can learn the yoga poses with ease is an art.”
While teaching can be challenging and is difficult to make a living at, these yoga instructors find they gain in so many other ways from the experience - that’s why they’re teachers in the first place.
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