How To Become a Successful Yoga Teacher Are you ready to do a teacher training? by Catarina Lacayo If you are passionate about yoga and want to share it with others then a career as a yoga teacher might be for you. Find out about the options for yoga teacher training programs and how to start your career as a yoga instructor.
1. Are you ready to do a yoga instructor training? Are you thinking about becoming a yoga teacher but you do not know if you are ready? The requirements for participation in a yoga instructor training vary from one school to another. Some schools require many years of consistent practice and proof that you have excelled in a specific sequence or mastered a specific asana before they let you participate in a program. Other schools do not have any specific requirements other than your love for the yoga practice and an open and positive mind for learning and growing. Before we can clearly answer the question we need to define what is really a yoga instructor because if you think you will be a yoga teacher, telling other the truth about yoga, you are wrong. The basic 200 hours is about establishing your own personal yoga practice from where your energy will flow to inspire and guide your students. The basic training is about your own practice. The training should hold a safe and motivational space for you to take the steps towards a yogic lifestyle. It is personal development training where you will learn how to listen to your inner authentic voice and start to discover your true self. How does one listen inside every day? How does one stay aligned and in touch with one's heart, mind, body and spirit on a daily basis? Learning the ancient yoga practice will help you to become a positive force on the planet and it is a life long process. A yoga instructor training is about your self-realization Yoga is not about performance; it is not another exercise program on your local gym. Yoga has much more facets than the physical postures you see. It is a method for self-realization handed down to us from generations and generations of gifted yoga teachers. Yoga is a tool for leading us on the path towards a higher consciousness and towards oneness and enlightenment. A yoga instructor training is not only about learning the history and theory of yoga and the proper alignments in each asana it is much deeper than that. The bigger part is about learning to observe yourself, letting go of ego self, selfcriticism and enter the path of becoming who you really are. It is not about becoming good at yoga. It is about becoming good at practicing yoga and in your first training your goal should be to establish your own self-practice from where everything will sprout. Sharing the love for the practice Our typical student is one who has been practicing for a while and feel that the amazing results and experiences they are having from yoga simply has to be shared with others.
They feel that there is more joy in seeing others happy than doing something for their own sake. Another typical student is someone who has changed their life completely since they started practicing. They want to deepen their practice without necessarily teaching it to others. You do not have to be teaching asanas to be an ambassador of yoga on the planet. Investing in yourself to be a better you, improving your relationships with others and building your self esteem will benefit the universe. To feel that you want to share yoga with others or becoming a better you, happier and healthier, are all signs that you are ready. When I joined my first training I had no idea what I could expect, I was just following my intuition that this was good for me. I wanted to teach and I soon understood that the more I invested in myself the more I could support others. We teach what we practice and that makes it a positive circle of energy and wisdom between you and the people you work with. It is a give and take and you will learn as much as your students in this process. If you still are having second thoughts about not being ready or not being good enough I can tell you two things. The first is that if you are still reading you are ready. The second is that our most successful instructors have been beginners. They all had a lot of humility and patience. They could easy relate to the different struggles other people had. You see, it has little to do with the traditional teacher student role we are used to or how great you are at mastering an asana, instead it has all to do about you love for and your approach to the practice, if you trust it and understand it on a deeper level. 2. Career as a yoga instructor Maybe you are dreaming of quitting your day job and making a career out of your passion for yoga. In this part I will share my experiences about what works and what does not work if you want to make yoga your full-time occupation. During my time as a yoga instructor trainer, I have seen some students who, although they started out training with a mindset of deepening their own practice and learning more about yoga, were operating their own yoga studio 12 months later. I am thinking in particular about two of my students. What do you think they had in common? They had a clear goal and a strong focus; they knew exactly what they wanted. Everything is possible when you have a dream and a strong focus. Being a yoga studio owner is not the only goal or option, there are many different career paths you can pursue. I would not recommend this route if you are not a very business-oriented person, as it gives you little time to do what you really love, working with your students. As a studio owner, you are constantly occupied with running the business, which means making everything happen. Whether or not you have a staff, you are the leader and you need to be running the show.
Maybe you want to keep your day job or reduce the hours and teach at night and on weekends. For most people, this is the first logical step to making yoga a fulltime job. Then you will also have a chance to see if a career in yoga is really for you. You need to have a plan in place, including 3 month, 6 month, 9 month and 1 year goals. Here you clearly write down where you want to be and what you want to be doing. This will dramatically increase the likelihood of succeeding. Those who have clear, specific goals succeed at a much higher rate than those who just drift without a specific plan in mind. We like to set intentions with what we are up to but for growing a business you will need a specific marketing and business plan with set goals. Your yoga career in three steps There are many options when you first start out. In addition to the obvious, teaching at the local gym or yoga studio, you can also give private classes to students, businesses, schools, athletes, seniors, or people with special needs. If you can find a target market that seems attractive, maybe at your work place or teaching busy moms with small kids, then you should start there. The more specific your group the faster you will develop a following and a reputation, much more so than being a yoga instructor who can teach everyone, anything, everywhere. I recommend teaching privates when you first begin as this is more likely to give you a decent stream of income and it is much easier to build your teaching skills in this way. Gaining experience In the beginning you need to be prepared to take what you can get to gain experience and get some teaching hours under your belt. This does not mean that you ditch the idea of a clear target market; it means you have to keep focusing on your goals while you do the hard work of getting experience. This hard work will typically include running from one place to another and slaving away for pennies per hour. During this time you should gather as much knowledge and know-how as possible and develop your own teaching style, while also building your list of followers. You can see this as a time for marketing and education, and then when the time comes, you will be ready to stand on your own. Be aware of that it might take a year or more, depending on your spirit and talent, your commitment, and how hard you work.
Build your group of followers How To Become a Successful Yoga Teacher When you are building your group of followers, you will build a stronger relationship with them step by step, and in this phase you will be ready to take the next step in your career. Yoga is so much more than just teaching yoga classes. Think about it. You can combine it with coaching, therapeutic work, writing, speaking, product creation or helping others market and sell their yogarelated services or products. The beauty is that you already have people who trust and listen to you, and they will buy from you when you offer them something related to a yogic lifestyle. When I moved to Nicaragua I also offered my services as a holistic health coach to my already existing yoga students. I went to the school for Integrative Nutrition in New York and the combination is something I really recommend if you want to have lots of clients and students. My yoga students were more than happy to be able to solve their nutrition and diet related problems with someone they already knew. I have also continued to offer naprapatic therapy, which has given me variation in my work as well as expertise I can share with people who have back and neck problems. Yoga off the mat Not all off us will become a celebrity yogi who gets to travel the globe offering workshops and master classes. However most of us can be off great service to the society by bringing yoga out from the classroom. You can create products or services related to your expertise, or your niche in yoga. You can write books, create audio, videos or on-line courses. Maybe you are good at speaking, then you can create lectures about stress management with yoga, or you can create a series of audio relaxation tapes that people can buy on your website. If you are good at writing you can write e-books on yoga philosophy and sell them on Amazon. Or you can organize different community projects as we have done in our yoga school. I think we can be much more creative and brave than we already are and bring the values of yoga out to those who need them in new and powerful way. How much does a yoga instructor earn? A common question we get is how much a yoga instructor can expect to earn. When you are a beginner, you should be prepared to earn minimum wages. It totally depends on where you are in the world. In the countries I have known, you can expect to earn $30 - $100 per class in the beginning. Private classes and classes for businesses should bring you at least double that amount, and the more experience you have, the more you can charge.
When you have developed your own products or services, you will have a more reliable stream of income that does not depend on trading your time for money. But remember, if you want to build a career out of your passion for yoga, your goal is to free yourself from the crowd and determine your own salary because your goal is not to move out of one form of slavery and into another. 3. Choosing the right yoga instructor training What are the differences between a distance and a local yoga instructor training? And what type of training is right for you? By now you have probably realized that there are many options to choose from. You can stay at home and do the training at your local yoga studio or you can go abroad, to India or even Central or South America. You can do a full training at once or you can sign up for weekends. The obvious advantage of staying at home is that you know for sure what you get. You enroll with your local yoga school and get to work with the teachers that you trust and know. The disadvantage can be that you never get to unplug from your daily life, which makes it hard to really focus fully on the training. The experience of being fully immersed is hard to get when you stay at home with its many distractions. Going on distance training has its disadvantages and advantages too. The disadvantage is that it is pricier and who will take care of your kids or dog while you are off? The biggest advantage is that you will have the time and the space to fully focus on your development and growth. Often, you will get more out of a distance teacher training when it comes to both the personal development part and the learning experiences. You will be able to spend more focused time on learning and at the same time connect with new yoga friends that might be important business or training partners in the future, not to mention how enriching it is to connect with people from different parts of the world who, like you, love yoga. What style of yoga shall I chose? We strongly recommend that you start off with a specific traditional yoga method like Hatha Yoga, Kundalini, Ashtanga Yoga or whatever style you like. Having a solid grounding in a traditional yoga style will make you a confident and powerful practitioner as well as teacher. In the It s Yoga system the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is our foundation. From this ancient tradition Larry Schultz also developed the more playful Rocket series. Once the basic foundation is in place, we can build on that in a modern and free way. Whatever school you choose make sure it has a strong rooting in one of the traditional yoga methods.
Yoga Alliance Most yoga studios require a minimum of 200 hours of training in a Yoga Alliance accredited program. After the first 200 hours of training you will get a Certified Yoga Teacher (CYT) degree. After another 200 hours of teaching you can apply for the Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) certification. There are also more advanced degrees that include up to 500 hours of training, where you become more specialized. At this level you study anatomy and yoga philosophy in much greater depth. You have probably seen that yoga schools advertise their accreditation by Yoga Alliance. This simply means that for an annual fee, they are listed with Yoga Alliance and agree to follow certain terms and conditions regarding the content and the methods used in the yoga instructor programs. Yoga Alliance is like a directory; it does not visit or control the registered schools to see if their quality meets certain requirements. You need to investigate the schools yourself to see if they meet your expectations. Look for reviews, speak to the head teacher and ask for references. How much does a yoga instructor training cost? Tuition for a 200-hour training varies from $1,500 to over $4,000, depending on where the program is located and who is teaching. If you are looking for a distance yoga teacher training experience, you can expect to pay between $3,000 and $6,000, all-inclusive. This is an investment you are making in yourself and in your future. Given that there is a big demand for yoga instructors and this demand is growing, this will probably be one of the best investments you will ever make. The best part of being a yoga instructor I love my work. I love yoga and one of the great gifts that yoga brings each day is to be able to support people to healthier and happier lives. It is an instant gratitude in seeing the positive changes in people s lives. For me the satisfaction is to create new ways for people to connect, to themselves and those around, through yoga, in the classroom, on the Internet or with yoga instructor trainings. Yoga is growing and now it is your calling to get serious and help us spreading the silent revolution. Namaste Catarina Lacayo DN, HHC, E-RYT 200, Director It s Yoga Nicaragua