Yoga Teachers Options
instructor and mature couple practicing yoga" style="max-width:410px;float:left;padding:10px 10px 10px 0px;border:0px;">Among the questions I have heard a great deal from people enthusiastic about yoga is "I would like to know how I can find a good yoga teacher?" And if your ready to begin practicing yoga and asking that question yourself, your smart to do so.
Having the best teacher is quite vital to your growth and progress on your yoga path. There are plenty of things which occur on the way, changes related to physical, energetic, and spiritual growth, and sometimes obstacles emerge. All of these things make a student of yoga curious, sometimes anxious, other times maybe even susceptible to a false feeling of power (ego.) Having a teacher that may respond to questions and provide reassurance at crucial moments, as well as the ability to help balance and adjust a student's perspective when necessary, is necessary.
Since I truly believe I have one of the very best teachers of Hatha yoga on the planet, the most straight forward way I can think of to help answer the question above is to talk from experience about the qualities I have seen in my teacher, Shashi Pottatil.
Shashi is a man within his 50's (although he could pass for late 30's) who has been a teacher of yoga for more than thirty years. He is from Kerala in the South of India, where he hails from what is known their as a "yoga family." It means that for generations upon generations, his direct ancestors, including several of his uncles other current family members, were yoga teachers. In a sense, yoga is "in his blood" perhaps literally.
Currently he is one of the highest ranking certified teachers of the Yoga Alliance, the most prestigious yoga certification organization based here in the states. He regularly volunteers as a teacher at churches, synagogs, retirement homes, and works with cancer patients to enable them to harness the health-giving power of yoga to fight their disease. His studio in Mira Mesa, CA "Yoga and Meditation Center" is a thriving yoga practice that he started a few years ago - with no marketing budget. 99% of his student base was built upon word of mouth, and the other 1% came by way of walk-ins or even the yellow pages. (Here is a great hint within your look for a teacher - talk to that person's students and find out how enthusiastic they're about the training and guidance they're receiving.)
Besides his experience and credentials in traditional Hatha yoga, he has degrees in science and business, and was an executive for pharmaceutical company based in India. From this connection to the scientific community, he participated in scientific research studies of the affects of yoga on the human body and immune system. This experience gives him a unique perspective, one according to both the traditional Eastern philosophy of Ayurveda and Yoga, and the science based Western philosophy of "show us proof and we shall believe."
Admittedly, it may be very hard to seek out a teacher that happens to have this unique combination of expertise, background, and credentials. And to begin studying yoga, you do not necessarily need someone as qualified as my teacher.
The significant thing is the fact that the yoga teacher has some verifiable training or certification that will vouch for the very fact that they know both the theory and application of what they may be teaching. Ideally, this will certainly be someone who has valid certification as a teacher. Whether your teacher attended free classes at the neighborhood center for long enough to absorb a good foundation, or paid a lot of money to attend every certification program and yoga retreat available, they both are valid paths to teaching. How qualified they can be depends upon the individual's natural talent, the time they spent training, and just how qualified their teachers were.
This may very well be even more important than point 1 above. With the very best of credentials, if the person you are considering as a teacher has "alterior" motives outside of helping people advance both as students of yoga, as well as on their journey towards (yes, I am going to say it) enlightenment, then it may be a red flag.
Simply, I am not claiming that yoga teachers should only teach from the goodness of their heart with no eye towards creating a viable business and livelihood for themselves with their teaching endeavors. What I am saying is, if their motivation is inappropriately slanted towards personal gain (whether financial, sexual, or else) or if perhaps they are overly obsessed with a "power dynamic" linked to being within the role of a teacher, then you could have an issue.
As ironic and unfortunate since it is, although yoga is a spiritual and physical path towards health and well-being, by its very nature, it really is vulnerable to "misuse" or perhaps abuse. We have all heard stories of organizations that seemingly start out with the most effective intentions and after that find yourself in the news being accused of cult-like practices.
Just as much as I am not trying to scare anyone with this discussion, I am simply saying, take your time and do your research. Talk to some students, and attend at least one class only to observe (if possible.) What will be the dynamic between the students and teachers? What does your intuition tell you about both the qualifications and character of the teacher or studio you are considering?
Lets return to my model yoga teacher, Shashi. His yoga studio is truly "thriving" - and this includes financially. Ironically, this appears to be the situation due to how focused he is on helping people, not taking from them. To put it a different way, it is what he gives away, almost every day and week, that brings him such a successful school of yoga.
What I mean by "gives away" is anything from the time he volunteers to various community organizations (i.e. he teaches for free wherever he can locate a necessity for yoga in the community) to being available to students outside of classes to enable them to with any challenge they could be facing. He is a natural "therapist", and people talk to him about everything from medical conditions to marital problems, crisis in business or career, or what ever.
He does this because he truly believes that human beings in our times are in desperate need of the wisdom contained in yoga, on both spiritual and physical levels. His most prominent motivation, both in his words and in his deeds, is to "help people." This quality of his character is extremely apparent, and I am certain it explains mouse click the next webpage success of his yoga practice.
Although there's absolutely no perfect formula or perhaps "perfect" yoga teacher, I hope that by using my teacher as a model, I have given you a useful frame of reference while you set out to search out your yoga teacher. Just do some homework and trust your intuition, and simply, enjoy each moment.
