What You Need To Know About Yoga Trainers

One of the questions I have often heard a lot from people excited about yoga is "I would like to know how I can locate a good yoga teacher?" And if your ready to start practicing yoga and asking that question yourself, your smart to do so.

Having a great teacher can be very vital to your growth and progress on your yoga path. You will find lots of things which occur on the way, changes linked to physical, energetic, and spiritual growth, and sometimes obstacles emerge. All of these things make a student of yoga curious, sometimes anxious, in other cases maybe even vulnerable to a false feeling of power (ego.) Having a teacher that can answer questions and provide reassurance at crucial moments, and the ability to help balance and adjust a student's perspective when necessary, is important.

Since I truly believe I have one of the very best teachers of Hatha yoga on the earth, the most simple way I can think of to help answer the question above is to speak 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 may have been a teacher of yoga for more than 30 years. He is from Kerala within the South of India, where he hails from what is known their as a "yoga family." This means that for generations upon generations, his direct ancestors, including several of his uncles other current loved ones, 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 within the states. He regularly volunteers as a teacher at churches, synagogs, retirement homes, and works with cancer patients to help them 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 the yellow pages. (Here is a good hint in your search for a teacher - talk to that person's students and find out how enthusiastic they can be about the training and guidance they are 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 body and immune system. This experience gives him a unique perspective, one based upon both the traditional Eastern philosophy of Ayurveda and Yoga, and also the science based Western philosophy of "show us proof and we will believe."

Admittedly, it may be very hard to search out a teacher that happens to have this unique combination of expertise, background, and credentials. As well as to begin studying yoga, you do not necessarily need someone as qualified as my teacher.

The vital point is that the yoga teacher has some verifiable training or certification that can vouch for the truth that they know both the theory and application of what they're teaching. Ideally, this can be someone who has valid certification as a teacher. Whether your teacher attended free classes at the local community center for long sufficient to absorb a great foundation, or paid many money to attend every certification program and yoga retreat available, both of them are valid paths to teaching. How qualified they are relies 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 personal trainer of credentials, if the person you are considering as a teacher has "alterior" motives outside of helping people advance both as students of yoga, and also on their journey towards (yes, I am going to say it) enlightenment, then it may very well be a red flag.

Quite 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 otherwise) or if they may be overly obsessive about a "power dynamic" associated with being within the role of a teacher, in which case you might have an issue.

As ironic and unfortunate as it is, although yoga is a spiritual as well as physical path towards well being as well as well-being, by its very nature, it is susceptible to "misuse" or even abuse. We have all heard stories of organizations that seemingly start out with the very best intentions and then wind up within the news being accused of cult-like practices.

As much as I am not trying to scare anyone with this discussion, I am simply saying, take your time and do your investigation. Talk to some students, and attend at least one class just 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 actually "thriving" - and this includes financially. Ironically, this appears to be the situation because of how focused he is on helping people, not taking from them. To put it another way, it is what he gives away, every single day and week, that brings him such a successful school of yoga.

What I mean by "gives away" is everything from the time he volunteers to various community organizations (i.e. he teaches for free wherever he can find 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 speak to him about anything from health issues to marital problems, crisis in business or professional life, or what ever.

He does this because he truly believes that human beings in our times will be 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 can be very apparent, and I am certain it explains the success of his yoga practice.

Although there isn't any perfect formula or perhaps "perfect" yoga teacher, I hope that by utilizing my teacher as a model, I have given you a useful frame of reference when you set out to find your yoga teacher. Just do some homework and trust your intuition, and simply, enjoy each moment.