Are You Ready To Be A Yoga Teacher?

If you enjoy yoga and you've made practicing it a regular part of your life, it's natural that you may consider helping others to enjoy it as well. With yoga teacher training, you can turn yoga into more than just a fun and relaxing hobby. It could be a small business venture or a full-time occupation. However, as important as a love of yoga is, it takes more than that to become a yoga teacher. Take a look at some signs that you might be ready to become a yoga teacher.

You Have Time to Devote to Training and Practice

Yoga training is a significant time investment. To become a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT), you'll need to take either a 200 or 500 hour course, depending on what level you wish to teach at. That may not seem like a ton of time, but you're going to cover a lot of material in those 200 or 500 hours. Talk with a professional, like The Blue Moon Collective, to see what's required in your area and what you'll learn.

Yoga teachers have to learn more than just techniques and teaching methods. They also learn anatomy and physiology, philosophies associated with yoga, and ethics for yoga teachers, among other things. It's a lot of information to absorb, so you'll need to be sure you have the time to memorize and retain it all.

The good news is, you have some flexibility: you can usually choose between courses that are intensive and take only a short time to complete, like a month or two, or longer courses that are less intensive. You can choose what best fits your schedule and learning style.

You're Comfortable With Public Speaking – and Public Silence

Any teacher is going to need to be comfortable with standing in front of a group of people, speaking, and leading the activities. This applies to prospective yoga teachers as much as it applies to prospective middle school teachers or college professionals, so be certain that you're ready for it.

What you also need to prepare for is public silence. If you've been practicing yoga for awhile, you're likely already familiar and comfortable with silence in the yoga studio. What you may not realize is how different it is to be the person in the front of the group, leading the silence. Leading a group silently may feel strange and awkward at first, even when you're expecting it.

You're Open to Teaching in Unusual Settings

If you want to teach yoga, you may picture yourself in a yoga studio similar to the one that you practice in. However, there are only so many yoga studios, and there are more opportunities to teach than you may realize. However, you may have to be willing to consider teaching in unconventional ways and places.

For example, you may find a niche leading chair yoga classes for seniors in nursing homes or patients with disabilities. You might consider leading outdoor classes in a local park, working as a traveling teacher at elementary schools, or leading classes in your own living room. If you're open to a variety of different teaching possibilities, you'll have a better chance of finding your place as a yoga teacher.

If you love yoga and you have the time to devote to teacher training, the desire to lead a class, and the drive to carve out your own spot in the yoga world, then you have what it takes to be a yoga teacher. Look into yoga teacher training programs near you to find out how to get started. 

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