I prepared wrong for my YTT. Instead of a sense of enlightenment, I graduated with a piece of paper and a feeling of “now what?”
What to Do Before Your Yoga Teacher Training
For the four months between booking and beginning my 200-hour yoga teacher training course (YTT or TTC), I viewed it as a light at the end of a tunnel. The light was illuminated even more so by the fact that my training would end mid-December; I was under the impression that I was embarking on a quest that would end with enlightenment, which seemed like the perfect end to a year of solo travel, the “next step” on my spiritual journey, and the right start to a new year. I expected the training to “complete” something (me?) in my life.
Booking a yoga teacher training is an exciting and perhaps nerve-wracking prospect. Not knowing what to expect can lead to obsessive research on how to be as prepared as possible, which is what happened to me. Looking back, I can see which preparations of mine actually served me in the training and which didn’t. Here’s my advice.
1. Don’t Get Caught Up On Your Asana Abilities
Countless sources will tell you you’ll need to practice multiple hours of asana per day in order to prepare yourself for the training. I needed to improve my physical practice, I thought, in order to be strong and confident enough to get through this daunting month. So I learned how to do forearm headstand (sirsasana).
When I got to the training, I quickly realized that it mattered very little whether I could or couldn’t do headstand and that just as I wasn’t looking around the room during class to judge other people’s abilities to teach yoga based on what poses they could/couldn’t do, nobody was doing that to me. Focusing only on your physical abilities before the training might pull you away from the true practice of yoga by decreasing the time you spend on other aspects of it, like meditation and pranayama, which are both very valuable practices to help you stay grounded during your training.
2. Don't Neglect Your Meditation Practice
It can be argued that without meditation, there really is no yoga (the definition of asana means “seat” in reference to the seat of meditation). Developing or committing to your meditation practice, to me, is the most important thing you can do to prepare yourself for the training. Sitting with ourselves and what is allows us to navigate our lives with presence and grace, no matter if the situation is stressful, joyful, mundane, overwhelming, or tiring (hi, 2367th chaturanga of the month).
I let my other practices fall to the wayside during my asana tunnel vision, telling myself I’d be doing so much spiritual development during the training that I could slack a bit beforehand in regards to meditation, journaling, and pranayama.
What happened was that I started to feel disconnected from my spirituality and developed stronger thought patterns of self-criticism and low self-esteem than I had all year. And it led to a cycle of feeling so nervous about the training, like I was nowhere near good enough at yoga to be doing it, let alone be teaching it, like everyone else was going to be so much “better” than me, and seeing only my physical practice as the way to develop my lacking confidence. More headstand practice.
3. Release Your Expectations
Those same sources that say you need to do hours of vinyasa practice per day and eat extremely “clean” in preparation also probably mention that you are going to be overwhelmed and exhausted during your training and that it’ll be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.
In the second two weeks of my training, we began to teach. I had anticipated that time to be intensely anxiety-inducing. I kept waiting for that wrecking ball of stress to hit, expecting to be overwhelmed, as I’d heard from so many.
But it never came. Sure, nerves, yes. Normal nerves, in anticipation of something that matters to me. But as soon as I started talking, teaching felt … easy. It felt natural. It felt good. It felt like I was doing something I knew (and loved) and was completely capable of. In expecting to be stressed and expecting to be bad at something, I pulled myself away from the present moment. But teaching immediately brought me back into it; I had to be connected in order to speak in tune with my movements.
Hindsight Is Always 20/20
I didn’t understand what I’d learned from my experience that month until long after it was over. I graduated with a certificate and the question of how best to preserve this piece of paper on my 30-hour journey home. I didn’t have all the answers to the questions I’d had going into it, let alone anything near a state of enlightenment. And I still don’t have that, but what I can see from the reflection in the weeks since is that it was never about forearm headstand; it was never about what shapes I could and couldn’t make with my body. Since that was what others could see, though, that’s what I turned to when I felt like I had to prove myself. But my “level” as an asana practitioner never influenced my ability to teach yoga, because yoga is so much more than asana.
Neglecting my other practices left me feeling ungrounded and disconnected from myself and left space for my inner critic to fill—loudly. When I began to make time again for meditation and released the expectations I was holding onto, in a period where I expected to feel stressed out and overwhelmed, I felt calm and trusting. I had everything I needed to teach yoga already inside of me; I was already good enough. I am already good enough. And that’s what yoga—real yoga—reminds us of.
FAQs
Here are some answers to commonly asked questions about YTTs.
What should I do before a yoga teacher training?
Meditate! Develop or deepen your meditation practice, and learn a bit about yoga philosophy if you aren’t familiar with it already.
Is yoga teacher training hard for beginners?
Depending on the one you choose, yoga teacher trainings can involve long days of lectures and practices. However, if yoga is something you love and are interested in, it’s not necessarily “hard.” Just like any yoga class, physical practices in a level one training can be tailored to all levels of practitioners, and, in my experience, the challenging classes were balanced with plenty of restorative classes.
How do I know if I’m ready?
If you love yoga, want to learn more about it, and/or want to share with others why you love it, you’re ready for yoga teacher training! Prior to what many sources say, you do not need to meet any physical requirements or be able to do any number of “advanced” poses. You need a love for yoga, a respect for the history and philosophy of the practice, and a willingness to learn.
Is it worth it if you don’t want to teach?
Yes. Even if you don’t want to teach yoga, you can learn more about philosophy, meditation, and pranayama during a training, which are all ways to deepen your own practice of yoga.
What do I wish I had known before my YTT?
I wish I had known that being able to do “hard” poses has nothing to do with your ability to teach yoga.
How long do I need to practice yoga before doing a YTT?
There is no definitive answer to this question. Some people in my training had been practicing yoga for years, others had been practicing for a few months. To teach asana (physical yoga) after the training, you’ll need a thorough understanding of basic poses and sequencing, but that is what the course is for. If your goal is to teach after and you are new to yoga, you do need a commitment to learn and a desire to put in the work to do so.
Is 50 (etc.) too old to become a yoga teacher?
No! You’re never too old to become a yoga teacher. In my training, the ages ranged from 18-65. In fact, I think many older people count yoga out for them on the basis of being too old to learn, so as an “older” teacher, you could offer value by appealing to that demographic of beginners! Of course, you can teach any type of student just as well as any other teacher if you put in the work to learn about teaching methodology.
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