Hello and thank you for joining.
This is a talk inspired by a conversation I had last week with a gentleman who had been attending yoga classes for a while and was considering doing a teacher training.
But he had some concerns about whether that would be the right thing for him.
This gentleman was in his mid-forties and he was worried that he was too old and that as he had some back pain and wasn't able to go into all of the postures,
He wouldn't be able to teach them well enough.
He also wasn't sure that he particularly wanted to teach yoga but was more interested in deepening his own practice and learning more about yoga overall.
He had spoken to some yoga teachers whose classes he was attending about his idea of joining a teacher training and he'd found them to be generally discouraging,
Saying there was no point in doing a training unless he definitely wanted to teach others and that otherwise he'd be better off just coming to their classes and enjoying those.
So he told me all of this and asked my opinion and he then said that I was the first person who had encouraged him to go ahead and do the training.
So I wanted to share this story and share some of the reasons why,
In my opinion,
His perceived limitations are actually factors which would make him a great yoga teacher,
And why some of his ideas around those limitations are really the opposite to what yoga is actually about.
I was quite shocked that he didn't receive more encouragement or more assistance with finding the right next steps for him.
And this talk is really for anyone who is considering doing a yoga teacher training or teaching meditation or doing anything that you're inspired by the idea of doing,
But have some doubts about your potential to do it.
It's important to remember when we think about teaching yoga that yoga is not really about the physical postures at all.
Yoga is traditionally a path of self-realization,
To realize the presence of the divine within ourselves.
And the physical practices and techniques used in yoga are designed to assist us towards this realization through the purification of the body and the mind,
Through cultivating presence and awareness,
And through guiding our mind to become still,
So that we can perceive ourselves and reality as they truly are.
Yoga postures are much more about the effect that they have on our minds and state of awareness than how they look.
It's not important if you wobble and fall out of a posture.
What's important is that you're present with your experience as you do it.
In its essence,
Yoga is much more a practice for the mind than the body,
And one of the greatest transformations that can come with a steady yoga practice is the overcoming of limiting beliefs and the realization of our true potential.
When I was doing my yoga teacher training,
One of my teachers emphasized the point that yoga classes are essentially spaces for the participants to overcome their perceived limitations and gain a new level of confidence and realization about themselves and about what's possible for them.
So where the body and the postures are great tools,
The real purpose of teaching yoga is to safely guide students beyond their perceived limitations,
Whatever that may look like in a particular class,
On a particular day.
So why would the perceived limitations of age,
Physical ability and the desire to teach potentially make this gentleman a better yoga teacher?
Aside from the fact that mid-forties isn't really old at all,
Many of the best yoga teachers and spiritual guides are older,
As they carry the wisdom of life experience that adds real depth to their teachings.
Some of my favourite yoga teachers are over 60 and I also had the privilege of attending a class with a teacher who was over 100 years old and still teaching and who demonstrated an arm balance posture that I am yet to master.
Along with bringing life experience and practical wisdom to their classes,
Older yoga teachers are incredibly inspiring examples of how the older years can look when we practice and look after ourselves,
And they have so much to teach us about graceful ageing and the truth of what's possible outside of what society may tell us.
In my opinion,
Yoga is one area of the world where wise elders very much exist and are there to guide us,
And where youth isn't everything.
And even if you started your practice and became interested in yoga later in life,
You will still have the wisdom and the life experience to add a level of substance to your teachings that someone much younger won't yet have acquired.
The idea that one has to have a certain level of physical flexibility to practice yoga is a myth that continues to persist,
But which is really meaningless.
Where physical flexibility usually does increase with practicing the postures,
Especially in people who are very stiff to begin with.
It's not what yoga is about and a level of physical flexibility is not required to practice or to teach.
There are very few yoga teachers who have mastered all the postures and the postures that someone can or cannot do and to what degree has very little relevance to their skills as a teacher.
Our bodies are always changing and age,
Injuries,
Illnesses and life circumstances all affect our bodies and how we experience the postures on any given day.
A deep back bend one day,
Maybe a small shoulder movement another day.
What's important is not how the posture looks,
But that it's approached with presence,
Compassion and awareness.
And very often those who have found the yoga postures challenging,
Due to physical pain,
Injuries or limitations,
Make the best teachers,
As they bring compassion,
Understanding and experience into their classes.
They have the lived experience of how to work with and overcome challenges in the postures,
And they have the compassionate understanding of what their students may be experiencing.
And they usually bring a lot of patience and genuine desire to help.
And where a good understanding of the postures is necessary to teach them and should be covered in your training.
There are lots of ways to teach a posture without physically demonstrating it yourself if it's not available to your body.
Through verbal cues,
Props,
Hands-on adjustments,
And getting another student to demonstrate.
You can effectively teach a posture without actually going into it yourself.
And I've even heard it suggested from Iyengar yogis that verbal cueing should be so detailed that there is no need for a physical demonstration at all.
One common piece of feedback I often hear from people who tried yoga but didn't continue with it is that they felt the teacher was moving into a lot of complicated positions and they were unable to follow.
It's much better for the students to be taught carefully by a teacher who knows how to guide them,
Even if they cannot do that position themselves,
Than to see a teacher move through all of the complicated postures and feel lost or like it's out of their range of possibility to achieve it.
And the other concern that this gentleman had was that his main intention for doing a teacher training wasn't to teach others,
But to deepen his own practice and to learn more about yoga.
From my understanding this was one of the main reasons that the other teachers were discouraging him,
As what's the point in learning to teach if you're not planning to actually teach it?
And this is one place where I really disagree.
And in my own life,
I've taken lots of trainings primarily for the experience and the information with teaching or practicing with others being the secondary motivation for doing that course.
And many people join yoga teacher trainings without the intention to necessarily give yoga classes afterwards.
Yoga especially is an experiential practice where the real teachings come from the transmission of our own relationship with the practice.
So a class with a teacher who has been deeply committed to their own path and practice and is sharing that wisdom will have a very different atmosphere and outcome to a class with a teacher who is reciting what they learnt from the textbook.
And for people with a genuine desire to deepen their practice and evolve on their yogic path.
Teacher trainings are currently one of the best options to do this.
The depth of information and the intensity of practice received in a yoga teacher training are much more than what's taught in a general weekly class,
And most serious yogis have attended a teacher training at some point because of that depth of practice that's offered,
Regardless of their desire to teach others.
Of course,
There are other ways to deepen your yoga practice.
You can stay in an ashram or you can attend a long,
Very focused retreat or take specific courses or personal mentoring.
But in the world right now,
A yoga teacher training is one of the easiest and most accessible ways to explore yoga in depth and with structure and guidance.
Completing a teacher training also gives you access to many more trainings and courses that are available to already qualified yoga teachers,
So it can open a lot of opportunities for further pursuing your path.
When you prioritize your path and your personal experience over teaching yoga as a job.
If you do decide to teach classes to others,
Your teaching's going to come from a place of genuine understanding and devotion and relationship with the practice,
Not simply ticking the right boxes to receive a certificate.
And in my opinion,
Teaching from experience and sharing the wisdom of yoga is what makes a really great teacher.
So none of this is to say that a young,
Flexible teacher who's focused on building their yoga career isn't going to be a good yoga teacher.
There are great yoga teachers everywhere,
Teaching in many different ways and suiting many different people.
But if you have been thinking about maybe joining a yoga teacher training,
Or perhaps teaching or doing something else,
But you have some of these doubts or reservations,
I hope this talk has inspired you to realise that it's never too late to begin,
And that very often what we perceive to be our setbacks are actually our biggest gifts.
If you do have any questions about teaching yoga,
Meditation or healing therapies,
Please don't hesitate to send me a message.
I've been teaching yoga for over 15 years now and would love to be of assistance.
Thank you for listening to this talk today and have a beautiful rest of your day.
