Paige Talbot
Recently completed a yoga teacher training course?
Namaste! You’re onto something good.
But as any recent graduate of a yoga teacher training program knows, the struggle of getting back to ‘real life’ is real.
Don’t fret, you’re in good company.
Here’s a list of things that might happen to you after yoga teacher training.
1. You will wholeheartedly believe that your next big thing in life is to move to Bali and become a yoga teacher.
You will make plans, talk to your island friends that you met at a beach bar about life in Indonesia, and begin a business plan to open a Blow Dry bar in Seminyak to supplement your yoga teaching income.
2. You will drop said business plan and return to the 9 to 5 you left back home.
At least until you figure out your next move.
3. You may neglect your yoga practice for a few days, weeks or months.
But you will never lose that feeling you had of complete contentedness when deep in practice or meditation in the Yoga Shaila and because of that addicting feeling, you will, eventually, always make it back to your mat.
4. You’ll cringe at the conversations you overhear at Lululemon.
‘I think that my biggest dilemma in my present state of being is the concept of ahimsa. I mean, I am essentially an animal and I need protein, and I grew up eating meat right, of course all organic and grass fed, but I just know that it goes against the ethos of a yogic lifestyle and I’m really struggling with that right now. What do you guys think? Do you HAVE to follow all the rules in order to be a true yogi?’ Yoga is a practice, not a religion. It is for you and you only, you don’t need another person’s opinion to validate if you are a ‘true yogi’ or not. Furthermore, you shouldn’t endeavour to be a ‘Yogi’. Just be you; you’re the only you on this planet and that is pretty damn amazing!
5. You’ll start to acquaint yourself with the ‘Yogi Von Holier Than Thou’:
In yoga class, in the health food shop, at the juice bar, in the grocery store, in Starbucks pounding a grande mocha frappaccino…. Skim milk please. Don’t judge, don’t feel judged, and just remember to each their own.
6. You’ll be overwhelmed when you realize the incredible surplus of yoga teachers, and the even more incredible scarcity of paid yoga teaching jobs.
Don’t let it turn you off teaching. If you want to teach and you genuinely enjoy sharing yoga with others, you can do it from the living room of your own home. The rest will sort itself out. Your motivation for being a yoga teacher shouldn’t come from a thirst for notoriety or financial gain. It should come from a place of compassion and love of others.
7. When you do start teaching yoga you will realize that you’re not just the teacher, you are the student also.
Each person you lead in class has something to teach you. The practice of yoga and relationship of student to teacher is nothing but an energy exchange. You’ll feed off it, it will empower you, and it will be the reason why you show up to class each and every day, as a teacher or as a student.
8. You will forever thank yourself for investing in YOU and giving yourself the most thoughtful gift possible.
A chance to create a relationship with the inner being that is completely unique and magical to you and you only. You will never be the same after yoga teacher training, and trust me; that’s a good thing!
