By Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500

When I trained my first group of dedicated students to become Yoga teachers, I never imagined that 1000 graduates would successfully complete the process. Much like every other Yoga training center, our course was originally designed for face-to-face training. During the 1990’s, we established some primitive Yoga web sites.

Due to these earlier web sites, somehow, we had drawn interest from students and teachers who wanted to know if we would be traveling to their geographic areas. We started to receive requests to train interns from every corner of the earth.

After thinking it out, Marie and I assembled a Yoga correspondence course, based upon the subjects we covered in our level one training. Email and telephone support became a built-in part of the package. To my surprise, the International demand was as large as our North American demand.

The course demand still continued to grow, but I had a feeling that a web site, dedicated to Yoga teacher training, by distance learning, would become popular. On December 31, 2002 we acquired www.yoga-teacher-training.org and opened a five page site.

The changes we made, to improve the courses and the sites, were, and still are, based upon your feedback. Our objective has always been to produce safety- conscious Yoga teachers - with a strong foundation of knowledge to help their students.

Just within the past week, we crossed the 11,000 community membership mark. We continue to welcome everyone from every form of Yoga. The objective of Aura Wellness Center has been to produce top-quality educational courses, materials, and products, for serious Yoga practitioners and teachers.

That objective will not change, but our courses will continue to expand and evolve around your needs. There is one more major course, which will be unveiled this coming October. It will be a level one Yoga Therapy course.

Once again, the reason for creating a Yoga Therapy course is demand and your personal feedback. As some of you know, Yoga has become an adjunct therapy to standard Western Medicine. This is only the beginning. After spending most of my mornings, with senior Yoga students, over the past 10 years, the difference in life quality is very noticeable.

As a teacher, the significant improvements Yoga has made on my students, with neurological disorders, became a form of gratification. At this point, I truly expect to see the quality of life improve in each student, regardless of age or physical condition. Also worthy of note: Senior students and students with ailments, stay with the program because they feel the positive results.

As we look to the future, I want to thank each one of you for your support and feedback. We try our best to strive toward perfection; but as humans, we know this is a work in progress. Thank you also for your fresh opinions in the Yoga forums. Although there are a variety of thoughts about Yoga issues, it gives all of us a chance to learn deeper by absorbing new ideas and through the process of healthy debate.

One chain of events is guaranteed: We will do our best to provide an open community for teachers and practitioners, who seek to learn more about Yoga. This atmosphere is a breeding ground for courses, which meet the demands of teachers in the field.

Please accept my sincere thanks for participating in our community.

We, at Aura Wellness Center, wish you and your families much success and happiness.

Namaste,

Paul