By: Virginia Iversen
How can we go about preparing emotionally for a teacher’s intensive? There are myriad of considerations to take into account as you prepare to become a Yoga instructor. There are financial preparations to make as well as determining the populations of students with whom you would like to work. Of course, it is also preferable and often required that you are in good physical condition before enrolling in a Yoga instructor course. Although less visible, there are also emotional considerations to take into account before beginning your teacher training program. Your emotional well-being and resiliency will affect every aspect of your future Yoga instruction.
As you study to become a Yoga instructor, the practice of vigorous and challenging asana sequences and pranayama exercises may unearth many unresolved feeling and emotions from your past. Many somatic therapists postulate that emotions and painful experiences are held within the muscle tissue of the body. As you practice the asanas, these painful thoughts, feelings and images may be brought to the surface. The proverbial pot may not only be stirred, but roiling as well. This is a golden alchemical opportunity to process and release these hurtful experiences.
The lightness of being you will experience after letting go of that which no longer serves you, will help you to compassionately guide your students on their own internal journey of healing through the beneficial practice of Yoga poses, pranayama exercises and meditation techniques. If you have consciously and deliberately gone through the fire of tapas during your teacher training program, you will be more able to gently and firmly lead your students through their own journey. You will also be more able to sensitively choose poses, pranayams and scriptural readings that speak directly to the cleansing of their samskaras or habitual patterns of thinking and behaving.
If you work with and release your own negative patterns of thinking and behaving during a Yoga instructor training program, you will also provide your students with a beautiful role model of the transformative power of the practice of Yoga. In addition, as you “walk your talk” in your own community; your peace, ease, lightness and joy will positively affect those around you. There is no better advertisement for practicing on a regular basis than a Yoga instructor who is healthy, happy and flourishing. Of course, we are all human and feel down on some days. As you move through a teacher training program, you will learn effective tools for managing and improving your emotional states, which you will then be able to offer to your own students in the future.
© Copyright – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division
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Through a yoga teacher training program, one can learn effective tools for managing and improving his/her emotional states and make able to offer to his/her own students in the future. Thanks for posting this nice article.
There are emotional considerations to take into account before beginning our teacher training program. Our emotional well-being and resiliency can affect every aspect of our future Yoga instruction.