6 Ways Yoga Teacher Training Can Lead to Self-Transformation

Jason joins me on this week’s episode to talk about how yoga teacher training goes beyond skill acquisition and can become a catalyst for self-transformation. We just hosted a webinar on the topic last week and we enjoyed it so much we thought we’d re-record the episode especially for the podcast.

This is a fun episode if you’re considering YTT or if you’ve already done a YTT and you’d like to reminisce about all the ways that learning this discipline deepens your understanding of yourself and changes hows you move through the world.

Here are some of the points we hit:

• When you do a yoga teacher training (especially a 200-hour), you will learn the whole asana canon in greater detail and begin to understand how the poses fit together.
• The best way to learn a thing is to teach the thing! (Sidenote: Look for yoga teacher training programs where the “practice teaching,” is done within very specific, monitored parameters with the aim of helping you gain confidence.)
• You will have time to learn and practice the subtler aspects of yoga technique including pranayama, meditation, and yoga nidra, all of which are life-changing tools.
• YTT can change your relationship to your body from self-criticism to appreciation. When you “look under the hood” by learning yoga anatomy, you can’t help but feel in awe of the human body.
• Trainings offer more time, guidance, and context for learning yoga philosophy and history. You will understand — perhaps for the first time — like you’re part of a legacy and a tradition.
• The real subject of yoga philosophy–and, yoga in general–is YOU. Through asana, pranayama and meditation practice, you learn about yourself. You learn about your mental reactions, physical patterns, you learn about habitual reactions and responses. In short, you will learn to see yourself more clearly, objectively and compassionately in the company of many others who are doing the same.
• You will develop new skills and stretch your limits. As adults, it’s easy to stop learning–and, it’s easy to get caught up with countless things in life that you don’t care about deeply.
• In yoga teacher training, you learn an entirely new set of skills: anatomy, injury management, sequencing, verbal communications, philosophy, and new technical aspects of your existing practice. You’re immersed in a deep learning environment, which is such a nice contrast to the short-form, social-media focus of our modern world.