You are planning to take a Yoga Teacher Training. You are excited and nervous as well. You do not know what to expect from this Yoga Teacher Training.
Here is a pre-Yoga Teacher Training Checklist before you start your first yoga teacher training. This helps you in setting your mindset before you take this journey of being a Yoga Teacher.
Pre-Yoga Teacher Training checklist
1. Keep a regular practice – improve Stamina – Do not worry about flexibility
Keep a regular practice of some asanas without a miss. It is completely fine if you are not flexible enough to do certain asanas.
The regular practice of asanas, pranayama and meditation matters the most.
Regularity is the key. Keep an hour practice of asanas-pranayama-meditation would be ideal here.
You can use youtube videos to keep the regular practice to prepare for the yoga teacher training.
Tip: Keep a Regular practice for the last six to eight months before the training begins
This is the most important step. You might have had a good asana practice background for the last few years.
However, what matters the most is the recent practice. If you had on and off practice for the last 5 years, that doesn’t help as the last six months of practice does.
I have students mentioning in the registration form that they have been into Yoga for the last 10 years.
It is good, but not really of much use. However, the last few months’ practices before the training will really help.
2. Set an intention before the training begins
What is your main purpose for joining the teacher training? Write down what would be expected from the training.
However, it is completely fine to change the intention during the training.
You might want to take a Yoga Teacher Training purely to deepen the personal practice.
But in the journey of learning, you might end up planning to become a yoga teacher. You can absolutely change the intention.
However, to observe the mind and its thought patterns, it’s ideal to set the intention before the training begins.
At Samyak Yoga, we ask students to write down their intention, the areas they want to improve and what they expect from their practice and keep it under the bed.
They open at the end of the training to observe their intention in the beginning and what they thought now.
It is a great tool to observe the mind and its functioning.
3. Do not compare yourself with others
During the training, you will be specifically asked not to compare yourself with others.
However, it’s great preparation if you start not comparing yourself before the training actually begins.
This builds self-confidence and helps you in your journey of yoga.
Though this is a cliche sentence and appears easy, the implementation is harder.
We always have the tendency to compare ourselves with others. It is an effort to change the mental pattern and can bring great benefits in the long run.
One of the greatest and unique experiences at Samyak Yoga Teacher Training Courses is this individuality.
When you start comparing, you will accept the other person also she/he is.
This acceptance helps in building a great family of yogis and Yoginis.
I assume this is the main reason why we are considered one of the fastest-growing yoga families.
4. Embrace the journey of known to unknown. And it is not easy.
You know that you know some things in life. There is no confusion.
There is another phase. You know that you don’t know. This phase is easier. The journey will be from your ignorance to knowledge.
But the third phase is interesting. You will start discovering many aspects of yourself that you did not know that you knew. It is ‘you don’t know that you know.’
The fourth is very subtle. You don’t know that you don’t know. This is a discovery of the depths of one’s psyche.
Be prepared to enter this journey of all these phases. Yoga Teacher Training will be transformative if you are prepared enough to digest it.
5. This journey is for yourself
You might want to deepen your yoga practice. You might want to take training to teach yoga to others.
You might have thought to plan training in Yoga so that it is good to know properly what you have been doing for years.
However, the best intention is to do it completely for yourself. Not for your asana practice, not for your students, not for anything.
Though all these are good aspects, they should be primarily for your spiritual growth.
6. Be Open-minded with no preconceived notions
When you are discussing Sthiram and Sukham during the training for example, what you already know would conflict with what you are about to learn.
Prepare yourself to be completely open to receive the knowledge. This purity of the mind helps you in the learning process.
7. Be a seeker and keep asking questions
You should be a seeker in this journey of yoga and Yoga Teacher Training is a great first step.
Do not follow any knowledge or anyone blindly.
Ask the right questions. Keep your approach to seek knowledge.
It is good to read a few books on the subjects related to Yoga such as ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Swami Paramahamsa Yogananda and Light on Yoga by B K S Iyengar.
These kinds of books give you an idea of the mindset to be prepared for yoga teacher training.