Most yogis who get interested in teaching do so because their teacher is going away on hols and asks them to cover for her classes. Thrown into the deep end, dog paddling to stay afloat, I remember watching the attendances of classes I was filling in for go from 20 to 2 in no time. Certainly I was audacious to have said yes in the first place. Nevertheless, I got the taste.
It was audacious of me to sign on for a teacher’s course, and even more cheeky to open up a yoga school five years later.
I got it in my head to run an advanced yoga training – a kind of prototype for a proper yoga teacher training in 1990. People were hungry for this sort of thing. Did I know what I was doing? Probably not; I just taught what I’d been taught and was practising. I loved that I could inspire students to want to get more involved in yoga.
Then, in 1994, Collyn and I got the Sydney Yoga Centre year-long teacher training off the ground, a course which produced many very good teachers. Mardi Kendall got involved in the training, and the course continued for five years, even after Sydney Yoga Centre was forced to close. (Now, that’s another story!)
The truly great thing about training yoga teachers is the ripples that go out into the world. Many of those trainee teachers have gone off and developed their own courses and train yoga teachers. Another great thing is that a teacher trainer is helping the trainee earn a living and it’s right livelihood, an occupation that contributes to the good of society.
I wanted to let you teachers out there know that there’s a great opportunity coming up to get together with your colleagues in early April for the inaugural Yoga Australia Conference: The theme – “In the Spirit Union” – I think is particularly special in the intention to bring together yogis from several different yoga streams to present workshops, give talks, and hold panels. I’ll be there!
0 Comments