Training to become a teacher, completing a certification program or obtaining a registration card is only the beginning. Being a yoga teacher is a lifelong process.
What Next?
Walking a spiritual path is ever-evolving, growing with time and dedication. For many yogis, making the commitment to teacher training continues this spiritual evolution, naturally deepening practice.
Once teacher training is completed, graduates are faced with the new responsibility of introducing yoga to others, creating yet another practice – how to teach. How to do so is highly personal. While the details may vary, senior teachers frequently give the same advice: maintain a personal practice.
Practice.
There is no substitute for time on the mat when deepening one’s own practice or while honing teaching skills. In addition, practice off the mat adds important perspective. Teacher trainer Sarah Powers suggests silent meditation: “In connecting to the habits of mind in meditation hour after hour, we breed more natural compassion for others. We also have the opportunity to connect with a deeper ground of being that supports our path of awareness.”
On and off the mat, self-study (svadhyaya) is one of the five niyama, or self-restraints, a key principle of yoga. This includes seeing both the dark and light aspects of our inner nature. A regular practice may uncover emotions, habits or patterns long buried. The deepening process involves being willing to examine emerging feelings and layers of the self. Santa Barbara Yoga Center senior instructor Heather Tiddens stresses the importance of therapy, or whichever healthcare modalities call to you, as an appropriate, off-the-mat method of working with revealed feelings and issues.
Teach.
Ultimately, becoming a better teacher involves teaching, but teaching is not rote or automatic. Tiddens advises teachers to be on the lookout for “auto-pilot” teaching – being overly complacent and zoning out. Instead, connect with your students and see them with fresh eyes every class. Try recording or videotaping yourself as a tool to examine what you’re really doing while teaching.
Question Yourself, Question Authority.
While watching a videotape may reveal vital information, is it enough to find our weaknesses on and off the mat, in our own practice, teaching in front of the class or walking through life? According to Chase Bossart, a teacher in the tradition of Krishnamacharya, the answer is no. Bossart feels it is important to have a personal practice guided by someone more accomplished. What we crave may not always be good for us, like indulging in dessert every night. The same can be true for personal practice. What we feel like doing daily might not be what we need to advance our practice, and a proper mentor can be a guide.
While a mentor can be valuable, there are times when deepening one’s own practice may involve investigating different yoga styles and practices and/or separating from a teacher. A situation that can be difficult to go through but still a “rich experience” says Tiddens, who herself went through such a split only to emerge with an expanded dedication to her practice and teaching.
Being committed to seeing things in a new light also adds depth to the process. Ganga White, of the White Lotus Foundation, encourages teachers to “remain students and see things with a beginner’s mind, as the place called ‘I know’ is closed and rigid.”
Becoming a teacher and continuing that education is more than lifting into a flawless handstand, knowing each thread of the Yoga Sutra by heart or being a spiritually-fit role model. Continuing education involves being committed to becoming a better person and regularly returning, through practice, whatever it may be, to the wellspring of one’s inner life and tending to it.
Navigating Yoga Alliance’s Continuing
Education Requirements.
While deepening practice is personal, teachers registered with Yoga Alliance must document and submit proof of continuing education (CE) to remain on the registry and maintain their status as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT).
CE standards ensure that RYTs continue to expand their spiritual practice, refine their teaching and creatively inspire their students. Additionally, Yoga Alliance requires CE standards to maintain the professionalism of yoga.
Both 200 and 500 hour RYTs must teach a minimum of 45 classroom hours of yoga and accumulate 30 continuing education units (CEU), 10 of which must be contact CEU within three years of becoming an RYT and every three years thereafter.
Based on stated CE standards, almost anything yoga-related can count as a non-contact CEU. It is therefore the responsibility of the RYT to use their best judgment. Activities falling under the category of non-contact CE include: reading yoga books or articles (such as LA YOGA), watching videos, maintaining a personal practice, taking an online or correspondence yoga course, being mentored over the telephone, publishing yoga books or articles, developing yoga materials and producing yoga videos. Five hours of study, work or practice are required for one non-contact CEU.
We Have Contact.
Contact CEUs have more defined requirements. One CEU equals 60 minutes of class time in the physical presence of one of the following or their professional equivalent: E-RYT (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher) at the 200 or 500 level, RYT-500 instructors, or anatomy and physiology instructors. If you attend a RYT or equivalent instructor’s class, three class hours are required to earn one contact CEU.
Document.
Teachers maintain detailed documentation of teaching hours, activities and study for CEU consideration. Keep records such as teaching schedules and workshop certificates. Yoga Alliance does request documentation when evaluating CEUs and plans on conducting random audits. Remember, deepening a practice is more than spreadsheets and calculations; continuing your education is a gift of insight that lasts a lifetime.
yogaalliance.org
Amy Wong is a newly minted RYT-200 who is maintaining a beginner’s mind in Vancouver. pingyoga@gmail.com
