Secrets of Teaching Yoga
What you are about to read applies to teaching, in general. In fact, we are all teachers, to some degree. You teach your friends, co-workers, strangers and family members on a daily basis.
The example you set teaches someone in some way. Whether you are a positive role model, or not, people, and the world, react to you. Sorry to say, you have more responsibility than you thought possible.
Do you realize that when you hurt one person, it will set a chain of events into motion? Even worse is that, most violent acts were stimulated by smaller, seemingly unimportant events.
When you talk to your students, always show mutual respect. Don't take advantage of your position as a Yoga teacher to temporarily feed your ego.
The first thing a Yoga teacher should instill, in his or her students, is self-motivation. The serious Yoga student must be a self starter. This is a person who practices Yoga at home, as well as in class. They don't depend on their friends to come to class, and they show up like "clockwork."
How can you make your Yoga students become self motivators?
You must show up to class early, enthused, and energized. Encourage all of your students and sincerely praise their achievements. The truth is, Yoga is like music, you can teach a student the basics, but to be a master teacher, you want to stir the creativity from within.
When your students become creators, you can help them refine their Yoga practice and watch them become self motivators.
A truly great teacher will produce teachers, who surpass him or her; and isn't "passing the torch" what it's all about?
My first taste of Yoga was over 40 years ago, at the age of 7, in a martial arts school setting. I have continued to study martial arts until this day and I have four teaching certificates in four different martial arts. Now I teach both Martial Arts and Yoga.
I began to seriously practice Yoga (under Laura Foster) over twenty years ago due to martial arts competition related injuries.
Laura was a skilled & knowledgeable teacher of Restorative Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Laya Yoga. After training with her for 3 years, she certified me as a teacher in 1987.
I became certified as a Master Teacher (Guru) on September 15, 1995, after teaching over 5,000 hours under her wing. Shortly afterward, Laura retired at age 90.
Since that time, I started organizing Yoga Teacher Training camps. As time went on, we began getting requests from everywhere in the U.S. and Canada for a comprehensive Yoga Teacher Training correspondence course.
http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org
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