tt guide final

Welcome!

My name is Sunny Keach and I am the co-‐founder of Asheville Yoga Center. It’s my goal here to answer some of the most common questions about finding and attending a yoga teacher training program.

As the owner of a yoga studio that offers around a dozen teacher trainings a year, I’ve gotten to know many teacher training students. Since 1997, we’ve had thousands of students share with us their concerns, questions and issues around attending a teacher training. Through this I’ve gotten to witness first hand the uncertainty, fear and sometimes anguish related to the decision of where and if to attend a teacher training program.

Our studio also offers advanced studies and 300hr yoga certifications. These programs are the next step after a teacher has already attended a 200hr certification, with us or at another studio. Due to this fact, I’ve been able to ask about other teacher trainings our students have attended all over the world. We’ve heard the good and the bad. We’ve had students leave other programs in tears to come attend ours. In short, I’m in a unique position to share with you what I know about yoga teacher trainings.

Because I could see how overwhelmed some students felt while making such an important decision, I wanted to put together this guide to help shed some light on yoga teacher trainings. We answer many of the same questions over and over again prior to someone signing up with us for training, so it wasn’t difficult to cull out the most wanted info.

It’s important to understand that just because you take a teacher training it doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to teach. We have many students that just aim to deepen their practice. Whether you aim to teach or just transform your life for the better, this guide will help you along your path to yoga. Feel free to contact us at any time with additional questions.

Sunny Keach

Asheville Yoga Center Teacher Training Institute

[email protected]

828-‐254-‐0380

Are You Ready? “Ready for what?” most people will ask.

Let’s start with what a yoga teacher training is. There is the obvious: You will learn much more about yoga and how to teach yoga. With a quick internet search you can find curriculum to a program. Here is an example.

What is less obvious and hard to explain is the growth, realizations and connections that you will make in a well directed yoga teacher training. At the end of every one of our teacher trainings we go around in a circle and share what we got from the training. What you generally hear is how much they will miss the experience and people. How much they’ve grown and realized. How much has changed in their lives, for the better, in such a short time. How they’ve overcome a fear or perceived shortcoming. And probably most importantly and frequently: How they learned to love, appreciate and accept themselves unconditionally.

This is a pretty common theme in teacher trainings and not just ours. How can this be? Is that what they had in mind when they signed up?

The reason this happens is because of the immersion into a yoga and meditation practice. Things get clearer. It gets harder to not look at something going on with you. You get the support you needed to overcome fears. I know all this can come across as bold statements. Consider this: Did they teach you in school or at home how to handle stress? How to breathe or be aware of your body? How to eat and sleep and think? How to grapple with negative self talk and confidence issues?

For most of us the answer is no. Well, yoga does address all this. Yoga helps to peel away the false, the unnecessary in our lives. It helps us to become aware of how we talk to ourselves and how we allow others to talk to us. It can help us gain the courage to address what is not serving us and gain the confidence from those actions.

Some of you have already discovered this in a yoga practice and now want to share it with others. Some have seen enough to know they want to learn more. A teacher training -‐ whether you intend to teach or not -‐ is a great place to take it much further than regular yoga classes ever will.

So, are you ready? Are you ready to deepen your practice? Are you ready for the changes associated with that?

• Better stress management

• Better sleep

• More relaxed in life

• More confidence

• Healthier habits

• Fit yoga body

• Self love

• Increased compassion

• Better communication

• Full responsibility for your life

The list goes on. It comes down to: Are you ready to improve your life or not? Are you ready to serve others?

I’m afraid. Fear is a big one. Fear is helpful; it keeps us alive and protects us from harm. It does serve us, and, it can also hinder us, especially when it’s fear of something we imagine. Most of the fears around whether to go to a teacher training are imagined fears. Educating yourself is a great way to overcome them.

Here are some common fears associated with attending a teacher training.

Fear of the Unknown

This is an easy fear to overcome. Ask questions. Call prospective teacher training centers and ask to speak to the program director. Ask all the questions you can come up with and then call back later and ask more. Get clear on all of them. Talk to any and all yoga teachers you can find. Ask them everything you can think of about their teacher training. Where did they go? What was good and bad? What didn’t they learn they wish they had? What was the best thing they learned? How did it help them in their life off the yoga mat? Etc. etc. Don’t worry about bugging them. You are about to give them your money, make sure you are going to get what you want. If they don’t have the time to talk to you, you may want to move on.

Fear of Failure

This is a very common fear. Something about our culture, at least here in the US, instills this fear in many people. I’ve certainly grappled with it. It helps me to take it out to the extreme. What is the worst that will happen? The very worst? In your vision of the very worst, are you dead? Are you homeless and living on the street, begging? If so, how likely is this really? Try that exercise. Imagine the very worst that could happen, then answer this question. How bad would that really be, in the very unlikely event that your worst fears were to come true? Could you recover from it?

Are you afraid you will fail out of the program? Guess what. We’ve never failed anyone out of our programs. People have left. We’ve encouraged people to leave when it was just clear it wasn’t a fit. Don’t let that fear stop you. It is very unlikely that a program won’t work with you. Ask if you have specific fears about your capabilities. Educate yourself.

Are you afraid you will fail as a teacher? You will show up to teach day after day and no one will come to your class. Everyone will hate you. Sure this is a scary proposition. But one thing is for sure: No students will show up if you never get up there to teach. Going through a great teacher training program helps to eliminate the possibility of never having a student. You will gain confidence. You will gain skills. You will gain knowledge. You will learn how to market yourself. We will give you the tools you need to teach.

Fear that something is wrong with me

I think we owe our capitalistic society for this fear. Well, not really capitalism, advertising is the real culprit. In order to sell things, companies need to make us feel like we are missing them in the first place. We get this message over and over and over again our whole lives, until we learn to tune it out and see it for the folly it truly is.

On our applications for teacher training, we see lots of reports of negative self-‐talk. We seem to love to beat ourselves up about our perceived shortcomings.

Here is the great thing about yoga teacher trainings. They help you overcome this self-‐talk. Quieting the mind in yoga and meditation makes that self-‐talk all that much more noticed. Awareness is key. You can then learn to question it, dialog with it, turn it down and tune it out. It’s all about having the tools and making the choices. We have some gifted teachers on our staff, who in the process of a teacher training help guide students into their shadow stuff and give them tools to work with it. Watching the transformations in people is absolutely wonderful.

One last thing about fear and failure

Consider that many of the world’s most successful people have failed many more times than they have succeeded. Try to see failure as learning. It’s not so much failing, as learning another way it didn’t work. That’s really a success! You are one step closer to achieving your goal. The only time you can really fail is if you give up for good. So don’t give up. Don’t give up on your dreams. Don’t give up on you. Don’t give up on the others you could be serving as a yoga teacher.

How to choose the right school This will depend on you. I encourage you to answer some questions, maybe forming a checklist of desirable characteristics for a program.

• What are your goals? Teach or just deepen knowledge and practice?

• Is there a certain style of yoga you are really drawn to and convinced that’s the only style you want to learn and teach?

• Do you want to travel or stay local?

• What are your local choices?

• Where did your favorite teachers go to study?

• Evaluate yourself, and find schools that will cater to who you are. Do you gravitate towards ancient texts, strict traditions, new age thinking, down to earth, loosey-goosey, book learner, hands-on learner, etc. etc.

• Do you prefer small groups? Does the school cap class size?

The teacher

You should be able to get to know the main teacher, staff or director before the program starts. Check out their bio, Facebook page, etc. Check for testimonials and reviews. Ideally you can go to one of their classes or take a smaller workshop with them to get a feel for who they are and if you would want to learn from them.

Styles of Yoga There are many styles or traditions of yoga out there and many have teacher trainings associated with them. There are also other teacher trainings that offer an eclectic curriculum covering many styles so you can get an in-‐depth feel for each and further your studies after your 200hr certification.

I will put a word of caution out there. Beware of teacher trainings that are priced extremely high compared to others. I can think of two main styles with pricing around the US$10,000 to $15,000 mark. This is 4-‐5 times higher than most other trainings. Are they that much better? In my opinion, no they are not. Especially when they cram hundreds of students in a single training.

I would also advise being weary of very strong personality teachers or highly idolized ones. Especially the male teachers. Many of them seem to let their egos get them into all sorts of troubles. You want to be able to approach the teacher and trust their guidance. Keep your power yours. You want a teacher that supports you growing in your power, not one that gets their power from you.

To travel or not?

You may have to travel, depending on your area. If you are having trouble trying out teachers and styles of yoga you may need to go on a yoga vacation where there are lots of options. These days any large city should do. Though there are some yoga city meccas. Asheville, NC has been called one. Other great yoga cities include: New York, Chicago, Santa Monica, and San Francisco. Really any large, liberal, metropolitan area will do.

There are advantages to doing yoga training, especially an immersion in a nice place to visit. You will be taken out of your normal routine and can focus on your studies. But when you do have the day off, you can get out and clear your head or practice yoga in a beautiful place.

Customer Service

Is the proposed school you are contacting getting back to you in a courteous and timely manner? Are your questions being answered fully? Are their online reviews good? Can you contact one of their grads through them?

Established

I would also recommend going with an established school. One that has been at it a while and has graduates that are actually teaching. Or better yet, opening their own studios and teaching in yoga teacher trainings themselves.

What about Yoga Alliance? Yoga Alliance sets standards and provides credentials that are the premier form of recognition for yoga teachers and teacher training programs in the US.

If you want to teach professionally in the US, then it’s best to go to a Yoga Alliance Registered school. In the early days Yoga Alliance didn’t do much. They were underfunded, the guidelines were pretty loose, and they had no real power, but to deny a school registration if there were too many complaints.

Things have changed though, and now requirements are much stricter for schools. There is also a great student feedback feature now and schools are rated. Graduates have to indicate what they actually learned from a school in order to get their registered teacher status.

If you are not in the US, and don’t plan to teach in the US, or teach professionally then you could go with a non Yoga Alliance registered school. Just make sure you check it out fully first, in the ways mentioned above. Yoga Alliance does help to ensure to a degree you will be dealing with a professional institution.

Show me the money! Can you make a living teaching yoga?

In a word, yes. To answer more fully, that depends. On what, you say? Well, there are many factors.

• Who you are

• How hard you are willing to work with little pay at first

• Where you are

• What the market is like where you teach

• If you have a niche or something that makes you stand out in a crowded market

• Your marketing skills

• Your confidence

• Your experience

• Fate, dumb luck, open to opportunities

There are many ways to go about teaching.

• At an established studio

• In your home

• At a gym, church, hospital, corporation, cruise ship, retreat center, outdoors, etc.

I’m acutely aware of how much yoga teachers make because I sign the paychecks. Well, our bookkeeper does now, but you get the point. I know firsthand some teachers make great money. They teach solely for their income and do very well. I also know some teachers struggle with their teaching and have other jobs to pay the bills. Top yogis are pulling in over a million dollars a year. This is obviously not starting pay!

I can share with you some characteristics of yoga teachers that do well financially.

• They create an experience

• They’ve been at it a while, consistency pays off with regular students

• They are special or unique in some way

• They are not afraid to put it out there

• They keep it positive, they don’t complain to the class or berate themselves

• They hold themselves as a teacher, an expert, someone that knows - more than you likely - and is willing to share it with you

• They do their homework, they come prepared

• They show up on time

• They teach often

• They lead workshops

• They teach in yoga teacher trainings

• They are professionals

• They teach in areas where there are plenty of students.

Will you be all these things fresh out of training? Probably not. Can you become all these things in time? You certainly can.

How do teachers get paid?

As far as how yoga studios pay teachers, I belong to a private Facebook group of 450 studio owners. We share with each other how we pay our teachers. It’s all over the board. It depends where you are and what kind of traffic is coming through the studio. You can get paid by the class ($15-‐50), by the person ($2-‐$8), you can do a split with the studio, 70/30 to you from class income, and many combinations of these as well. Gyms and such will usually set a flat rate. If you are starting your own enterprise, you can set the rate to whatever the market will bare. In short there is no simple answer to this question. You could be a subcontractor and have to pay your own taxes or end up on payroll and have withholding taxes taken out of your checks. Both happen.

Like many fields and new business ventures you will have to work your way up the totem pole. Here is the good news though. The perks are awesome. You get to practice and teach yoga! You make a difference in people’s lives while improving your own. There are no better bunch of people than yoga teachers, studio owners and yoga practitioners. These are your coworkers and clients. And many studios will throw in free yoga classes for their teachers as well. Your life will be improved in many ways. Body, mind and spirit to name a few.

Now what? Do your homework in the above sections. Get out there and talk to those that know. Call studios and ask questions. If there is anything we can do for you please don’t hesitate to call or write.

Thanks for your time.

In service,

Sunny Keach

Asheville Yoga Center Teacher Training Institute

[email protected]

828-‐254-‐0380