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Starting to think about the next cohort for the 2023’s yoga teacher training and wondering what crazy serendipity will occur as we journey through the year .
You see a Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) is much more than a simple qualification to teach yoga . It is really is a transformational process and for those who wish it, can often become a way of life.
People come to yoga Initially because they are curious and want to know more , or because they would like to hone and deepen their own personal practice . They may come because they are on a journey of heartfelt and intense personal self enquiry . They may simply show up because they want to try something new . And finally they also sign up because as you might guess, they want to become yoga teachers! There is of course, no obligation at the end of the teacher training to become a yoga teacher.
These are the ideas and thoughts that inspire folk to become students of yoga .What they take away can often be much more than anticipated. If last year was any measuring stick to gauge by, the year will be for everyone, full of surprises, learning , new insights and understanding . The collaborative nature of the training creates new friendships with like minded folk lots of shared meals , happiness and laughter along with some strong yoga practices and profoundly moving experiences and not a few tears will be shed on the way.
It goes without saying the trainees knowledge of yoga philosophy , anatomy, teaching techniques etc. and their own personal practices will flourish almost exponentially as one month melts into the next .
Some folk will join the teacher training and decide it is not for them, as teacher training demands and personal lives come into conflict . Others may leave as the time commitment becomes too much or because life has thrown up unexpected obstacles. Of the six who started last year four will finish the training.
Aside from student learning, every training weekend was a weekend of learning for me . Embracing what went well, highlighting what needed to improve and tweaking whatever needed to be tweaked. I learnt there was such a thing as “over doing it, over preparing, too many resources”. As for my Inner Critic – if I could have extricated it from my being and shot it at dawn I would have!! . Each month there it was, back again with monotonous regularity . I guess we just have to go on living together.
All in all it was a year of privilege and profound gratitude for me as a senior teacher, to those souls who committed themselves to join with us, on our first yoga teacher training journey In the Camatkara Yoga School .