Yoga Living Project presents a peek into one teacher’s journey into Yoga Teacher Training. If you’re interested in joining our program, or if you would like to like to share your story, please contact us at
When I signed up for yoga teacher training, I didn’t know where my path would lead. Well, I thought I knew where the path I would lead, but reality has offered a far different plan than the one I had in mind— which was to complete my training, keep my head down, meet no friends, learn to teach private clients, and be back in my comfort zone by nightfall.
See, I almost didn’t sign up for yoga teacher training (YTT). I had no “real” reason to. I didn’t want to teach public classes, I didn’t know much about yoga, I was painfully shy and had almost no confidence. And above all, I rarely even did yoga and had taken only a handful of classes.
At the point of which I signed up for YTT, my formal yoga practice consisted of a Yoga in the Park class about every 2 years. I would occasionally stretch my body and loved to listen to my sister (a yoga teacher) talk about yoga philosophy and fancy words like “pranayama”. But I did feel a powerful draw to do YTT. I didn’t understand why. And the part of me that felt like it needed to know why wasn’t happy. I was petrified to even attend a YTT information session and it took a great amount of support to get me there (like being drug out of my car and up the studio stairs). I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I didn’t realize that the path I was about to walk down would so brightly illuminate the dark places in my heart or bring me such immense joy.
Alas, following an indescribable pull from my gut, along with a LOT of fear, I signed up for YTT only a week before cambio’s intensive program started. And those friends I wasn’t going to meet? They are the best. I was going to keep my head down? I can barely keep myself out of the studio and meeting new people. The private clients I was going to teach? Not for me. The confidence I was lacking? Even I’m surprised to say I’ve found it. None of this went as planned, but my life has transformed from one of loneliness and internal suffering to one of fruitful relationships and a never-ending thirst for knowledge and wisdom.
This path that I’m on, with the breath-taking scenery, it’s not what I committed to (thank goodness the universe had a better plan in mind for me!). And it goes to show that it doesn’t always matter what your plan is. Plan to teach? Well, maybe you won’t. Plan to use YTT only to deepen your own practice? Maybe in 5 years you’ll be hosting yoga retreats. We can never really know. It might not even matter if you have a plan or not. The only thing we can do is go where we are led. So if you have even the slightest inclination to check out YTT, to peek into enormous world of yoga…remember, you don’t know where it will lead. The best thing you can do is honor yourself by taking a step in the direction of you’re pulled and see where it takes you.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.“
I didn’t know where the path of YTT was going to lead me. I did, though, have good intentions. I wanted to better myself and I wanted to help others. Where will this staircase lead? I’m still not sure. But it’s time for us to take the next step, and I hope we’ll be in it together.
