To be a really good yoga teacher it has to be about your enthusiasm and passion for yoga – to know that practising has improved your life and you love it so much that you want to share it with others.
Ideally you have been working with a good teacher but that is not always the case. In the latter months of the CYS 12 month course we ask the students to, always in agreement with the teacher, observe and perhaps assist with his or her weekly class. This is something any good yoga teacher should be happy to do to help and encourage new teachers coming through – I am certainly always delighted to help trainees who come into my classes to observe/assist regardless of whose tt they are doing.
The purpose of this time is to give the tt students confidence in the class setting and, while not having to do the actual teaching, to ‘get their eye in’ for seeing where someone might benefit from assistance in a posture. This is a very useful thing to learn and an ideal time to be doing it as you aren’t ‘having to be the teacher’, just the observer.
However, one of last year’s students actually told me that if some of the yoga classes she had observed had been the first class she ever went to, they were so dull and boring that she wouldn’t have gone back to yoga. This is something I never want to hear and one of the things that makes me so passionate about our work at CYS in bringing through first class and properly trained yoga teachers.
Regular yoga practice will help people be well
There is so much good we can do, helping to keep our communities healthy and finally we are beginning to see some talk of this in the media. The NHS is snowed under with people suffering from ‘lifestyle illnesses’ whereas it is supposed to be for people who are really ill or injured and need acute care or help with chronic illness unrelated to lifestyle.
A good yoga teacher with a proper understanding of the philosophy and psychology of yoga will not only be teaching asanas, relaxation, breathing and meditation but will also be a gentle and kind expression of living life with focus on a healthy diet and calm demeanour.
June Mitchell, April 2024