Whether you just completed your 200 or 300-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) or completed a specialty course, this blog is intended to help you answer the question, what now?
Being somewhat on your own—figuring out where, what, and how often you teach; negotiating compensation; setting short and long-term career goals—can be quite daunting at times, but this double-edged sword of independence is a part of the modern yoga teacher paradigm and one we have to accept and embrace to reach our goals, whatever they are. And whether you intend to teach part-time or are making a true career of yoga, one of the most important things you’ll be left to manage, more or less on your own, is your continuing development as an instructor. The completion of your training, you see, isn’t an end-game. It is, in fact, the very beginning of a process; a process of personal growth and evolution as an instructor. You’ve been handed a tool and taught how it works, but now it’s up to you create something of value. So, while you’re still motivated and energized from the professional milestone you’ve reached, and before complacency starts to creep in, consider these five solid ideas which will be rolled out in separate consecutive blogs, for making the most of your achievement and putting your training to work for you. By keeping each point separated in its own short blog entry, my hope is for you to take the time to sit with each point and see it resonates with your practice, teaching and personal view point.
1. Process what you’ve learned
In my 300 YTT, I learned a TON. My notes and squiggly diagrams took up a whole notebook. But for all but the most fastidious note-takers among us, many of those squiggles will not age well. While I’m sure most YTT-graduates had major a-ha! moments throughout each module, many of which were faithfully recorded to their internal-yoga-drives, the painful truth is that, given time, our memories will prove relentlessly fallible. Take the time to review your own notes. Organize, collate, and digitize any lessons, tips, anecdotes, or insights you find valuable, adding more as you learn, and you will soon find yourself the owner a rich and totally unique yoga reference.
While you’re doing this, take the opportunity to use all the resources at your disposal to clarify any new or lingering questions, fill in any gaps in your notes, and dig deeper into any areas of particular interest. No training program and no instructor can cover everything and, likewise, no student is going to think of or have the opportunity to ask every possible question during training. In addition to the resources you have at hand, don’t be afraid to reach out and contact instructors and students from your training. Many will be willing and happy, as their schedule allows it, to offer extra insight via some light correspondence.
