"Yoga is the practice of removing tension in the body through movement, stretching, and breathing exercises. It is a way of surrendering to the breath and being able to sit with a quiet mind."
Tara Gola, Yoga Teacher, Massage/Energy Therapist
Yoga is an ancient science of physical, mental, and breathing exercises used to promote health, well-being, and personal growth. It involves stretching, strengthening, and relaxing poses or postures (called Asanas). Yoga stretches and tones muscles, joints, the spine, and the skeletal system as well as internal organs, glands, and the nervous system. In addition, yoga uses mental and breathing exercises to reduce stress and create unity of the body, mind, and spirit. Yoga breathing clears the mind and creates a state of relaxation. Yoga literally means "joining" or "union" – union of the body, mind, spirit, and universe. It encourages inwardness and self-understanding and can bring about spiritual connections. Yoga is not a religion, but it can deepen any individual spiritual practice.
Philosophy
Yoga is known to be at least three thousand years old. It originated in India as one of the six Indian arts to achieve personal enlightenment. One of the most famous ancient books on the subject, Bhagavad Gita, was written around 200 B.C. Over time, yoga has developed into different schools and disciplines, each with their own theories and philosophies. All forms of yoga share the connection of the body, mind, and spirit. Some believe yoga brings a connection to God or other spiritual powers. It is holistic because it works to balance and strengthen the whole person. Yoga instructors teach people techniques to improve health and overall wellness and to prevent illness from occurring.
Types of People and Problems
"Usually people come to yoga because of something physical, but there are often energy and mental blocks behind the physical problem. It all works together, to free up the mind and body."
-Tara Gola, Yoga Teacher, Massage/Energy Therapist
Yoga instructors work with people with a wide range of needs and goals. Some people come to yoga for the physical benefits to remain flexible and fit. Others try yoga to help alleviate or improve certain health problems such as tension headaches or backaches. Many want to learn yoga to manage stress and increase relaxation. Yet others seek yoga for the mental benefits of a peaceful mind and sense of well-being. People with anxiety or other emotional problems use yoga to quiet the mind, look inward, and increase self-understanding, confidence, and the ability to cope. Some people come to yoga because they have a sense they aren't getting enough out of life. Yoga helps people feel whole and connect with all aspects of themselves. It also helps people pray or connect with spiritual beliefs. Yoga is an individual experience and attracts a wide range of people each with their own reasons, hopes, and goals for doing yoga. While this may seem like a tall order for a yoga teacher, instructors don't specifically address these problems or goals. Through teaching of yoga, the benefits come. Yoga instructors don't have to be experts in these areas, and they don't counsel clients. They believe in the benefits of yoga and teach clients the techniques so each person can reach his or her own goals. Part of yoga is the client creating a goal for himself or herself-whether it's to feel fit, relax, relieve health or emotional problems, or to just have fun.
Yoga is effective in increasing the body and mind's ability to cope with health problems. It improves the body's natural healing abilities as well as directly relieving many symptoms. Practiced regularly, yoga is an effective method of preventive medicine.
Yoga instructors teach people of all ages and health status. Instructors offer specialized classes for groups of people such as children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with heart conditions. They usually teach group classes for beginner, intermediate, and advanced clients and some offer individual one-on-one instruction. While yoga benefits everyone, more women than men take yoga classes.
Types of Yoga
Yoga instructors facilitate the benefits of yoga by teaching the physical, mental, and breathing exercises to clients. There are many types of yoga, and each yoga teacher teaches different techniques based on his or her training and beliefs. No form of yoga is better than another. Each style offers a different path to meeting goals. Choosing the right yoga style is entirely a personal preference.
The most popular form of yoga in the United States is Hatha yoga. Hatha yoga is yoga of the body and form. It focuses on physical postures, breathing techniques, and mediation to bring the body into a healthy state and relieve the mind and spirit from stress.
Hatha yoga instructors teach exercise, breathing, and meditation techniques. Yoga instructors teach the yoga poses-the postures or Asanas which stretch and strengthen the body. Many people think of headstands or back bends when they think of yoga postures. These are examples of yoga postures, but yoga includes a wide variety postures and movements. There are both relaxing and challenging postures. There are postures done lying down, sitting, standing, and moving. Each posture has its own benefit to the body. Yoga teachers include a variety of postures in each class to meet the diverse needs of clients.
Breathing techniques, or pranayama, are another important tool yoga instructors use in working with clients. Breathing exercises relax tense muscles, flush the body with oxygen, and release the mind from stress. Breathing regulates the life-force energy in the body and helps clients gain energy for certain postures. There are different breathing exercises to meet specific needs. There are exercises for relaxation, energy, meditation, and for working through physical knots, anxiety, and mental stress. Some breathing techniques are done while lying down or sitting quietly, while others are used in conjunction with postures.
Finally, meditation is an important aspect of yoga instruction. Yoga instructors incorporate meditation at the end of a yoga class to complete total body/mind relaxation. Some yoga teachers specialize in meditation and lead meditation classes. Simply put, meditation is learning how to quiet the mind and let go of daily thoughts, worries, and stress. Meditation seeks a sense of peacefully living in the moment, and it can stimulate creative, intuitive, and problem-solving capabilities. It can increase self-acceptance, self-knowledge, and confidence by focusing inward, and it can increase spiritual connections. Meditation techniques involve using the breath, a vision or image, a sound, music, a mantra (repetition of a word), a prayer, or some other symbol. Every yoga teacher uses different methods to teach meditation to clients.
There are many other types of yoga. For example, kundalini yoga uses the breath as its primary technique and is concerned with releasing the energy at the bottom of the spine. Raja yoga is yoga of the mind and primarily uses meditation techniques. Yoga instructors need to find the type of yoga they believe in before teaching it to others.
Employment Settings and Working Conditions
"Working for yourself is a big benefit because you are able to create what you want every time you go to work. It is rewarding to help people take back the happiness in their lives instead of the stress-out parts of themselves."
-Tara Gola, Yoga Teacher, Massage/Energy Therapist
Most yoga instructors are self-employed and teach classes at various locations such as yoga centers, health clubs, hotels, resorts, schools, businesses, athletic facilities, mental health settings, hospice and senior care facilities, hospitals, addiction recovery programs, rehabilitation centers, and occupational and physical therapy centers. Some yoga instructors are paid as staff working full-time in these settings, while many others are running their own businesses offering classes as consultants. Most teach group classes; some offer private yoga lessons to clients. Some yoga instructors open their own yoga centers and offer a variety of services. Yoga instructors often team up with other holistic health practitioners to offer group services. For example a yoga center may also offer massage therapy, tai chi, energy healing, and nutritional services. Some instructors develop a specialty such as sports, prenatal, elder, or children's yoga. There is a great deal of flexibility for yoga instructors to design their work style and setting. Often a new yoga teacher will start off teaching classes anywhere they can find work and space. They may then move to joining a group at a health center, opening their own yoga center, or becoming a staff member at a business, health organization, school, or other setting. Yoga is becoming increasing popular, and it is not unusual to see yoga classes offered by corporations as a means of stress management. Finally, yoga instructors can become teachers for new yoga instructors and work at schools of yoga training.
"Finding space to teach is always hard in the beginning. You need to be flexible enough to throw your yoga mats in the car and run around to the YMCA or Knights of Columbus and teach wherever you can get a big space."
-Tara Gola, Yoga Teacher, Massage/Energy Therapist
As with any self-employed individual, self-employed yoga teachers are responsible for running their businesses, the largest part of which is marketing their services. Yoga teachers are also responsible for advertising and networking to develop a clientele. In addition, they are responsible for maintaining financial records of their expenditures and earnings.
The working conditions vary depending on the setting, but typically yoga teachers work in comfortable, quiet, open spaces. The schedule and hours depend greatly on the type of work life desired. Yoga teachers typically make their own schedule. Yoga teachers do not work the traditional forty hours a week teaching yoga. It would be nearly impossible to do yoga for eight hours a day, every day. Teachers working full-time teach approximately seven to ten classes a week. Classes are typically one to two hours long. The rest of their work time is spent on marketing then-business and making contacts for consulting and outside activities. Many people teach yoga on the side as a second career. For example, it would not be unusual for a massage therapist to combine massage with teaching a few yoga classes per week. Yoga can also be a moonlighting job in addition to full-time employment.
"Usually yoga teachers have something else going on, unless they are really big and have their own center. Usually in the beginning, it's an adjunct to something else, and I think it's more realistic to look at it as a part-time career you can expand."
-Tara Gola, Yoga Teacher, Energy/Massage Therapist
Part of being a yoga teacher is having one's own yoga practice. Yoga teachers must believe and incorporate yoga into their daily lives. While an instructor may teach one class a day, part of the job is having a personal practice of yoga. This includes daily yoga at home and continual learning by taking yoga classes. There is always more to learn in yoga, and even the most advanced yoga teachers take classes to continually push themselves to reach higher levels of yoga skills and spiritual accomplishments.
The Profession
The yoga teaching profession is growing rapidly and becoming part of mainstream health and fitness fields. Many insurance companies, especially HMOs cover the cost of yoga classes for clients, and yoga is found in traditional settings such as industry settings and health clubs. Although yoga is growing, there is little standardization of the profession. There are no national licensing or certification requirements. Thus there are no standardized requirements for becoming a yoga instructor.
Training and Qualifications
"The best thing to do is to decide what kind of yoga you love and teach what makes you happy. There are a lot of different schools, and rather than just pick a school and get certified, I would suggest taking many classes with different people and developing your own yoga routine. Then find a school to match your style."
-Tara Gola, Yoga Teacher, Massage/Energy Therapist
Prospective yoga teachers have many options for training because of the different types of yoga and yoga schools. Every program has its own philosophy, teaching methods, length and structure of training, and graduation requirements. Typically training programs award degrees, diplomas, or certificates of completion.
The first step to choosing a yoga training program is to decide on a yoga style. Taking yoga classes with many different instructors is a good way to explore the different types of yoga. It is helpful for aspiring yoga teachers to have knowledge about the different types of yoga to make an informed decision for training. The next step is to research yoga training programs. Current yoga teachers can usually recommend programs, and many other schools are listed in Yoga Journal. The best method for finding a program is to ask a yoga teacher whose style you find appealing where he or she studied and what other schools offer similar training.
Yoga teacher training programs vary in terms of length, cost, topics covered, and yoga styles. Most offer flexible schedules such as weekend training courses or two-week-long sessions with additional independent study. For example, the Inengar Training Program requires three hundred hours of training comprised of a two-week residential program followed by a four to six-month internship and home study done in the student's community. The internship requires teaching eight weeks of yoga classes and eight individual sessions and completing a workbook. This is just one example; yoga training tends to be flexible to meet the needs of working adults. Some programs complete the training all in one session; others offer home study and internships once an initial training period is completed.
Since all yoga programs are different, aspiring yoga teachers should research programs to find those that meet their needs. There is a yoga program for everyone.
"Ongoing support is important when choosing a yoga school. Does the school have ongoing weekends where you can continue to study, or do they just certify you and that's it? In the beginning you can feel lost, so it is important to build a support system around yourself; your school can be a start."
-Tara Gola, Yoga Teacher, Massage/Energy Therapist
The success of a yoga teacher also depends on personal qualities and skills. Some yoga teachers have strengths in teaching the poses while others focus on developing a spiritual space for the class to relax in. Regardless of the focus of the class, teachers who believe in what they are doing and are enthusiastic and confident are the most successful. Physical fitness and strong communication and observation skills also are needed.
Job Outlook and Salary
The outlook for yoga teachers is promising as yoga becomes part of mainstream health and exercise and is covered by insurance companies. Increasing numbers of yoga instructors are finding employment in corporate and health care settings. Salaries for yoga teachers vary due to the range of employment options. Typically, yoga teachers charge $10 to $15 dollars per person per class, so the amount earned depends on the number of students in a class. Since most yoga teachers are running their own businesses, the earnings depend on the marketing ability of the instructor. At first it can take time to build a reputation and a business, but established yoga teachers earn a comfortable living. Yoga teachers also earn income from training other instructors, publishing books, and being involved in other career activities and employment. Although most people don't go into yoga for the money, teachers find their services are in demand.
