Yoga teacher trainings have become ubiquitous today with almost as many possibilities on offer as Haagendaaz ice cream flavours.  So, how to make a good decision that will be fulfilling and provide the skills that enable further growth?  Well, one viable option is not to train at all!

It all depends on what you’re wanting.  If you need to address personal health and wellbeing issues a TT course may not do that for you.  Seek out a traditional yoga therapist (yoga chikitsa practitioner) with the capacity and experience to address your concerns.  A 200 hour yoga instructor won’t have such skill.

 To advance or deepen your practice what you need is practice.  The cardinal rule in yoga advancement is consistent application over an extended period of time matched with a committed and enthusiastic mentality.  The “on/off the mat” metaphor often cited these days doesn’t really address what’s needed.  The context we’re considering is here is asana or postural practice, which is what you get these days in most classes, and most YTTs.

BUT if you are really searching for the means to bring about radical transformation of body, mind, emotions and experience profound sense of wholeness then a YTT course may instigate and consolidate such change.  But make sure you find a training that is steeped in the foundational principles of yogic understanding and methodologies.  People who have integrated the essential central tenets of yoga have flourished, regardless of time or place.  Such yoga practices tap and harness the very energy of joyful unfoldment that is there within us, but not so easy to access.

One of the principle aims of such yoga practice is to enjoy both bhukti and mukti.  Bhukti is the capacity to savour satisfaction from your life, deriving vibrant quality with each moment and each breath.  Mukti is the ability to elevate above the minutia and humdrum.  The capacity to soar high arises from when our ground is solid, established in universal living principles that robustly nourish.  As one modern sage noted, to practice yoga without such support “…is an impossibility.”

Really speaking, this is what you want from a YTT, anything less won’t taste so sweet or satisfy your hunger.