The Truth About Making Money as a Yoga Instructor

By Paul Jerard

There is no shortage of teaching opportunities in yoga. This is where being a yoga instructor can be lucrative and fun. By getting in with a great health spa, or opening their own studio, a highly skilled instructor can sculpt their own program. Yoga has so many aspects, and applications, that the range of classes is only limited by imagination.

Besides yoga for physical fitness, you can also teach spiritual yoga classes, emphasizing the connection between the body's well-being and the soul's health. Perhaps you'd like to offer prenatal yoga for expecting mothers? Maybe yoga for seniors, couples, or kids, is more your style? By designing and offering your own programs, you can interject your personality into yoga instruction.

Depending on your location and marketing skills, you can make a great living as a full-time yoga instructor. If you're in a location where a large number of people are looking for a yoga instructor, then the sky's the limit. If this isn't the case, you need to develop some marketing skills. In order to get students, you must be able to make yoga instruction appealing. You have to let them know that you can make them healthier with your teaching. It's going to take a bit more work, but if you're dedicated to improving the health of your community, then you'll succeed.

Yoga is one of the greatest examples, of an ancient discipline, remaining relevant in the modern age. Whether you're looking to focus on the spiritual or physical aspects of the art, being a yoga instructor can be a profitable career path. If this is the path you want your life to take, then get off your yoga mat and take the necessary steps to start teaching!

© Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA - http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com - He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive a Free Yoga e-Book: "Yoga in Practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Jerard

Yoga Teacher Training Aspects - Teach your Students about Tranquility

By Paul Jerard

Yoga has been shrouded in mysticism for thousands of years. This is not a bad thing, as the goals of Yoga are far beyond the pictures you see on the covers of Yoga magazines today. So, what are the real goals of Yoga?

Should you go into a long speech about Atman (the soul or true self), and the divine cosmic being (Brahman) becoming one? To be honest, I did once see a Yoga teacher go into an "elevator speech" about the union of self and the "Absolute," but he successfully scared his prospective students away, before their first lesson.

In a nut shell, there are many goals of Yoga, but make it simple for people who walk in the door. Just say: "Tranquility" and they will understand. Tranquility is just one word, which thoroughly explains what a student should be able to expect from his or her first Yoga class, and the following classes, as well.

The initial benefits of physically-oriented classes are balance, muscle tone, improved circulation, and a sense of well being. These are the most basic benefits of Hatha Yoga practice, and they yield a sense of harmony with the world around us.

So, when do you tell them about all the other fantastic benefits? Please let your students "enjoy the ride," as you did. Just because you can show them the deeper aspects, does not mean it is time to do so. Let them develop a sense of self-observance, bliss, wholeness, and tranquility, without all the dogma.

The Yoga teacher's mission is to guide students, when they need our help. We can accomplish this by letting them breathe and practice beyond the classroom. This is the only way a student can become self-sufficient. We cannot hover over our students like concerned foster parents, because we would take away their joy of discovering.

Ultimately, the best students will discover the "teacher within them." When this is accomplished, our students have learned the meaning of "Union." At this point, the student is seriously dedicated to his or her personal practice. Then, the serious questions will come, because an advanced student of Yoga will experience self-realization and spiritual growth.

If the questions do not come to you, do not worry about it. If a teacher constantly chatters, with free advice, no one will listen, because it is free. Loving parents also make this mistake, because they want to protect their children, but free advice is often ignored. Yoga teachers are no different. Keep your explanations simple and show your
students the way - when they are ready.

© Copyright 2008 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500, has written many books on the subject of Yoga. He is a co-owner and the Director of Yoga Teacher Training at: Aura Wellness Center, in Attleboro, MA.
http://www.aurawellnesscenter.com He has been a certified Master Yoga Teacher since 1995. To receive a Free Yoga e-Book: "Yoga in Practice," and a Free Yoga Newsletter, please visit: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Jerard

Teaching Peace in Yoga Class

By Dr. Melissa West

In conjunction with the Global Mala Project designed to unite the worldwide yoga community on the UN International Peace Day (September 22, 2007) I have been inspired to teach yoga this fall through the mantra of yoga as peace in action. Naturally some questions arise: What is peace? How do you teach peace in a yoga class?

Although everybody seems to have an innate understanding of peace, it becomes a difficult state to describe. In the context of a global community peace is understood as the cessation of war. On an individual level peace can be described as calm, serene, silence, equilibrium and harmony.
Yoga naturally lends itself to a quest for peace. Yoga is a process of releasing dis-ease and tension in the body to quiet the mind for meditation. With yoga we can find peace within ourselves. Once the individual achieves peace in their own lives then the belief is that the state of serene, calm and harmony ripples out into the world influencing others.

How then do you teach peace in a yoga class?

Pranayama or breath practice lends itself to the quest for peace. Guide your students to slow down their breath and become aware of the peaceful rhythm of the inhalation and exhalation. Teach your students to passively accept their breath rather than force it to become deeper. You can be more literal about it as well encouraging students to draw peace into their body with each inhalation and release tension with each exhalation. Simply following the breath brings peace to the body and mind.

When leading guided relaxation help students to become aware of the spaces in their bodies where peace already exists. Then use breath and yoga postures to expand that feeling of peace throughout the class.

Mantras are a particularly effective way to shift our minds towards peace. I love Tich Nhat Hanh’s mantra from Peace is Every Step “Breathing in I calm my body, Breathing out I smile.” Tich Nhat Hanh teaches that peace and happiness are available to use if we can quiet our distracted minds.

The single pointed focus of yoga can help students move away from multi-tasking common in today’s frantic world. Yoga postures and breath practice naturally center our students in a way that calms the mind and emotions giving a sense of peace.

When teaching the physical postures remind students to come into the present moment and become fully aware of their bodies. The postures can be an opportunity to let go of the worries of the past and future and come into the present moment of the body.

Teaching peace in a yoga class means reminding students to move with “ease and steadiness” as Rodney Yee says. How many times have you observed students struggling to make their posture look like the photo in Iyengar’s Light on Yoga? Encourage students to find their own equilibrium and harmony in a pose, that state where peace exists. Yoga is not about the shape of the posture, rather the feeling of peace being cultivated in the body.

Consider the types of poses that you are teaching. Restorative poses such as legs up the wall can be fantastic for calming the central nervous system and bringing peace to the body. Balancing postures such as tree pose help the students to center themselves and come into the present moment.

Teaching peace in yoga class may simply mean adjusting the way you instruct your students. Move slowly, speak in a calm manner, create limitless space and time. Slow down your sun salutations taking extra time and breath. Remember in yoga we have “infinite time and no ambition.”

Teaching peace in yoga class may seem elusive or even unfeasible. However, if we return to the core premise of yoga described by Patanjali as a means to “chitta-vrtti-nirohdah” or cease the turnings of the mind we are reminded that we are teaching peace every time we teach a yoga class. As yoga teachers we simply must return our intention and single pointed focus to this goal.
Dr. Melissa West is a yoga teacher who is contributing to the Global Mala Project on September 22nd. For more information see http://melissawest.com/ and http://www.globalmala.org/