How to Choose the Right Yoga Teacher Training

Find a yoga teacher training that is going to teach you to deeply understand yourself and how to create a personal practice that will empower you to live to your fullest potential. Knowing yourself is the first step to being able to teach others.

I have been leading yoga teacher trainings and immersions for advanced yoga study for over 10 years and there are always questions that come up from dedicated students and potential teachers when they are ready to take the plunge into a yoga teacher training.  A training program is a large investment in time, money and energy and it can truly be one of the most transformative experiences of your life.  Choosing the right yoga teacher training for you is a decision that should be weighed carefully. 

Here my top ten tips on how to choose a yoga teacher training. 

1. Find a teacher training program that is led by a senior teacher who is steeped in daily practice and study. A teacher must first truly embody the teachings to be able to transmit them to you.  Don’t be shy about asking your potential teacher trainer about their personal practice. If you are interested in teaching and living yoga as opposed to instructing a class this is an important distinction to make in choosing the person who will be guiding you through your yoga journey. 
2. Beware of being dazzled by arm balances and fancy poses as your marker of whom you should study with. Attend a few classes or workshops with the potential teachers on your list. Notice how they interact with students. Ask them if they have a teacher and who they have studied with. Do some research on the lineage of teachers that they come from.  
3. Try  not  to use convenience of location as the main factor in choosing your training program. I have seen many students choose a yoga teacher training program because it was right down the street from their house without knowing anything about the studio or the teachers teaching the program. If your favorite band was playing 20 miles away you would probably drive to see them.  Make an effort to get to the best.
4. Consider the type of student you are. Trainings have many different schedules: from weekend modules for 14 weeks or so, to once a month for a year, to 15 days in a row or even month-long trainings in beautiful retreat settings. What is the best type of learning environment for you? Will you get overwhelmed with learning too much information over a short period of time? Do you like to have more time to digest and practice what you have learned before moving on to something new? Do you want to incorporate your training with a vacation to Costa Rica, Bali or Nicaragua? There are many options to choose from, research them all and listen to your intuition about what would best serve you. 
5. Find a training that is going to teach you to deeply understand yourself and how to create a personal practice that will empower you to live to your fullest potential. Knowing yourself is the first step to being able to teach others. Make sure you know what topics are going to be covered in the training. Most studios have an information session, make sure you attend!
6. If you have a special interest find the training that specializes in that type of study instead of generic yoga training. If you are interested in teaching prisoners go study with James Fox in his Prison Yoga Project. If you are interested in Yoga Therapy study with Gary Kraftsow or Larry Payne. If you are interested in Tantra study with Rod Stryker. Yin Yoga? You should find Paul Grilley ASAP. And if master teachers are not accessible to you find their senior teachers who live close to you and study with them. 
7. Make sure you know what topics are going to be covered in the training. Most studios have an information session, make sure you attend! If you really want to learn about the Chakra system make sure they are covering more than just the basics. Many studio’s will be bring in guest teachers to teach the portions of the training that they are masterful at like Ayurveda, Anatomy, Yin or Restorative. Look for trainings that bring in experts. It will give you a more well rounded experience. 
8. Don’t let money be a factor. Many studios will allow you to work as a karma yogi doing work around the studio or on social media to work off part or all of your training. Don’t be afraid to ask if you can set up a payment plan or do some karma hours in exchange for a discount.  
9. Start now! Get yourself started before your training even starts by reading a few books or watching a few online courses in your spare time. Reading books like The Heart of Yoga by T. K. V. Desikachar, The Secret of the Yoga Sutra’s by Pandit Rajmani Tiguanit, Yoga for Transformation by Gary Kraftsow or Yoga and Ayurveda by David Frawley . Watch Anatomy for Yoga with Paul Grilley or find online videos from the teachers you want to study with most. 
10. Use the same type of discernment that you would in choosing a doctor or nutritionist. Get referrals, do research, go to classes and mostly trust your gut. 

Tracee leads workshops, retreats and teacher trainings internationally and is a senior student of Yogarupa Rod Stryker. She has been studying in his ParaYoga style since 2001. Tracee teaches the Yoga of Willpower and IntentionTM with the desire to help students enrich their lives through sharing practices that lead to self mastery and self-empowerment. Find more about Tracee at www.traceeyoga.com

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Yoga for a Broken Heart - Part 1- Committing to Stillness

There are many ways that we become heartbroken. It can be from years of failed relationships, a betrayal from a partner,  divorce , the loss of a loved one, abandonment, disappointment, even loneliness. Some of our heartbreaks are so deep that it feels as though we may never recover. We become so disconnected from ourselves that we need something to guide us back to wholeness.

All to often we search for something or someone outside of ourselves to make us happy. But those of us who have tried that route have no-doubt experienced the fleeting  happiness that is born from a relationship incubated in a bubble of neediness. It is our relationship to ourselves and the understanding of who we really are that will bring us that feeling of completeness and the knowing that we are never truly alone.

The Yoga Sutras describes a light that resides inside each of us- A luminance  that is beyond all sorrow. This light is said to be located at the heart center. If we can access that light by letting go of resistance, offering gratitude and surrendering to what is,we can once again- and maybe for the first time taste our true nature -one that is full of joy, freedom and bliss. 

The process of accessing that light requires svadyaya (self Study), abhyanga (diligent practice) and vairagya (dispassion). We  have to muster the courage to walk through the fire of transformation and we should begin by making a sacred commitment to ourselves towards our own healing. 

But first we must learn to become still.  Stillness is probably the one thing we'd like to avoid. Busyness keeps us distracted from our issues and the pain at heart. Perpetual motion is a great tool to avoid seeing our patterns, ways we could have acted more wisely or compassionately . It staves off those voices of doubt in our minds that maybe we actually are unlovable or underserving and might always be alone. It seemingly keep us from feeling the pain. But it's still there, under the surface, bubbling away- deciding whether to burst forth and release or sink deep and create toxicity and dis-ease.  And at the end of the day it only serves to keep our healing at bay. 

We need to stop the endless watching of TV, surfing the web, overworking and the countless coffee's with friends who just want to cheer us up or rehash the story over and over as they project their own relationship woes onto us.

Even our asana practice can became a way to distract ourselves. However if we turn off the music and infuse our asana practice with the subtler aspects of yoga like pranayama, mantra and bandha's we can use it to prepare us for deep meditation. From this place we can begin to pry open the door to the cave of the heart. Isn't this what the practice was meant for? To have effect on how we show up in world and not just how we look in the mirror?

It is said that in the stillness the unknown becomes known. It may be scary to look into those painful and cavernous places within ourselves. But it must be done if we want to be free.

Make the decision now to to take your seat,close your eyes, be with yourself and breathe. Being still will illuminate your inner world and how you experience the outerworld will be shifted. But the practice of meditation is much more powerful when you practice daily . If possible do it in the same place at the same time everyday and you will see that the cumulative power of a daily practice becomes palpable very quickly.

Lets do an experiment together and commit to sit. Commit to get still, same time, same place everyday (if possible) just for the next 30 days. You may have a favorite meditation or you can use the Morning Clarity Meditation for the first week if you are just getting started. I will be uploading more meditations each week that will lead us deeper into the healing and expansion of the heart.
At the end of this 4 part series I will  announce a time for a Google chat so we can share our experiences  and connect as a community.

Here are some things that will  help you to move your healing journey forward this week:

1. Non-expectation
2. Silence  at least 30 minutes before bed
3. Reduce media intake
4. Take time to be alone

Hari Om Tat Sat
Tracee

Prana Vidya- the Key to Expanding Consciousness and Healing

The Prashnopanishad says: This prana is born of the Self. Just as there is a shadow when a man is there, so prana is fixed on the Self... It is said that prana is the force that animates life within us. As long as prana is retained, the body will not die. There are actually five different prana's in the body, and improper distribution of these five prana's can cause disease in the body/mind. Since the pranic body is more subtle than the physical body we must refine our practice in order to be able to awaken our perception to our own pranic energy. The five prana's or vayu's (winds, or airs) as they are known are: Prana which is inhalation and the inward moving force that moves upwards from the navel to the throat. Apana is exhalation which is a downward moving force from the navel to the pelvis. Samana is the time between the two and is located at the navel center, it moves left to right sideways and back and governs our digestion and assimilation on both a mental and physical level. Udana is in the extremities moving down the arms and legs and up in to the head. Vyana is the vital force that pervades the entire body, the distributive force that acts as our reserve energy. But just how do we begin to get in contact with these pranic forces within us? How do we balance, build or reduce them when needed?
The science of Prana Vidya tells us that our first entry into accessing our energetic body is the proper use of Ujjayi breath. Learning Ujjayi breath is fairly simple, but its not always easy to remember to do the breath during a vigorous yoga practice. Many times we are so busy trying to hold difficult poses, or just keep up with the pace of the class that we loose our breath. Just remember that once you loose awareness of the breath you stop doing yoga. Because yoga is not just about asana ( physical postures) and yes there are many yogi's who don't do any asana, you can develop these practices in a meditative seat. The next time you are in class or sitting prior to meditation, set your intention to stay present with the breath for the entire class. Once you have yourself steeped in the breath, begin to practice sama vritti (same fluctuation) or 1:1 ratio breathing.  This means that you inhale for the same length that you are exhaling, with the same depth, quality and resonance. Making these two adjustments will transform your entire practice and prepare you for a deep meditation. You will begin to feel a shift from the physical body to feeling yourself in a different way, seemingly moving beyond the boundaries of the physical body and becoming more expansive.
Once you are comfortable in 1:1 you can begin to build into other advanced practices, like retention of breath that will allow you to go deeper in to discovering the pranic body.
This month I will be posting a series of videos and sharing some of these simple pranayama practices. I hope you will enjoy the journey into the pranamaya kosha. I look forward to hearing your feedback as always. And for those of you in LA please join me for Yoga for Healing on July 24th where we will be exploring these concepts in depth.

resource: Prana, Pranayama, Prana Vidya-bihar