Why Yoga Teacher Training Changed My Life

9 years ago I was about to graduate from my 200 hour yoga teacher training, unsure what exactly I had just stumbled upon…but I knew I had found some answers within myself I needed to explore. Out of a cohort of 10, I was one of the only ones that had no intention of teaching yoga. I had gone on this journey more for my own education and curiosity than anything else. And when I graduated I knew I had to teach. I am a teacher by heart, after all.

When I auditioned for Danny when we were still Ashva Yoga, I was terrified. What the F*UCK did I actually know about teaching anyone else yoga, let alone MY teachers? Gulp…it was not exactly what I would call fun. But it was so empowering. Even if I didn’t get selected to teach, at least I tried…and I would try again. So when I was invited to sub for the studio, I was thrilled. I started teaching a Sunday 9am Hatha 2 class a few weeks later, and started planning retreats. I was ready to give this teaching thing a try (and yes I still had a full time job, because you don’t make money teaching yoga…BTW).

2 years later, I was approached by a studio in town and the owner asked if I would ever want to run a yoga studio. I’d never thought about it before. And I was curious bc my job was a train wreck at the time and I needed a exit plan. I was curious and excited at the possibility…and then I saw the financials. I could not wrap my head around how this was going to work or how I was going to make any money doing it. All I saw was mounds of debt and member pricing that didn’t work. I declined that offer…only to have 2 months later another studio owner ask me…would I ever want to run a studio? That one, was Danny. My home studio. This one made more sense…financially and energetically.

And then came the cease and dissist letter…2 weeks before we were going to open. The other owner was not thrilled…and the things she said to me were horrendous. Things I didn’t think you said as a “yogi”…after a lot of lawyer negotiations and more money that I wasn’t prepared to spend…we figured out a way forward. I had just left a toxic job, and realized that I had been inviting an energy into my world that was coming to a head…and thank god I had yoga teacher training to help me process all the things (I honestly don’t know that I would have made it out of that job without yoga).

COVID happened 9 months later…and our world completely upended. Rather than going the route other studios were going (because I’ve never been the “popular girl”- I don’t follow the crowd very well), we did what I knew from my business background was going to save us. We live-streamed. In real time. The teachers and students got to share space and time, even from home, in one of the hardest collective times most of us had experienced in our lifetime. Other studios were starting to call me from around Denver asking how we had figured it out…many loosing members faster than they could process…some on the verge of closing. I shared what I was learning about our booking system, zoom and live streaming classes with anyone that asked. Because that’s what you do.

5 years later we opened our first cohort for yoga teacher training at Buka Yoga. I didn’t realize what it was going to do for me as a teacher of the program. It was re-learning the things I had forgotten from my 200 hour YTT, and it changed my life. All 3 cohorts have changed my life. Because it makes me remember the role we play in this world as yoga teachers. And why YTT matters so much in the times we are living in. It gently asks us go to places we thought were really scary…only to find out we were ready to let it go. And it was ready to let go of us. We start to re-write the story of our life, how we show up and how we embrace the messiness of the world.

Your 200 hour isn’t about being the best yoga teacher in the world. It’s about becoming a better human. It’s about learning the lessons that we already know, we just give them space and time to become part of our way of living. The yamas and niyamas are foundational to how we show up in the world. And if that is all our YTT takes away is those principles, I consider that a win.

Many come to YTT because they are curious about why they feel so different after a class. Why this practice is so different than other “workouts”. They start to feel the undercurrent of energy asking them to lean in and find the answers…within. Our YTT, Grit and Grace, is all about holding space and time for you to embrace the questions, the tears, the patterns that don’t serve anymore…and lean into what is coming. We don’t resist it, we look at it with compassion and embrace what is changing. Yes, you learn how to teach yoga as well…but honestly, a 200 hour YTT is less about the teaching and more about the embracing.

Many of our graduates have gone on to live their beautiful lives and practice with the community as students. Many teach with us now as well. Just because you graduate as a yoga teacher, doesn’t mean how you lean into that has to be in a classroom teaching yoga. It can be out in the community volunteering time, embracing differences of opinion with compassion and curiosity, loving your family just as they are, without expecting something different in return. Having more grace for yourself when you fail and when you succeed. Sprinkle in a few down dogs and savasana when you have time…and always finding stillness for reflection and meditation. So that you can download…and find the answers.

I’d love to have you join one of the cohorts in the future.