13 Reasons to Become a Yoga Teacher

Did you know that yoga is over 7,000 years old? It’s that old and still popular!

There’s a reason for that: It has a plethora of undeniable benefits for our health.

Having a passion for yoga doesn’t have to end with just practicing it, though. You can actually become a yoga teacher to bring those benefits to other people as well or simply to explore and deepen your own knowledge, awareness and practice.

Are you ready to learn more about why you should become a yoga teacher? Read on!

1. Deepen your personal practice

When you become a yoga teacher, you are not only teaching yoga to other people, but you are also deepening your own personal practice.  This can help you mentally, physically and spiritually if you put the time and energy into focusing on yourself throughout your studies.  Great schools will ensure their program includes extensive opportunity to focus within and embrace the true essence of yoga.

2. You will learn all about alignment

Yoga is great for helping your body find proper alignment.  While you can take all of the classes possible to learn about it,  a yoga teacher training is what actually teaches you about the correct postural alignment and technique, including knowledge of anatomy and physiology and extensive benefits and contra-indications as well.

The more you learn, the more this will come as second nature when you do it.  And you won’t just be doing it naturally during your daily yoga practice.  You will also notice your alignment throughout the day, so you will subconsciously start to fix your habits, such as your posture and how you sit or stand!

3. Focus on YOU

In our world, we tend to NOT focus on ourselves even nearly as much as we should. We get sidetracked with our careers, children or partners and often throw ourselves into what we have to do for work or others.  If we have kids, we put all of our time and energy into them.

We focus on our relationships, our work, how clean our houses are, when the kids need to get to school, and our monthly calendars. But we forget to focus on ourselves when we do that.

When you participate in an immersion and intensive yoga teacher training, you start to focus on yourself again.  You evolve, improving your mental and physical health and growing spiritually.  The more you get used to focusing on yourself during yoga, the more that will become second nature to you in your daily life and therefore, enabling you to better cope and assist others and your work and responsibilities.  It has a ‘domino effect’ on your life!

4. You are passionate about yoga

If you take your yoga practice seriously, you may be more than just someone who likes to do yoga.  It may be your passion.

You feel the benefits, you talk about it all the time, and you can’t wait until your next practice. You may even think about practicing yoga more than just once per day.

If that’s the case, you are definitely passionate. And if you want to take that passion to the next level, you could consider career options in the yoga field. 

You know what they say – find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!  It is not a ‘job’ if you love it.

5. You love learning

Are you one of the 73% of adults who considers themselves a lifelong learner?  Then taking a yoga teacher training course is just another step to continue your lifelong learning.

If you love studying, reading, journaling, evolving and philosophical discussions, a yoga teacher training may be for you! You’ll have to practice what you learn and read and discuss more about how your body works and what the yoga poses do for you. And, of course, journaling goes side by side with your yoga practice to help with your mindfulness and reflection.

6. You want to gain confidence 

Learning something new is always a way to gain a new sense of confidence.  Not only that, you will gain significantly more confidence as you practice teaching the art of yoga, breathwork, meditation and more during your yoga teacher training, and afterwards as you share the gift with others.

However, yoga teacher training is not always easy. And because of that, when you finish it, you will find yourself feeling more confident than before!  And with that confidence, you’ll be able to teach others what you know about the practice of yoga and how wonderful it is for you.

7. Form relationships 

Yoga is more than just a practice.  It is a community.

If you are a lover of community and love to build and foster new relationships, developing a yoga practice can help you feel more connected to your community.

Not only will you be part of a class, you will also be ready to teach others and form your own community. You can go out into your other communities to teach yoga and form more relationships there.

The community that yoga creates is strong, powerful and never-ending.

8. You want to learn how to meditate

People often struggle with what meditation is or how to do it.  Many people imagine sitting on the floor cross-legged for an hour at a time trying not to think about anything.  But this is absolutely NOT the case and there are hundreds of techniques, meaning one of them is bound to resonate with you!

If you want to learn more about meditation and how it can look in a yoga setting, a yoga teacher training can show you exactly that!  You don’t have to have a meditation practice already to go into teacher training, but you do need to have an appetite to learn more about it.

When you start to learn, it may not be easy for you. You may find yourself fidgeting or antsy for it to end, but over time it will become easier!

You may even find yourself meditating on your own after training!

9. Get the knowledge you’ve been wanting

With yoga teacher training, you no longer have to worry about asking questions during a yoga class. Instead, you have the chance to learn and ask whatever you want to your own yoga teacher throughout your yoga teacher training course.

If you need extra help with a certain pose or understand what the pose does a little better, you can always ask questions to your teacher.  If you are curious about the anatomical benefits, philosophy or anything, you can find out!  In reality, the more you know, the better you’ll be able to teach others as well!

10. You want to be healthier

Wanting to be healthier in your everyday life can look different to everyone.  To you, it may be incorporating more activities into your life like yoga.

What better way to do that than to study to become a yoga teacher?  You’ll learn about Ayur Veda and cleansing techniques, breathwork, meditation AND be getting the daily movement that you want but also learning how to keep it and what it does for you. 

The driving force behind becoming a yoga teacher and helping others may help keep you motivated for your yoga teacher training course and to keep doing yoga on a daily basis.

11. You want a new form of exercise

While you’re not burning a ton of calories when you do yoga, you are still burning some while moving your body, which is important.  Breathwork also strengthens and tones the internal organs and core.

Learning new forms of exercise can also help keep you from feeling bored from other exercises, and it is a great way to break up other activities you do.  For instance, if you are a runner, yoga can actually improve your running practice as well.

Learning yoga from a teaching standpoint can give you a new form of exercise as well as teach you exactly how to do it.  You’ll also learn the differences between postures so that you can use the right ones when you feel you need them most.

12. You want more transformation in your life

Yoga is a way to transform your life. Plain and simple.

Yoga creates the mind-body connection that you need to know how you feel, know what you need, and how to do it.  It will show you how to become and feel more centered and balanced in your life.

With this newfound center, you more easily can reflect and understand who you are and what you want out of life.  As a yoga teacher, once you finish your course, you can then bring that to other people as well.

13. You want to be a teacher

Maybe you want to be a teacher of any kind!  You don’t want to go back to college or school to become a teacher for students teaching history, though.

That’s totally okay! You can become a yoga teacher instead and still actually teach others.

You’ll be teaching postures, breathwork, meditation, and balance.  As a yoga teacher, you bring more to the ‘classroom’ than just lectures and knowledge.  You bring movement and spirituality.  Life lessons.

That’s a pretty cool teaching job!

Become a Yoga Teacher today

Becoming a yoga teacher has so many benefits! 

Whether you want to transform your life, bring more movement into your everyday, you have a passion for yoga, or simply want to teach others, joining a yoga teacher training program may be the best decision you ever make.

You won’t know until you try! Contact us today at Loka Yoga School to get started.