A question that we often get is: Should I invest in a yoga teacher training? Is it worth it?
Often, students join a teacher training not even so much to become a teacher, but to deepen their personal practice. They want to learn about the ethics and spirituality of yoga, learn to meditate, or cultivate more advanced asanas. You can do all of the above by attending retreats, intensives or workshops. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a teach training. You can start with a workshop of a few days or joining retreat for just a fraction of the price.
But when doing that, you will only focus on one specific topic at the time. It doesn’t guide you on the journey to learn how to teach and integrate all those different topics that you will study during a teacher training. And even if you don’t have the intention to teach, a teacher training will help you to investigate those different topics during a period of time and it allows you to have everything come together by the end of the training. For most students, joining a yoga teacher training is a life-changing experience and definitely worth the investment, both financially and time-wise.
If you are not sure yet, whether learning about yoga will satisfy your wishes, you can always start small and indeed follow a workshop or retreat, to get a taster of what a yoga teacher training would be like. I would then highly suggest to follow a session with (one of) the teachers of the teachers training that you are thinking about, to get to know their style of teaching. Get to know your teacher.
If you are going to spend money on a teacher training, you want to put everything in that you can. So, also investigate the different options time wise that are available and choose the one that suits your rhythm of life at the moment. You can complete your training in an intense one months course, or via programs that last over a year and anything in between. Would you like to have time to digest and reflect? What suits your current schedule? Get familiar with your preferences, before committing yourself.
One more question that we often get is: Do you feel you will recoup your investment? Is the investment of a teacher training equal or more to the income you will realise when you start to teach? That is a question worth looking at next time.
