Advanced Yoga: Becoming An Advanced Yoga Practitioner Through Teacher Training

One of the simplest ways to go about becoming an advanced yoga practitioner is to take part in a reputable happinesslifetime.com yoga teacher training program. "But I don't want to teach yoga," you may think to yourself. Even if you never wanted to become a professional yoga instructor, a training program can offer you the opportunity to learn more about yoga as a practice and, more importantly, yourself as a person.

They say you can never fully understand something unless you teach it to someone else. Practicing with your fellow teacher trainees helps open your eyes to things about your practice you may never have been aware of. It's like having 20 private instructors over the course of a few months. During teacher training, along with the lectures on the history of yoga, benefits of meditation, healing science of Aryuveda, and alignment classes, there are one-on-one asana spot labs and practice teaching. The more you practice the more your awareness of your own body and breath grows. Teaching also gives you a different perspective on yoga. When you watch people struggle to get into positions that are not right for their bodies, doubt their own abilities or not connect with their breath, it gives you some insight into your own practice and how aware you may or may not be of your own limitations.

This journey can have a profound impact on your life. The most fascinating thing I've found in my teacher training at has been how closely related the way I practice and the way I live really are. The way someone practices speaks volumes about their disposition in life. I became aware of the fact that I was judging myself harshly in my practice and comparing myself to other people in class. I was also treating the mat as a means to an end and not as an end in and of itself. I would always opt for the more difficult pose in order to get a better "work out" and build up more of a sweat. I would become frustrated at my inability to come into certain poses.

My football coach always said, "you play like you practice." If, as a yogi, your aim is to bring your practice off the mat and into your life, what does it say when you compare yourself to others on the mat? How does the desire to push yourself to the point of exhaustion in your practice translate into your life? When you practice, do you look for the joy in the poses? These are the questions that I was able to probe more deeply in my happinesslifetime.com yoga teacher training program. The practical application of this understanding can help one to become an ishtayoga.com/advanced_yoga advanced yoga practitioner with relative ease.

Roque L. Rodriguez III is a poet and yoga instructor in New York, NY. He is currently taking the 300-hour yoga teacher training and ishtayoga.com/advanced_yoga advanced yoga classes at ISHTA Yoga NYC.