Become a Yoga Teacher in the Comfort of Your Own Home

You can't get very far these days without coming across a yoga studio, the pervasive sight of the comfy and colorful yoga pants, or the telltale yoga mat rolled up and tucked happily under the arm of another satisfied student. It seems like everyone is getting into yoga these days, which, if you ask me, is a great thing for the well-being of our society.

I started practicing yoga several years ago. It was a great stress reliever and the perfect thing to get me out of the house, where I spend most of my timing working and taking care of the kids. I simply fell in love with it, and once all my friends began to catch the ‘bug', they started coming to me for answers. Where should they start? How often should they go?

It was the suggestion of my best friend that led me to start thinking about becoming a Yoga Teacher in the first place. It was something I really enjoyed, and with the recent craze that has everyone and their brother (literally) turning to yoga, I thought it might be a real opportunity for me to take my yoga practice to the next level and maybe make a bit of money in the meantime.

I was amazed at the sheer volume of Yoga teaching resources even my little bit of research turned up, but a lot of it didn't make sense for me. I found tons of programs, ranging in length from 2 weeks to 2 years, and costing anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. Yes, I was committed to becoming a Yoga teacher, but I wasn't prepared to pay an arm and a leg; and I certainly didn't have the time or ability to leave work and the kids behind while I spent days on end learning the ways of the Yogi. What I really needed was a cost effective training program that would still provide the learning and practice I needed, but also the flexibility to fit into my already hectic schedule. Many Yoga studios and teaching centers, I found, offered Yoga teaching programs online, most of which promised a ‘comprehensive' training course that will allow participants to safely deliver basic yoga classes.

The online resource was clearly my best option, something that would allow me to do the yoga I was already doing, but also learn to be the teacher from the comfort of my own home within a schedule that worked for me. But, before I officially signed on, I wanted to be sure that I was getting a quality and useful training, and not just a cheap online version that was, well….just what I paid for.

It's important, as you seek out the right online resource for you to ask the right questions. Talk to people who have taken the courses you are considering. Use your own yoga instructors as a resource and see what they recommend. But most importantly, make sure any program, online or otherwise, covers all the key elements, including yoga philosophy and history, postures (alignment, benefits and contraindications), breathing and pranayama, meditation, anatomy and physiology, and practice teaching. With those questions answered, you should be ready to bring quality Yoga teacher training right to your own living room.

Andi Beark is the ultimate WAHM (Work At Home Mom), master web designer, and an expert in CorePower Yoga. CorePower Yoga offers Online Yoga Teacher Training that is exceptionally practical in that they offer instruction on how to TEACH yoga, not just the poses.