Category: MahalaYoga Classes

1. Yoga teacher training...

   Posted on 12:36pm Friday 8th Aug 2014

   Some really interesting thoughts from this week just gone...I'm sitting here now at home on a Friday as I write this, as I am getting ready to go into the 7th weekend of our yoga teacher training course, this as most of you know is the second year that we are running this course so I am super excited that we have had the great opportunity to be able to run a second one!

   The first teacher training course that I ran was in Clapham last year at Synchronicity Studio just off of Landor Rd, this was amazing and we have some fantastic students who decided to take the plunge and join my training course, and what a privilege this was, we now have Elisabeth Baylis one of the students from the first course teaching each and every Thursday evening in Clapham, she is also looking to start some early morning classes at our Clapham studio, we would really love some feed back from you as to what times and mornings you would prefer!. Ciara, another of our students from our first generation MahalaYoga Teacher Trainers has also started to take that step away from "assisting" in the classes to "teaching" the classes,  last Wednesday was her debut, and what a fantastic debut it was, I would like to say a massive "well done" Ciara you have broken the ice, I was there the whole way to give her loads of support in the process, not that she really needed it!.

   

   Pictured above from our 2013 yoga teacher training program in Clapham, here you can see our wizard Leo Sharma as he deconstructs the Asanas, you can see Thea (laying down) Elisabeth, Ciara and Marina..

    So that takes us back to this years yoga teacher training course that I am currently running, with this course I have not only taken the decision that we will be an Independent yoga teacher training school (this decision was made for the first teacher training course, we are not affiliated with any governing boards of yoga, I am also running this course from my home, so the group is very small, we have 4 students on this course, so as you can imagine they are getting extra special attention!.

    

   To run the teacher training course from my home was a very hard decision to make as once again I couldn't see any other course doing this, and once again all of the other courses and it seems most teachers were now registered with some sort of governing board, but once again I stuck to what I felt was right for me and I took the plunge of taking the teacher training course to my home, and making the learning and the training very small but very focused and very relaxed, this course is very much student led and they are learning in a very relaxed environment so I am finding that the students seem to be picking everything up really quickly, everything they are learning they seem to be remembering a lot easier, and they are also all starting to come along to the classes for that all very important practical experience, where they are learning hands on how to teach a yoga class, with the full assistance and guidance from myself and other teacher trainers past and present, this couldn't be working out any better than I could have imagined!!

   This week we have seen Jenny and Daniella assisting in our Monday evening classes, with a fantastic response!. Tara once again one of our current teacher trainers taking part of our Wednesday evening class, and Ciara one of our first gen MahalaYoga Teacher Trainers taking part of our Wednesday evening class, once again with a fantastic response!. Elisabeth Baylis teaching her usual Thursday evening class, she will be teaching this Saturday too in Brixton, once again with amazing feed back!.

   

    

   Pictured above Elisabeth Baliss with her beloved Boo on the beach at her home town...Happy Days!

   I am going to continue my yoga teacher training program in this way as I can see right in front of my eyes some very happy, relaxed, confident yoga teachers emerging that I would love to go along to as a student as their passion and desire for learning, teaching and guiding others continues to inspire me! A massive thank you and well done!!.

   Mahala x

2. Why register with a Governing Board of Yoga?

   Posted on 4:22pm Tuesday 5th Aug 2014

   So it was a really interesting decision that I made to make our Yoga Teacher Training School an Independent School, rather than register with the likes of Yoga Alliance, or the Independent yoga network. The concept of a governing board of yoga is really great, and if I am really honest here I actually spoke to the guy who founded the "Independent Yoga Network" who was actually fantastic and pointed me in the right direction of if it is lawful to register as a yoga teacher training school with a governing body...it is not!.

   So to get back to the point of why I decided to go as an Independent Yoga Teacher Training School is simply I wanted to stay as close as I could to the morals of what yoga is actually teaching us, and the main point that is coming through to me is yoga teaches us to stand in our own power, not to be scared so we very easily give our power away, and this what not what I was feeling from the Yoga Alliance, like I said the concept is great but not once did the yoga alliance come to any of my classes to check if what I am teaching is correct, not once did they want to even see the content of what i was going to be teaching on my teacher training program, all they seemed to want to do was take my money and ask me to paste their logo all over my website with a direct link back to theirs, this for me is when alarm bells started ringing, and when I began my investigation into whether or not we should or the reasons why we need to register with the yoga alliance...as I said the concept is great, but the reality is very different.

   

    

   So I made the hard decision of going as an Independent yoga teacher training school as this felt like the honest thing to do, and before you register yourself or your training school with a governing body, find out exactly why you should, and I advise listen to yourself rather than a well laid out marketing package.