Turning
Students into Teachers
"To
learn yoga, practice it. To master yoga, teach it."
No matter where
you may be in your practice or love of yoga, consider yourself already
on the path to becoming a teacher. When friends and family see the difference
that yoga has made in your life, they will ask you to share yoga with
them. Get ready. Be prepared.
Many teachers at
Yoga Yoga are graduates of our teacher training program. And many people
in the program right now are current Yoga Yoga students like you who
simply want to take their practice to the next level.
If you are looking
for a way to create a holistic way to live and to make a positive contribution
to other people's lives, then it is never too early in your yoga practice
to consider taking our teacher training classes.
You will not only
gain the tools you need to teach yourself and others, you will also
become part of a fun community of yoga teachers and students!
"The only
purpose of having
a teacher outside yourself is
to realize the teacher within yourself."
- Yogi Bhajan
Creating
Community - One Tea Cup at a Time
People
come for the yoga, but they return for the heart. That is what we have
always believed as Yoga Yoga grew. The most important thing for us was
to create a community of like-minded spirits - people who wanted to
make a positive impact on themselves and people around them. The yoga
was the glue that stuck us together.
And if yoga was
the glue, then yogi tea was the wrapper. Part of being in a community
is sharing beliefs, dreams, and rituals. From the very first class we
ever taught, we always served students yogi tea. It was a way we could
give back to everyone who came and put in the effort. It became a ritual
that nourished, nurtured and said "thank you" in a yummy way.
For the first few
years, my wife made the entire Yogi tea for Yoga Yoga in our kitchen.
Every night she would chop, grind, and mix spices and boil a gallon
of tea to serve the next day.
After we opened
the first center, we carried Yogi tea there in a gallon water jug. Later
we had to buy a three-gallon jug. When we opened the North center, Rich
(Raghurai) joined in on the home tea production (with the help of his
daughters) and soon we were packing 6 to 12 gallons of Yogi tea around
in our cars, handing them off to each other in parking lots and at each
other houses, and getting them into the little cups at the yogi centers.
With the opening
of Yoga Yoga Westgate, we began brewing the tea in the centers. Probably
a good idea, because now we serve over 7,000 gallons of Yogi tea a year
- several tons - to keep people cozy, healthy, and grounded after an
elevating yoga class.
People sometimes
tell me, "I try to make Yogi tea at home, and it doesn't taste
as good as here." I tell them that they have to do yoga first and
then share the tea with someone they love, and it will taste the same.
" Practice and all will come." -Pattahbhi
Jois
"By sustained practice of all
the components of yoga, the
impurities dwindle away and
wisdom’s radiant light shines
forth with discriminative knowledge."
- Yoga Sutras (II,28)