Turning Students into Teachers

The Yoga Yoga Story by Mehtab
Founder, Yoga Yoga

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!

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.