Day in the Life of a Yoga Teacher-in-Training
In case any of you guys are interested in getting your 200-hour yoga teacher certification, I thought I would give you a little run-down of what our daily schedule was like during the teacher training course I did on Koh Phangan in Thailand. Our course was 23 days and included two days off for relaxing and/or exploring the island. Because the timing for these courses is usually pretty tight, they cram a lot in each day so we were very busy!
Here’s how our days played out:
6:45 - 7:15am - Morning Meditation
Most of the time, this was a seated meditation on our mats, but a few times we did a silent walking meditation. The seated meditation was something guided by one of our teachers and sometimes on our own. We learned and used techniques such as mantra repetition, visualisation, chakra colours/vibrations, and breathing.
7:15 - 7:30am - Journaling
We would write in our journals about our experience in meditation that morning and anything else we were thinking / feeling.
7:30 - 9:30am - Asana Practice
Morning asana was taught by one of our three awesome teachers. The first week we did the Ashtanga primary series (so hard!) and the next two weeks we did Vinyasa flow (my fave).
9:30am - Breakfast
10:30am - 1pm - Asana breakdown / Sequencing lessons
This was the the part of the day where we learned to be yoga teachers. It was a bit tedious at times going through each posture but necessary to learn the proper alignment and verbal cues for being able to teach!
1:00 - 2:00pm - Lunch
2:00 - 3:00pm - Break
Sometimes we could go into town and pick up goodies (souvenirs, treats from the organic cafe, etc), go to the beach for a swim, study our notes / do homework, and rest.
3:00 - 4:00 - Philosophy
I really enjoyed this class as it was where we learned about the other aspects of yoga, such as the 8 Limb Path to enlightenment, the Yoga Sutras, the Chakra system, Pranayama (breath control), meditation techniques and even a little bit of Ayurveda!
4:00 - 5:00pm - Yin or Restorative asana practice
Yin yoga mainly focuses on the low back and hips and requires you to hold the postures for long periods of time (5 minutes or more). It can actually be quite strenuous if you have a tight back or hips (which I do!). Restorative is much gentler and more relaxing as you use props to facilitate complete physical ease in the postures. The latter was definitely my favourite after our hard core morning Vinyasa practice!
5:00 - 6:00pm - Anatomy
We learned about the systems of the body, types of joints, the spine, major muscle groups used in yoga, etc. Often, we would watch videos by well-known yoga anatomists, like Paul Grilley, which was a welcomed alternative, as a textbook-based class at 5pm when you’ve been up since 6am can be pretty tough!
7:00 - 8:00pm - Dinner
8:00pm - Hit the sack! ....or stay up way to late chatting / laughing with your roomie ;)
The meals at the resort we stayed at were all vegetarian which goes along well with the yogi mentality of non-harming. We were encouraged to have silent mornings up until breakfast to practice mindfulness and keep our attention focused inward. This was very challenging for my roommate and me! We had one afternoon dedicated to Seva Work, or selfless service, during which we cleaned up the rubbish on the beach near our resort.
I was blessed to have an AWESOME group of 16 girls to spend the month with doing our training together. It was really quite amazing how well everyone got along and enjoyed each other’s company. With 16 oestrogen-charged women spending every waking minute together, I think that’s pretty lucky!!
If you’re thinking about getting yoga teacher certified and have any questions about the yoga school I did mine with (Drishti Yoga) and/or my experience, I would be more than happy to chat to you about it! I’m so happy I did it and can’t wait to get out there and teach some yoga!
Steph xx
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