In eighteen years of teaching yoga, I have only led one 200-hour training. It was co-taught with Steve Ross, one of the most dedicated yogis I know. However, those of you that have been to Maha Yoga in Brentwood are already laughing. It was a circus! And like all circuses, it was fun!
Aside from that one training back in 2000, I am notorious for being resistant to leading teacher trainings. I always send my students elsewhere. I have spent plenty of time psychoanalyzing why I would be resistant to leading these trainings and haven’t been able to come up with a good “childhood trauma” or anything significant that would explain it.
The simplest I can come up with, is that I haven’t found a training that I solidly believed in. I haven’t had the desire to come up with my own brand or “style” of yoga, and therefore didn’t feel that I had a “method” to teach.
That all changed with the Wanderlust Teacher Training. For the first time, I felt that there wasn’t a brand that was pushing their “style.” Wanderlust has reached out to the top teachers in each of their fields to curate a multi-faceted teacher training manual, and has put together a program that teaches the basics without being dogmatic — gives detailed instruction without focusing on minutia — provides a profound, spiritual experience without being religious or “out there.”
Instead of “telling you where you should go,” and selling a single idea, Wanderlust provides tools to support you on your path. Wanderlust will give you a map and a compass, but the journey is yours to define.
“Teacher Training” doesn’t mean that you need to become a teacher, or that by completing the program you will necessarily have what it takes to teach. However, what the program does promise is to provide a rigorous education to those who are up to the challenge. The training can be your “next step” on the road to learning more about yoga, or it can be your foundation on the path to becoming a teacher. We yoga teachers don’t agree on everything, but we do agree that a 200-hour training is the beginning of learning how to become a teacher, not the end. I have done seven teacher training courses, and I’ve found that is the case for most senior teachers.
Don’t let that seem overwhelming! The main thing I try to remind all students is that we started yoga because it made us feel better. That is always the reason to do it. The desire to teach is simply the desire to share with others what has been beneficial to you. Learning about yoga should feel like a privilege and a delight — it is not an obligation and you are not a “bad yogi” if you don’t know something. These trainings will be led with love, laughter and support. We have such an amazing group of mentors fired up and ready to spread the love! I can’t wait ‘till kick off – it’s the training I have been waiting for, and it’s going to rock.
~Sara Elizabeth Ivanhoe is the Yoga Spokesperson for Weight Watchers, most recently releasing the “Weight Watchers Yoga Starter Kit.” She began teaching in 1995, shortly after graduating with honors from New York University. She has completed the Yoga Works teacher training, a specialized Therapeutics program and is also certified by Erich Schiffmann in his Freeform Style. Sara is the instructor for the “Yoga for Dummies” series, the “Crunch Yoga” series as well as the collaboration with Russell Simmons “Yoga Live.” She had an extended run on Fit TV with “All Star Workouts” and on Exercise TV with “Yoga on the Edge.” Sara was a regular on Vh1′s “Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab” and has been featured on all the major news channels. She is highlighted in the acclaimed documentary “Titans of Yoga” and “Women of Bhakti.” Ivanhoe is one of the few teachers certified by the Green Yoga Association to teach Yoga and Ecology. In addition, Loyola Marymount University has awarded Sara a Certification in Yoga Philosophy. She is an MA candidate in LMU’s Inaugural Yoga Studies program and most recently has been appointed Student Senator of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts.