Taking Your Yoga Teacher Training During the COVID Pandemic
Why taking your YTT now may be more important than ever
We are now a couple of years into the most significant global disruption of our current lifetime. A majority of the population is vaccinated, allowing us the freedom and safety to leave our homes and travel. It’s finally possible to take your Yoga Teacher Training in person again, something you may have been forced to postpone for a while.
There may still be some doubts or hesitations coming up…understandably, after what we have all just experienced (and continue to experience). Taking your YTT during the COVID pandemic is something that could seem a bit daunting. We want to acknowledge your concerns, and hopefully ease your mind about attending one of our in-person trainings.
More than that (even if you don’t have any doubts) we want to remind you why studying and teaching the practice of yoga is more important than ever, because of this very moment of time we’re in together. There is so much to gain from taking your YTT right now, for yourself, family, friends and community.
The Impact of Isolation during COVID
We’ve all missed it. Physical touch, gathering, community, friendship. The irony of our shared experience of isolation has been one of the most challenging experiences of the pandemic. By now, most of us have heard the studies of how crucial our social support systems are to our longevity and well-being. In these past two years of lockdowns and restrictions, we all have experienced the effects of isolation firsthand.
Coming Back Together In-Person
At the Yoga Teacher Trainings we’ve held so far in 2021 and 2022, we have been humbled to witness the beauty of our students coming together once more to share sacred space with one another and see how quickly a family unit forms. Exchanging energy and support with your fellow students and teachers is part of the healing magic of in-person YTT’s, and is exactly the medicine we all need right now.
We have written an article speaking more on what we believe are the benefits of taking your yoga training in-person vs online, which you can read here.
Why Do We Need Yoga?
Yoga is a powerful practice in its ability to address all aspects of our human experience; physical, mental, and spiritual. We have just collectively witnessed the devastating impacts of COVID upon each and every area of our lives. Depression and anxiety levels have skyrocketed. Our health care systems have been over-extended and challenged to the brink of collapse.
The Healing Power of Yoga
We certainly need and honor the valiant front-line health workers who care for those in desperate need. But in order to be more resilient and resistant to variants, we also need front-line wellness workers to share their wisdom and coach us not only through this storm but also as we emerge on the other side of it.
If you are reading this, you have received a call from within to become a wellness warrior through the unbound wisdom of yoga and meditation. By practicing yoga we are cultivating an inner strength and resilience in the body/mind/spirit complex. We are connecting to an inner stillness and peace within, a refuge we can return to when the outside world is thrown into chaos.
To study the practice of yoga, both for yourself and to share with others, is one of the greatest things you could do for the overall health and well-being of our planet.
Choosing Love Over Fear
We are all doing our best during this chaotic time to take the most realistic and sensible precautions as we move forward and share space with others. During this transitional phase, it is important for all of us to be clear-sighted, be free from judgment, and be responsible in a new way as we approach life and the decisions we need to make at this important junction.
When making such decisions it is wise to check inward to see and feel whether our actions and choices are coming from love rather than from fear. In today’s day and age of endless news cycles and opinions, it can be easy to succumb to paranoia or fearful thoughts, and hide away or turn on your fellow human. We need to turn to love and compassion and develop our intuition.
Listening to The Little Voice Within
It is a powerful practice to follow one’s intuition in the direction of what feels right, even with fear nipping at one’s heels along the way. By listening to the little voice within, which lies beneath the fearful thoughts, we are freeing ourselves every time we take that step forward. As well as inspiring others to do the same. Could there be anything the world needs more of right now, than people following their heart rather than being led by their fear?
It is not what happens to us that truly matters in the end, but how we respond to what happens. This is the wisest way to approach and interact with the Law of Karma. To put it most succinctly, Yoga is the ultimate training in our responses to life and all its complexities. We are learning how to cultivate healthier bodies, focused minds, and brighter spirits; developing and harnessing an internal power that can ultimately be used in altruistic ways. Investing in a yoga teacher training right now is a beautiful gift to yourself and others that will only continue to be a gift that keeps on giving and rippling out into the world around you…a world which is in deep need of it.
Lakshmi Rising’s Upcoming YTT dates available here!