5 Reasons to Take your Yoga Teacher Training In-person vs Online
Learn about the benefits to taking your YTT in-person
In the last couple of years, the number of online Yoga Teacher Trainings have sky-rocketed. We can thank technology and lengthy lockdowns for allowing us to continue offering the practice of yoga, especially in a time when it has become needed more than ever. However, as we begin to return to a version of “normal” and the in-person training is back, the question becomes: should I take my YTT online or in-person?
While it may seem easier or more comfortable now to take your training online, we want to remind you of some of the many benefits of in-person training. If you are feeling uncertain, hopefully these 5 reasons to take your Yoga Teacher Training in-person will provide you with some clarity and inspiration.
- Forming Deep Bonds
When you do your TTC in person, you will be living with your fellow students. Attending classes together, eating together, sleeping next to each other. In between classes, you’ll be sharing your struggles, your experiences and your insights. You will be moving through this unique journey alongside one and other, physically and energetically. By the end, you’ll have formed a yoga family, your Kula, that will carry far beyond graduation. As we’ve mentioned in other articles, this is one aspect of our Yoga Teacher Trainings that students have left feeling the most impacted by and grateful for.
2. Complete Immersion
Living at a gorgeous training center and studying yoga every day offers a deep immersion that online training cannot provide. At home, we are faced with a million little distractions of daily life. The laundry is going in the background, you’re meeting your friends for drinks later… At a designated and intentional yoga center, your awareness and energy is completely submerged in the practice and study of yoga. You can deeply absorb every aspect of your experience and truly integrate the teachings.
3. Shift and Expand your Perspective
Being placed in a completely new environment, away from familiar surroundings, will shift your perspective. Of yourself, your life back home, the world around you. Surrounded by nature, away from the hustle of modern life, you will be able to experience a deeper connection to this aspect of nature within yourself. This new perspective and connection is something you can bring home with you or wherever you go next, effecting positive change into all of the ways you live your life.
4. Exchange of Energy
Yoga is more than just a physical practice…you may have heard this before. During your YTT you will learn about the theoretical aspect of how to move prana around the body, etc…Taking your training in person will provide you with an actual experience of that energy, internally and externally. The energy exchange between you and your teacher, your fellow students and your environment is a beautiful and transformative experience that teaches you something on a level that can’t simply be read about.
5. Experiential Learning
On a practical level, it is difficult to receive alignment adjustments through a screen. Anatomy and proper alignment is an important aspect of teaching yoga. Your online yoga instructor will not necessarily be able to reach through the screen and adjust your hips. In person, you will be able to receive hands-on alignment adjustments from your teacher, as well as practice adjusting your fellow students. When it comes time to teach a class, you will have the confidence and tangible skills necessary to guide your own students.
While we can extend gratitude to the screen for standing in for a little while when it was necessary; there is nothing that can replace the experience of life happening in real time. The same is true for yoga, a practice that involves much more than what we can read in a textbook or hear in a lecture. It is a personal decision for everyone, but as long as it is relatively safe for you to do so, we believe an in-person Yoga Teacher Training will give you the most valuable and transformative experience both as a yoga teacher and for your personal journey.
