Who Would Take an Online Yoga Course

One might be thinking about what a Yoga course could do for their lives. Well basically, we have found a number of subjects that Yoga teachers and people who want to be teachers can learn for creating better classes and giving back to their communities.

Yoga Teachers

There are many sub-specialties in yoga that cater to a specific market. If you are interested in obtaining Continuing Education Credits or want to know more about yoga techniques for pre-natal clients, for kids, or aiming to know more about restorative power, online Yoga course are for you.

Students

This may sound misleading, but as a student, your perspective of Yoga is different from a teacher's perspective. If you are planning to create a community of Yoga enthusiasts in your own place, we can teach you how to teach. A big plus is: Online learning takes place in the comfort of your home.

People Want to Learn from the Masters

Learning Yoga from a master is possible through taking an online Yoga course. Due to today's technology, wherever you are in the world, learning from teacher trainers of Yoga is very feasible.

Busy People Aiming for Wellness

If you are becoming exhausted and stressed out by your day-to-day job, but still want to learn Yoga, an online course is a good fit into your schedule. You can learn any time you want and visit lectures anywhere. You will enjoy the inner peace it gives your life.

We, at Aura Wellness Center, aim to reach and train students and professionals even in the most remote areas of the world.

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Teaching Yoga to Brand New Students: Modifications

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed

Teaching Yoga to brand new students has its own unique set of challenges and rewards. Of course, it is incredibly rewarding to see a new student take to the practice like a fish to water. When a brand new student discovers the many benefits of practicing Yoga several times a week, every week, he or she is likely to continue with the practice for many years to come. A regular practice of Yoga postures, pranayama exercises and meditation techniques can improve a student’s strength, flexibility, physical stamina, self-awareness, and promote vibrant health and overall well being. 

In order to teach Yoga classes to new students safely and effectively, patiently explaining how to move in and out of the postures, as well as how to maintain the correct alignment in the poses, is very important. If a student performs asanas with poor alignment, he or she may sustain an injury during class, which is likely to diminish the student’s interest and motivation for continuing to participate in a Yoga class. One way to make a brand new student feel comfortable in a mixed level class is to offer modifications for Yoga postures, which may be too difficult for a new student to practice in their traditional form. 

Over time, many of your brand new Yoga students will be able to practice most of the asanas without modifications or props. At first, however, it is important to impart a “can do” attitude to your new students, so that they do not become frustrated or demoralized by a potentially slow learning curve in your Yoga class. Offering your new students modified versions of traditional Yoga poses, will help them to become familiar with the poses, as their bodies begin to open up and strengthen enough to practice the postures in their traditional forms.

When you are teaching your brand new Yoga students modified versions of traditional asanas, maintaining the correct alignment and intention of the classical version of the postures is of primary importance. For instance, you may have any number of new students in your classes with very tight hamstring muscles. The hamstrings can become shortened and tight from most athletic activities, including bicycling and running on pavement. When a new student with tight hamstrings is holding Downward Facing Dog, the lack of flexibility in the back of the legs will become readily apparent. 

In this situation, recommending that your student bend his or her knees slightly during the practice of Downward Facing Dog will help to create more space for the upper torso to lengthen in the posture, without sacrificing the correct alignment in the pose. Of course, whether or not a particular student has bent or straight legs in Downward Facing Dog, do make sure that his or her palms are shoulders’ distance apart, facing the front of the room and flat on the floor, with the hands firmly and evenly rooted into the mat. In this way, the basic alignment of Downward Facing Dog is maintained, even though a brand new student may need to practice a slightly modified version of the posture. 

In the same way, if you are teaching a Yoga class geared for beginning students, or you are teaching a mixed level class with both new and experienced practitioners, by offering both the traditional versions and a number of approachable modifications of the classical postures to your students, you will enable all of the students in your class to practice a wide array of poses in a safe, effective and “do-able” manner. This will further encourage your brand new students to return to your class again and again. With time and patient practice, even your newest students will become adept Yoga practitioners in their own right. 

Virginia Iversen, M.Ed, has been practicing and studying the art of Yoga for over twenty years. She lives in Woodstock, New York, where she works as a writer and an academic support specialist. She is currently accepting Yoga and health-related writing orders and may be contacted at: enchantress108@gmail.com.

© Copyright – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Power of Observing Yoga Students

By Bhavan Kumar

Teachers are the glue that holds a yoga class together. Observation is an attribute every yoga teacher should install in self. Even teachers are life-long students as long as yoga is concerned.

A yoga class is comprised of wide variety of students. Not all of them will be delivering a top-notch performance all at once. It takes patience and strong will to get the body to work in a way that best fits us. Students are impatient at times. This is why teachers are required. Everybody has an Internet connection for accessing self-teaching courses. However, a teacher is preferable since a teacher will observe a student and how they are working on the body to move the process along more steadily and efficiently.

There are several areas where observational skills help a teacher:  Learning about students: For teaching well, the teacher needs to learn the students’ body’s limitations and strengths over time. This helps them screen and add several positions to their bag. The students can be guided as to which asanas will be more beneficial compared to others. This also helps teacher to grow. Experience with a wider variety of student makes them progress as a teacher and gives them a little confidence every time a student proactively turns up trying to learn more when your advice works for them.

A teacher always accepts more knowledge with arms wide open. Teachers teach students, and students teach teachers. Of course, the latter occurs less often than the former but a teacher should stay on guard for when this happens. This is why teachers need to realize the power of observing students and start finding ways to learn from them as well. Getting familiar with your students is just as important in order to make their journey more enjoyable and keep them motivated throughout the process. Many students give up yoga as impulsively as they get into it, but it is a teacher’s job to make a student realize yoga is a wonderful decision and keep the student’s morale up.Teachers have to embrace and love observing their students. This only requires a little push; it will then just come naturally to a teacher. When a student goes wrong, a teacher will immediately realize and make a note to make it correct later on. There you go teachers, observe and master the skills.

Teachers’ thirst for knowledge: A good teacher is always looking for new experience in the field and learning new things. Teacher’s work very hard to get to where they are, however, there always will be students who learn very quickly. They might be able to show a teacher more than she has already seen. I have seen teachers ignoring these opportunities to grow. But a good teacher will always take the charge and try to improve herself from what she sees in the student.

Check up on students: Every student needs guidance, which is why they have a yoga teacher. But just as well every student makes a mistake once in a while, which needs to be rectified by the teacher. There are students who learn slow and need more guidance than other students. This is where the real test for a teacher comes in action. Observation has to be maximum for this to happen. Whenever a student goes wrong, teachers need to take extra five minutes for them to get room for improvement. If there are more students on some days, ten minutes will suffice. Just point out the error and observe if or not they are getting it right for about five minutes.

    © Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Yoga Teacher Certification for the Rich and Famous

By Dr. Paul Jerard, E-RYT 500 

Do you think the high cost of becoming a Yoga Teacher is too far out of reach? Will you have to sacrifice your family’s life savings to become a Yoga instructor? How will you be able to justify the time off from work needed to gain your Yoga certification?

There are cost-effective, and less expensive solutions, to learn to teach Yoga by becoming a certified Yoga instructor, without the cost of an “arm and a leg.”

Recently, I was talking to an intern from an outside Yoga Teacher Training program, which had paid nearly $10,000.00 for on-site training, on an exclusive tropical island. He was upset, since he had borrowed tuition costs from his parents, and sacrificed his job, in order to become a certified Hatha Yoga Teacher.

He visited my web site for a Yoga teacher correspondence course and discovered my course was a fraction of the cost he and his family paid. He asked me how this is possible. I explained that we do not need to feed, house, or supply hundreds of Yoga interns. 

On top of that, there are no transportation costs to be concerned with, when using a Yoga home study course.  The only cost is for materials, tutoring, and Yoga teacher certification.

Further, I explained that to be trained in a face-to-face setting, by a Master Yoga Teacher, is more expensive due to the “hands on” time spent with his teacher. After all, we have an onsite Yoga Teacher program that is more expensive than our correspondence course.

Time spent learning Yoga from a Master Teacher, or a Guru, is a valuable service. Our course is designed for an experienced Yoga practitioner who doesn’t need as much hands on help or who has a local Yoga teacher for guidance.

He continued the conversation to ask me about technical support, and I explained that we handle it by Email, over the phone, and some interns stop by for our Yoga teacher workshops. We have had Yoga teacher trainees visit us from California and Great Britain to attend a workshop. By the sound of his voice, he seemed depressed, and I asked him, “What is wrong?”

He told me that he hadn’t been taught anything about the marketing involved in the Yoga business or about business in general. He felt it would take a long time to pay his parents back and didn’t know if his job would still be available to him when he gets back home.

Then, I explained that we have Yoga marketing and business tools in our standard course and as a separate course for experienced Yoga teachers. I invited him to come to a Yoga marketing workshop when he gets back to the States, and, we both, made a new friend.

We all feel a “calling” to do work that gives us satisfaction. It helps to have a passion about our work and to know that you are helping others along the way. This is one of the many benefits of teaching Yoga, but I advise you to research the cost of Yoga instructor education, and to be careful not to put yourself too far in debt.

Otherwise, your passion for Yoga could turn into a financial worry - well into the future. This would make it difficult to teach the benefits of Yoga to your students, while you are stressed out over your bills.

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Great Tips For Teaching Vinyasa Yoga

By Faye Martins

While there are several forms of yoga that can help people maximize health and increase flexibility, vinyasa yoga is particularly effective in generating these great results. In many cases, people who are passionate about yoga find themselves drawn to the idea of teaching vinyasa yoga as a profession. This can be an incredibly powerful and positive experience for many reasons, including the fact that individuals who make this vocational choice can play an integral role in helping others optimize wellness while accomplishing other significant health-related goals. In order to become the best vinyasa yoga instructor, implement the following tips and tricks:

1. Get Certified.

This is the first step towards becoming an excellent vinyasa yoga teacher. Certification is important for many reasons, including the fact that reputable fitness centers and wellness companies will typically not employ people who have not completed coursework or training programs indicating their proficiency in the field. With that thought in mind, it is important to seek out a certification program that will offer the type of extensive knowledge and practical experiences that will facilitate mastery of vinyasa yoga. This objective can be accomplished in numerous ways, including by conducting a keyword search of "vinyasa yoga certification" in the search field of an internet browser. Once individuals locate certification programs that are comparable to their goals and budgets, they can enroll and obtain the certification.

2. Practice Before You Preach.

Although getting certified in vinyasa yoga is the first step towards excelling as a teacher of this form of yoga, certification is only the beginning in the journey towards becoming an excellent instructor. The next part of the journey involves devoting continual time and attention to mastering the movements. Once individuals get in the habit of practicing vinyasa yoga moves consistently, they will excel in "preaching"-or telling students exactly how to execute the moves correctly. To get the most out of this strategy, it's a good idea to designate a specific place and period of time to practicing. For some people, this might mean doing vinyasa yoga for thirty minutes right after waking up. For others, it could mean practicing for one hour during a lunch break.

3. Ask For Assistance.

Irrespective of the industry that an individual works in, having a mentor or advisor is an almost sure-fire way to become more effective and productive in completing work-related assignments and generating personal growth. Since this is the case, individuals who have opted to become vinyasa yoga instructors should take the time to find a person with extensive education and experience in the field. Asking this person for assistance with personal and professional development can take individuals from good to great with respect to their level of expertise in teaching this form of yoga.

4. Engage Your Audience. 

Vinyasa yoga is a life-giving form of exercise that involves the execution of fluid movements and studied breathing that can make the physical activity both fun and challenging. Yoga instructors who want to help their students get the most out of the practice should do all that they can to make the class engaging and interactive. This can involve anything from asking the students whether they are able to breathe steadily while executing movements to walking around the classroom in order to determine whether students are moving their arms and legs correctly. When instructors engage their audience and demonstrate that they are genuinely concerned about the well-being of their students, the class can go from good to great.

Conclusion

While the aforementioned techniques and tricks are certainly not exhaustive, they do provide aspiring vinyasa yoga instructors with several strategies they can implement to excel at what they do. By utilizing some or all of the teaching tips outlined above, the experience of teaching this form of yoga can be absolutely amazing.

Faye Martins, is a Yoga teacher and a graduate of the Yoga teacher training program at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA.

Going Green with Yoga Distance Learning Courses

By Faye Martins

Are you looking to take yoga teacher classes to improve your skills? Are you earth-conscious? Distance learning courses for yoga certification have many advantages over traditional courses. Among others, saving time and money are huge benefits. One often overlooked benefit of taking distance learning courses is the reduced impact on the environment. Taking yoga distance learning courses is another way to go green or continue to green your lifestyle because distance learning courses are intrinsically greener than traditional courses

Go Green with Distance Learning Yoga Teacher Courses

Taking distance learning courses instead of traditional yoga instructor courses eliminates the need to drive or use public transportation to get to class, thereby reducing gasoline usage and emission pollution. Taking even half of your courses by distance learning helps to improve the environment. This also lengthens the life of your vehicle and saves you money.

Further, it reduces your stress because there is no hassle of “getting to” class. Just log on, click and go. Learn at home, the library, the park, or local coffee shop. No need to skip work or miss time with your family; take your class studies with you in your laptop. When you are finished with each class, just log off with no hassle of a traffic jam to get home. Taking distance learning courses to become a yoga teacher also means you have more time to study or practice what you’ve learned instead of commuting to and from school.

Yoga distance learning programs spend less energy on serving students than traditional classes due to building maintenance expenses and costs for utilities. Going green with distance learning yoga certification courses also means that the teacher trainer and school is using less paper to print course work such as the syllabus and assignments. Learn online and save trees by saving paper. It also lessens the use of copiers reducing the amount of ink and toner purchased and increases the life of the machines. Distance learning is also a greener approach because it allows the student to access more materials online rather than in paper format. Books can be read online. Videos of lectures or demonstrations, and course content can be viewed on your laptop or tablet.

Considering taking a yoga teacher certification course? Consider a green approach by taking yoga teacher training distance learning courses and improve the environment while improving yourself.

© Copyright – Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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Yogic Happiness and Mindfulness

By: Virginia Iversen, M.Ed

Entwining the diversified healing practices of Yoga has the ability to create a very strong foundation for nurturing and sustaining vibrant physical, emotional and spiritual health. The paths of Yoga have become so well-known that many holistic educational institutions are now offering courses based on the integration of Yoga, positive psychology, mindfulness practices, and happiness. Yogic practices, techniques and philosophies offer a practitioner many ways to improve his or her mental and physical health and well-being.

Similar to Yogic principles is Gautama's understanding and experience of why there is suffering in the world and how we create and sustain a state of suffering by our own thoughts, actions and beliefs. After a long, arduous process of inquiry and self-discovery, Gautama finally came to rest underneath the protective boughs of a large tree. As the story goes, Gautama meditated underneath this tree throughout the night. In the morning, he had come to a state of understanding about the nature of existence, the suffering inherent in all life and how to free oneself from this suffering.  

During the night, Gautama also came to many profound realizations about how to acknowledge our own universal suffering while maintaining a state of internal equipoise. Gautama recommends that we acknowledge our own suffering and the suffering of those around us from a place of witness consciousness. From that day forward, Gautama would become known as the Buddha, or the Enlightened One. He is one of the most well-known and beloved spiritual teachers of all time. Gautama and his followers distilled the essential cause and nature of suffering in the Four Noble Truths. 

The Four Noble Truths encompass the reality of the suffering that all living beings experience at some point in their lives. The First Noble Truth speaks to the objective reality of suffering inherent in being alive. The Second Noble Truth objectively recognizes how painful it is to try to hold onto life situations and circumstances that are constantly changing. This includes relationships, jobs and life itself. The Third Noble Truth addresses the underlying lack of satisfaction in our lives. This thirst to quench the longing for satisfaction and understanding takes many forms, including greed, anger, despair, and addiction. 

The Fourth Noble Truth is essentially Gautama’s answer to the way out of the previously mentioned quandaries. The Fourth Noble Truth encompasses the Eightfold Path of Buddhism. The Eightfold Path lays out eight steps or ethical injunctions and actions that will eventually lead a seeker towards a permanent state of enlightenment and oneness with the Divine. The Eightfold Path is visually represented by the Dharma Wheel that delineates all eight steps leading a Yogi or Yogini toward illumination. 

One of the aspects of the Eightfold Path is right speech. The term “right speech” refers to both speaking the truth and speaking in such a way as to uplift those around you and to not cause harm. Although practicing right speech may seem simplistic and easy to do at first; on deeper analysis, the full practice of right speech is quite profound. In the Pali Canon, one of the primary texts of Buddhism, right speech is defined as refraining from divisive speech, abusive speech, lying, and gossiping. In the Buddhist text, the Abhaya Sutta, adhering to the principal of right speech is to never lie or speak in such as way that your speech is ill-timed, not beneficial or disagreeable to others.

Of course, as a Yoga student, you may have to weigh the ultimate goal of implementing right speech with your need for assistance doing a specific Yoga pose. For example, if you are having trouble doing a headstand, asking for assistance from your Yoga teacher is certainly advisable, even if your need for help may be disagreeable if your teacher appears to be stressed or busy with another student. Timing your request for assistance in a respectful and patient manner would be implementing right speech in terms of your Yoga practice. This is a simple example of how the cognitive practices of Buddhist inquiry and mindful awareness work beautifully in tandem with the practice of the various techniques of Yoga, including Yoga poses, mediation exercises and self-inquiry practices. 

© Copyright – Virginia Iversen / Aura Wellness Center – Publications Division

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