The very first time I attended a yoga class, the teacher had asked if there were any first timers. As it turned out, I was the only newbie in class. The teacher then told me to simply “monkey see, monkey do” first because some unfamiliar words and yoga poses might be challenging for beginners. She will come to me whenever I needed some corrections or adjustments in executing the poses. All I thought being a yoga teacher is as simple as knowing the poses and then students will just follow. At that time, I did not make so much attention understanding the yoga practice.
When I joined the Yoga Teacher Training (YTT), it made me realize that it was not as simple as I think it is to be a yoga teacher. I wished that If I could just simply translate the monkey see monkey do approach to telling my students like “just do this, then like this, and do like that…” then teaching yoga could have been easier isn’t it?
Till today, I still struggle preparing a lesson plan, putting together the instructions into words and then delivery to teach in actual is even more challenging. While teaching, I even still get confused which is my left and right when giving instructions while facing my students. Long way to go for me to teach with confidence. I need lots and lots and lots of practice!
And with this realizations and challenges during YTT, I had so much respect to yoga teachers.
