Why Your Yoga Teacher Training Should Include “Sound Yoga”
Why Your Yoga Teacher Training Should Include “Sound Yoga”
Our senses help us navigate the world, collecting information and reacting to it. The central nervous system relays messages to our brains about sights, touch, smells, and sounds. Modern lifestyles are often overwhelming to the senses, and we seek yoga to restore the body's natural peace. We think about yoga addressing movement, breath, and mindfulness, but what would it be like to weave sounds into your teachings?
Sound Yoga
Sound yoga is sometimes called mantra yoga and developed before hatha yoga. The ancient yogic scripture, the Vedas, passed from teacher to student via oral tradition. Verses were chanted, linking sound to pranayama. Spoken mantras are manifests of the Sanskrit letters and words symbolizing creation.
Traditionally, yogic teachings reference the noises and silence within as the "inner sound," reached by meditation. It's believed that this experience is the sound of the nadis - the body's energy pathways.
In the present day, sound yoga has healing properties. Our worlds, bodies, and minds all operate at particular vibrations. Sound yoga creates changes in those vibrations to realign ourselves by using sound waves. We then become realigned to our true selves.
Instruments for sound yoga
Incorporating balancing sounds is more complex than simply creating a playlist when teaching yoga. Expertly using sound takes knowledge, practice, and a few tools.
Your voice is the most accessible and powerful tool for creating healing sounds within the body. Humming AUM, reciting mantras, and chanting are all options to engage your students.
Singing bowls are another option. Audible vibrations are created when the singing bowls are rubbed or tapped. The sounds continue as the bowl's rim is rubbed, which resonates through the space and all those in it.
Gongs are metal drums, struck with a short-handled mallet to create sounds that vary from piercing to deep. The manner of the strike determines the sound, allowing for complicated vibrations.
Drums are another option to use sound for healing and are particularly adept at creating a meditative state. The coordination and timing of the drum beat lulls the listener into a state of relaxed mindfulness.
Incorporating sound into your yoga teachings
There is ample opportunity to play with sound as you teach. You may also find that many types of sound instruments easily weave into a yoga session.
Mantras, chants, and opening practice with AUM help your students ground themselves and solidify the intention of the practice. These reinforcing sounds also serve to conclude a yoga session.
You may also choose to weave a physical instrument into your teachings, or create an entire yoga class devoted to sound. Part of your students' sound experience is building a bridge between the sound and its meaning, history, and associated mantras and stories.
A sound yoga experience has the distinct advantage of providing your students with an auditory focus, relieving them of any distractions that often accompany pranayama and meditations. There are many reasons to encourage your students to listen to their bodies, and sounds help to guide the way.
Searching for a Registered Yoga School that Provides “Sound Yoga” Teacher Training? Check out Prema Yoga Institute’s Sound Yoga Therapy Training
While you’re here, we’d love to invite you to consider our Online (Accredited) courses at Prema Yoga Institute. Prema Yoga Institute is based in New York City, but is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. (And this link goes directly to sign up for Sound Yoga Therapy.)
PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
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Why Choosing 300-hr Yoga Teacher Training that counts towards a Yoga Therapy Certification is a Wise Investment
Why Choosing 300-hr Yoga Teacher Training that counts towards a Yoga Therapy Certification is a Wise Investment
Teaching yoga is a broad-stroke approach to generalized wellness, fitness, and spiritual health. In contrast, Yoga Therapy is a science-based method to apply yogic-based principles to an individual's specific health challenges. Continuing your education after earning your RYT200 can take you down the path towards becoming a Certified Yoga Therapist.
Why become a Yoga Therapist
You may have a calling to specialize your yoga teaching career beyond group classes and weekend workshops. Yoga Therapy allows you to develop one-on-one relationships with your clients to address their specific health concerns. Extensive knowledge is needed in two primary areas: one, learning the human body's anatomy, physiology, and many disease processes. And two, safely use yogic traditions and principles to address illness, disease, and changes within the body and mind.
The Yoga Therapist has a place alongside health care workers and modern medicine. As the importance of holistic care evolves, the need for Yoga Therapists increases. Addressing personal health challenges can then be cared for from many angles.
Building your education to become a Yoga Therapist
The road to becoming a Yoga Therapist is five times as long as the first yoga teacher training course, the RYT200. This process seems daunting but can be broken down into steps that enhance your career as you study.
The first step is the RYT200 certification. That is the preliminary requirement to continue more advanced yoga teacher training, only one of which is the Yoga Therapy program. After completing the RYT200, you can teach as you pursue continuing education.
Then consider enrolling in an RYT300 program focusing on skills and knowledge related to becoming a Yoga Therapist. This intermediate step moves you closer to advanced certifications. At the same time, the RYT300 certification and your RYT200 certification propel you to RYT500 status. Your teaching experiences and advanced coursework boost your career and help serve your community.
Completing your RYT300 also gives you the credentials and experience to become a yoga teacher of future teachers. This professional career growth may afford you the resources and time to further your education even more.
Finding the best RYT 300 program
The options for continuing your advanced yoga teacher trainings are plentiful, with many accredited online courses available. The content and primary focus of the RYT300 training will benefit your Yoga Therapy path when a few important principles are met.
Remembering that yoga and Yoga Therapy are becoming more individual-focused, modules including Yoga Therapeutic Essentials, Ayurveda, and how yoga integrates with health care are the top priorities in an RYT300 course.
Yoga Therapeutic Essentials address the building blocks of yoga gently to address injuries, joints, and muscles. There is a focus on anatomy, and supporting mental health during injury and disease. Ayurveda is the ancient approach to holistically helping the body with diet, movement, meditation, and pranayama. Course work addressing advanced anatomy and physiology study builds the foundation for a deeper understanding of disease processes.
The path of your yoga career need not be in a straight line, nor at a specified pace. Completing your RYT300 gives you credentials to use immediately to further your studies.
Interested in Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings?
While you’re here, we’d love to invite you to visit Prema Yoga Institute (Registered Yoga School) for in-person or online accredited training programs in this field. Prema Yoga Institute provides in-person training in New York City, but is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022.
PYI is an accredited, registered yoga school (RYS) based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
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Online Certified YTT - 5 Benefits of Enrolling in Online Yoga Teacher Training
Online Certified YTT - 5 Benefits of Enrolling in Online Yoga Teacher Training
Yoga students and teachers often have that pull, that desire, to learn more about this sacred practice. There are plenty of courses that offer advanced yoga teacher training which can help in your pursuit of credentials, but what if you don’t have the time or travel is not an option? Years ago, attending a scheduled yoga teacher training was the only option. Today, there are fantastic online yoga teacher training courses that allow you to learn at your desk, with many benefits over in-person training.
1. Saving money is a major benefit of Online Yoga Teacher Training
Perhaps the most apparent benefit to enrolling in online yoga teacher training is saving time and money. Online courses tend to be more affordable than in-person training, and you will be saving travel dollars by not attending a school.
Online yoga teacher training also means that courses previously taught in far-off locations are suddenly at your fingertips. Yes, you will save on travel, housing, and the yoga education that calls to you is available. For folks living in a small town with limited offerings, an online option means you’re able pursue teacher training in a New York Yoga Studio without having to re-locate, for example.
2. Create your own comfortable environment
Today's busy lifestyles and schedules don't always mesh with in-person learning. Your studies fit into your schedule by participating in a yoga teaching course online. You will also work through the course syllabus at your speed, and in some cases, choose the order of topics or modules.
When you do settle into your space to learn, you have the opportunity to make your study area unique to your needs. Many in-person trainings may not provide the physical comfort that your home or office does, often you spend hours in a hard chair or on your mat.
When planning your space, consider seating, colors, pillows, sounds, lighting, and any other decor and ambiance that suits your personality. Allow for easy charging of any technology you use to study, just in case.
3. Self-Paced Learning With On-Demand Curriculum
We all process and learn information in different ways. Online yoga teacher training lets you study according to your best learning method. Are you more of a visual or auditory learner? Do you like to watch videos again, are you a note-taker, or do you articulate and repeat the information? You no longer have to maneuver your learning style around a classroom setting.
The coursework and materials may also differ from in-person yoga teacher trainings. With videos, take advantage of pause, rewind, and even start again at a different time.
Online discussions with fellow students and instructors can include email, video calls, conference calls, even texting. Choose the communication method that you prefer.
4. More opportunities to focus on a specific passion
With the vast opportunities to enhance your yoga teacher educationv, you can choose to obtain an RYT200, RYT300, or even an RYT500 online. You may also choose to dive into Ayurveda or study to become a Yoga Therapist. While these courses are longer, they concentrate on specific paths to support wellness.
The option to concentrate on a more precise topic is also available online. Courses may be a short and singular continuing education class, a shorter course, or even a few modules of more extensive programs. And chances are, you will find a course that suits you available all the time without waiting for a specific start date.
5. Real-world experiences of virtual learning
Studying such an interpersonal tradition as yoga can seem daunting without direct contact. However, this is becoming how the world operates. Your experiences with virtual learning give you immense insights into your students' feelings as they practice with you.
You also have the possibility of expanding your yoga community beyond the physical distance to your teachings. Your students don't need to be your neighbors. There's no time like the present to get going on your yoga teaching education.
Searching for an accredited Online Advanced Yoga Teacher Training program?
Consider viewing our online course at PremaYogaInstitute.com - Prema Yoga Institute is longer limited to New York City and is now available online with interactive trainings through 2022. PYI is an accredited program based in New York city, teaching students around the globe through online classes. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you advance your yoga practice and teaching!
While you’re here, we’d love to invite you to consider our Online (Accredited) courses at Prema Yoga Institute. Enrollment for our upcoming Online Course “Yoga Therapeutics Essentials” is now open and features:
Yoga for All Bodies
Pranayama, Philosophy, Meditations
Restorative Yoga Essentials
Slow Flow Essentials
Introduction to Ayurveda and One-on-One Yoga
Care for the Caregiver Focus: Restorative Yoga
3 weeks of meaningful live hours with your faculty and cohort
Option to complete online or in person for selected hours at Pure Yoga in New York City
In-person registrants receive one month of complimentary yoga classes at Pure Yoga through February (for non-members only)
Learn more at: PremaYogaInstitute.com
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