“If you wish to learn yoga therapy well, focus on teaching one-to-one classes”, my teacher said as I was finishing my 1.5 years Yoga Acharya course in 2016. After Yogasala was launched in Jan 2017 with my first retreat to Hampi, it took another six months before I got my first student. Inspite of being the odd one out in the multitude of yoga studios and teachers taking group classes, I stuck to teaching exclusively personalised yoga classes.
One benchmark I set for myself at that time was to teach 108 hours of personal yoga classes per month at some point. With zero marketing and 100% word of mouth reference, I exceeded that goal in Feb 2019 when I taught about 115 hours. Since then I’ve been able to teach on an average close to or over 100 hours of classes a month for my students in Hyderabad and elsewhere (via Skype). And when I began my 3 years yoga therapy training in 2019 Aug, I could see the immense benefit of having taught so many 1:1 classes.
Today, as I take a yoga consultation, I’m able to look at the process with a sense of wonderment and as an opportunity to be a student of health (Arogyam) from my students. Designing a personal practice is an art. And a teacher in the Krishnamacharya tradition of yoga is nothing short of an artist.
Pranams to the gurus who held this tradition alive and passed on the light to us. I hope we become deserving vessels to carry it forward.
