Yoga teacher training is not only a big decision but also a commitment to change your life in a profound way. Yoga certification courses for a trained mind as well as a trained body will help you to create your best future.
Since ancient times, yoga has been considered a method for whole life cultivation. While studying yoga as a student brings numerous rewards, teacher training is a unique, special, and practical way of learning yoga so as to be able to share this knowledge with others in a way that is easy for them to grasp.
Yoga in itself is an oasis in a hurried world, and teacher training is a choice to focus on your own growth and knowledge as well as building a community of conscious and conscientious souls.
While yoga is often considered to be a way to heal, strengthen, and tone the body in preparation for fulfilling higher spiritual aspirations, it is also an excellent form of mental training. While there are specific yoga practices like Raj yoga focused on mental development, the fact is that all forms of yoga train the mind.
Three Ways Yoga Cultivates the Mind
There are 3 specific ways that yoga trains the mind, regardless of the school of yoga, and regardless of whether the yoga is primarily focused on mental, physical, or spiritual development:
1. Focus and concentration: sustained interest.
It is one thing to have an inspired idea, and it is quite another to follow it through all the way to complete implementation. This power of the mind to sustain interest in an idea long past the point of original inspiration is called mental fortitude; and it is a blend of focus and concentration. Scientists and artists are known for this level of unbroken awareness. Similarly, someone who has a passion for the practices and philosophies of yoga will develop skill at this inner mental game, too.
2. Mastery of attention: completing projects.
In our world of instant communication through digital media, the norm is not sustained focus, but on flitting from one interest to another. The student learning static and flowing asanas that demand attention counters this high level of distractibility in popular culture in yoga. Over time, paying attention to technical details of a posture becomes second nature. This ability to start and end a yoga training session with impeccable concentration rolls over into every other area of a yogi’s life. While most people are good starters and poor finishers, abandoning projects in the middle out of boredom or frustration, a yogi can easily see things through from beginning to end.
3. Mental calm: maintaining presence.
Scientists, specifically neuroscientists, have discovered over many years of study on brain waves that most people function at a beta frequency, which consists of high stimulation and rapid brainwaves. Yet at this speed, the brain does not learn anything deeply. Usually, insight, comprehension, and satisfying learning experiences happen at alpha levels. Yoga, a practice that focuses on movement while maintaining awareness of the inflow and outflow of breath, automatically puts a person in an alpha state of mind. In yoga, this is called “maintaining presence.”
Summary
A trained mind is a ticket to success in life. While people often think of yoga as a physical practice, all forms of yoga automatically teach focus and concentration, mastery of attention, and mental calm.