admin The number of yoga teachers in the world is growing, thanks to the many teacher training available from India to Morocco to the USA to the UK.
Some practitioners may be intimidated by the vast number of teachers who are already available. They would love to share their passion for yoga and teach others.
The competition between yoga studios and instructors is fierce. If you want to make money, teaching isn’t the right place to begin.
But I’d like to make a case for those who are interested in becoming yoga teachers but doubt their abilities, question their desire to do so, or think it isn’t worth the effort.
“Soon everyone will be a teacher …”
Last winter, I took my second yoga training. As I walked into the studio to attend the weekly Kirtan, I heard two teachers talking at the front door.
One to another, in what could only be described as a disappointment, they sighed, “Soon everybody’s going be a teacher.” My heart sank because I felt suddenly unwelcome in ‘their’ world. But I can understand some teachers’ concerns.
It’s easy to forget the reasons why you began teaching yoga or even why you would want to start. But please stay with me as I try to dispel the concerns of both existing and aspiring teachers.
Multiple Discovery and The Hundredth Monkey Effect
Multiple discoveries were first introduced to me by Elizabeth Gilbert in her book Big Magic. In a general sense, it is when two major discoveries are made at the same time in different parts of our planet.
Gilbert makes a nod that other forces may be at work, but I think it’s about our collective awareness.
In my summer holiday, I read a lot of Paulo Coelho’s books. This was the second time that this topic came up. It inspired me to create this article. Coelho told a similar story, but the setting was in the animal kingdom. This version of “multiple discoveries” became known as the “hundredth monk effect.”
In this case, monkeys were taught to wash sweet potatoes on an island before eating them. The younger generations first learned the new behavior by observing and mimicking their elders – a very common behavior.
Then, something strange happened. Other groups of monkeys began to do the same thing on different islands and other parts of the world. The theory was that the monkeys were somehow able to transmit their behavior to other groups despite not having any physical contact.
It has its critics and its literature, The Hundredth Monkey. It is a fascinating theory, and I believe it to be true, but it also has its critics.
This collective consciousness fuels the increasing number of yoga teachers around the world.
This idea of collective awareness is why I think the world, universe, and cosmos would be happy to have a glut of yoga teachers.
Every person can benefit from yoga, whether they want to spread meditation and mindfulness or teach the next generation of acrobatic, crazy yogis. As our cyber world continues to grow, we are losing touch with our communities and social networks.
We use Tinder to find love, and we ‘watch’ old friends whom we have never spoken to on Facebook.
Yoga connects us all, however little, to our source. This new connection can bring about even the slightest changes in the way we view the world.
Maybe YOU can help. You might not be rich if you teach yoga, but that is almost certainly not the reason you are considering it.
