Name: Vera Powles
Nationality: Portuguese & British
Age: 35
Were do you live? Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (North East of England)

With so many yoga teacher trainings to chose from, what made you chose TNV's 200 hour teacher training? I knew I wanted to teach yoga as a part of my professional career so the focus that TNV puts on educating their students on sustainable yoga careers and entrepreneurship alongside key skills required to be of service to my own students was a deciding factor.

Lisa and Elin's careers and fields of expertise, as well as their guest teachers, inspired me and gave me the confidence that I'd be in the best hands during my training. I wanted to feel that I was using every second of my 200hr YTT to build my skills and knowledge and with TNV I've got that and so much more! 

What was the training like for you and what were some skills and qualities you left with?
I loved every second of the training; The location and venue are outstanding - I felt comfortable, well looked after and nourished all the way through.

All the teachers are incredible knowledgeable, approachable and friendly. I didn't feel that we have spent time doing anything that wasn't valuable or productive. Every day was a challenge and I felt out of my comfort zone many times but found my growth through that. Elin and Lisa's message to "not play small" still echoes in my mind and heart whenever I'm struck by impostor syndrome.

TNV has this special way of attracting like-minded people so I fostered friendships for life and gained a network of recent graduates which has been so supportive! I worked hard during the YTT but also don't remember ever having laughed so much.

Overall it was the experience of a lifetime and something I'll never forget. Professionally I gained all the skills I needed to start teaching to a very good level. Personally, I overcame many limiting beliefs and learn so much about myself.
 
What's your journey been like since the ttc? 
I started teaching the month after I completed my training and for the last 9 months have been building my own yoga community. I've launched a new website including an online wellness membership and recently hosted my first day-retreat.

What's your best advice for new yoga teachers wanting to get started teaching? 
Before anything else, take time to sit down and identify your values, your teaching style and class description. These will be your compass for everything that you do and you'll feel more aligned as a teacher. Talk to everyone you know and meet about your passion for yoga and your vision and you'll see unexpected partnerships and opportunities manifest into your life.

Do you teach, if so where? What format? What are your offerings? 
I'm an independent teacher so I host weekly vinyasa classes in a beautiful lifestyle shop called Mascara Studio, which is local to me. I also host monthly Yoga Socials in a really cool brewery, Full Circle Brew Co. where yogis have the change to meet and chat over a coffee or craft beer after the class. Recently I've hosted a day retreat which included yoga, meditation, pranayama, journalling and other mindful activities, a soundbath and lots of yummy healthy food. My biggest project at the moment is my online membership which I create weekly content for.
 
Instagram: manaliving.co.uk

Website: https://manaliving.co.uk

If you are keeping on eye on us you may have noticed that we went from promoting the idea of a 300 hr Advanced Yoga Teacher Training (step 2, if you will), to instead offering a 50 hr advanced yoga teacher training. Do we not believe in further education? Yes we do. But yes, we did have a change of hearts. Here is why.

Quality Problem. On the foundational level, the Yoga Alliance 200 hour format has to follow certain guidelines and a certain curriculum. But there is also a lot of freedom to shape your training. The 200 hour course can be an online course, a weekend modular course or an intensive format. It can be of any lineage or style of yoga – a known one or a made up one. It can be hosted by a yoga teacher training novice who'll never do it again, it can be hosted by a big corporation or an experienced celebrity teacher and everything in-between. The methodology can be an authoritarian one of absolutes, or one that encourages critical thinking. It can be in a group of 80 or a group of 5. These are so many variables. Add to it the fact that an advanced 300 hour training for business reason will probably have to welcome teachers with any level of actual teaching experience, and you have a few more things to consider.

All this combined means that most Advanced Teacher Trainings out there spend a lot of time simply aligning everyone with THIS training's methodology. Ensuring that everyone has the foundational knowledge deemed important by THIS teacher. Content-wise, an Advanced Yoga Teacher Training is often very similar to a Foundational Yoga Teacher Training. In fact, it's not uncommon that 200 hour YTT students are in the same group as 300 hour YTT students. This may work for some, but it doesn't align well with True North Vinyasa's mission. It becomes a quality issue. We want to raise the bar and professionalism for yoga teachers. We just couldn't make it work in this format.  

Accessibility Problem. We believe in the immersion format. Not modules, not in front of a screen. We love the idea of checking out from the world and fully dive into practice and professional growth. It's life changing. We've seen it work for many years in our 200 hr trainings, and we want to work in this way. For a 300 hour training, this gives you the option to do 10 hours per day for 30 days straight, or two modules of about 2 weeks (which we were planning on). Either way, it's a huge commitment in time and money. Too big for most people, meaning not accessible. We couldn't see it happening. We started to question the idea.

Solution. We went back to the drawing board and asked ourselves: Yoga Alliance format aside, what is it we want? What are yoga teachers longing for? We went back the survey we did with our graduates. Some wanted that Advanced Certificate. Some wanted to be able to write 500 hr teacher on their website. But most just wanted to learn, to practice and to evolve. Most had figured out that to be a skilled yoga teacher doesn't stand in direct relation to the amount of training hours. Once we were able to free ourselves from the format, it was fairly easy to come up with an amazing course. Immersion format in a beautiful place. Under one week. Focusing on the areas that we consider our strengths. Not worrying about what "should" be on the curriculum. Putting together something that we know we can guarantee at a super high quality. So here we have it, a 5 day Advanced Yoga Teacher Training focused on sequencing vinyasa, theming classes, defining your brand and creating business in the world of yoga, and 50 hours of YACEP credits. In the Swiss Alps, September 24–29 2023.

We (and many others) are hoping that Yoga Alliance in the near future will allow you to create your own 300 hour certificate by combining shorter trainings from different accredited specialists. That would make sense. This way you could take 6 wonderful one-week trainings from experts in their field and become exactly the authentic teacher you deserve to be.       

     

Marketing is uncomfortable for many yoga teachers. It can feel egocentric to talk about yourself and your strengths. It can feel show-off-y to pose in front of a camera. But of course, if you want someone to attend your class, you may have to promote yourself to some degree. Generic stock photography might feel like a good idea at first. But it's not personal and it's a missed opportunity to be authentic. So let's talk about posing for yoga pictures. Here are our top tips and tricks. The list is based on years of working with our in-house talent, photographer Isla Grossi, and it's a compilation of our combined experience. 

Prepare well:

1. Spend some time on your brand. Consider your purpose as a yoga teacher, as well as your core values and how you can get them across in your classes. Doing this will help you decide poses, locations and outfits. Is playfulness important to you? Show it in your pictures. Is spirituality important? Get that across visually. 
2. Consider who your target audience is – who most appreciate your classes? Having some clarity here will also help you decide the details. Will they be inspired by your one-handed handstand, or just intimidated?
3. Hire a professional photographer.
4. Have a plan, image by image so you can be efficient and professional. 
5. If your photographer doesn't know yoga, bring another yoga teacher or yoga practitioner who can help you with alignment details. It makes a big difference. 
6. Taking pictures in a few different outfits and colours, in different hair styles and locations might be useful. Make it look like several photo shoots, basically.
7. Arrange a few pictures with a lot of sky or an empty wall or floor where you can place text in promotional material.
8. Some close-up details of hands and feet can be very useful.
9. Simple is usually a good idea.  
10. Be respectful of cultural and religious symbols and attributes that are not fully yours.

Yoga photography things that may not work for everyone:

• Yogi squat - tends to draw the mind to urgent pee-breaks and crotches.
• Headstand straight up - strangely enough doesn't look very interesting. A leg variation makes all the difference. 
• Goddess pose has a tendency to not photograph very well.
• Standing splits unless you are extremely flexible tends to look unimpressive.
• Forward folds tend to not invite the viewer in.
• Anything with a lot of butt, like Downward facing dog or Puppy pose means some angles just won't work.
• Low to the ground arm balances, like Eight angle pose, can be hard to photograph well.

Yoga photography things that usually work well:

• Warriors and lunges usually look accessible but strong.
• Side plank variations are also strong and your face is shown.
• Twists, looking over the shoulder, usually photograph well.
• Dynamic backbends like Dancer's pose or Wild thing tend to photograph well.
• Arm and hand variations can be good for close-ups or to put a personal twist on a simple pose like High lunge.
• A non-typical outfit can also add personality to a simple pose (jeans, boots, a hat...).
• A smile takes the edge off and a serious face can make you look more spiritual.

All this is general but maybe helpful if you are about to get (possibly) out of your comfort zone and into yoga photography posing. Have fun and good luck!

Every day life as a yoga teacher can feel lonely. You might even feel like other yoga teachers in your community are competition, fighting for the same students.

With that mindset – I'm lonely and I have competition – it might become a struggle to build a personal and strong yoga brand. Instead, rise up and change 180 degrees. You are not alone. You don't have to feel lonely. Yoga teachers around you are colleagues, working towards the same thing; more people doing yoga.

We need each other for many reasons:

• Growth within the profession. Other yoga teachers have skills that can inspire you to up your game. Learn from them. 
• Moral support. As in any creative job, you'll go through your ups and downs. It's highly valuable to have someone around who will understand this and encourage you through your dips.
• Collaborations. Working with others will give tenfold back. It also means you don't have to do EVERYTHING by yourself. Play your strengths. 
• Referrals. What? Yes. Shift from feeling like you're not enough, into serving those who most benefit from your classes. Refer other students to local teachers who might suit their needs even better. Niche yourself with a clear target group.
• Exchange of services. As in, why not help each other with non-teaching skills, such as pricing, marketing, social media, photography etcetera? It's too much for one person to be good at!  
• Attending classes. Keep going to classes. In each class, you will find a little something that expands your horizon. An expression, a transition, a pose variation or a theme. Find someone to exchange class attendance with.

At True North Vinyasa, we always try to encourage continued growth and community after our 200hr yoga teacher training. Finally this year, we can offer our very first Yoga Teacher's Boost Retreat. This will be an opportunity to practice, learn and build relations. Hope you can join us!

To sequence a vinyasa class around a peak pose is a planning tool. Yes, correct. It's not about doing the pose itself. It's about using that pose as a lighthouse in the distance, then navigating towards it. It's about preparing your students' bodies for a fair and safe chance to approach the pose. In reality, quite often you won't even do that pose. You certainly won't tell the class that you have a peak pose. It's a planning tool. How?

1. It gives you a direction and a physical theme. We cannot do all the fun stuff in every class, so this is a simple way of crossing out poses and cues that don't fit into the theme. 

2. It forces you to analyse a pose and dissect it, to taste it and try it and figure out its' components, energies, alignment and actions. For example, Flying Pigeon (Eka Pada Galavasana, demonstrated by BKS Iyengar above) is a Figure Four shape in the front leg on top of a Chaturanga, with the action of shooting the back leg upwards.

3. Once you have figured out the above, simply look for other poses with similar alignment, actions and angles. How can you teach the pose without doing the pose? We usually recommend identifying 5 key poses that pick up the components of your complex pose in a simpler way.

4. Now you can sequence your class. Use the key poses, the suitable actions and alignment as well as verbal cues throughout your warm-up and main part of class. Always plan a well-rounded and balanced class with all different movements the body can do, but use your peak pose to navigate. 

Interested to learn more? 
September 2022 True North Retreat in Switzerland ››
November 2022 Vinyasa Flow Teacher Training in Portugal ››

Anatomy, philosophy and class sequencing – these are typical subjects that might come to mind when we think about advancing our yoga teaching skills and growing in our profession. But there are a whole range of less obvious skills that you'll need to develop in order to become a really good yoga teacher. Let's call them non-yoga skills. It's everything else you have to be good at, other than your topic. And it's a lot. 

Who else other than a yoga teacher gives a 90 minute memorised yet adaptable speech – a crazy mix of a technical manual, stand-up comedy and lecture all in one – several times a week? And these are just some of the skills you need to some degree in order to become a yoga teacher with an edge. Between doing your taxes, being a social media expert and organising events, it's a lot. You have to be a bit of a polymath – a person whose expertise spans different subject areas.

As a yoga teacher, it's clever to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe by giving yourself a score between 1-10 from the list below. Then make a plan for the next couple of years. Play your strengths. Deepen your knowledge in areas you love. Become an expert in your natural areas of interest and skill. But don't just do that. Develop your weak areas as well. Especially if you have been teaching for a while already. Learn, grow and broaden. Gain confidence.

So what are some of these non-yoga skills?

1. Public Speaking skills. You stand in front of people and give instructions. This is the very definition of public speaking. You need to address the class without feeling nervous or awkward, whether you are facing 40 students or 2.
2. Customer Service skills. No matter to what degree you teach, you are a business. And customer service is the key to most successful businesses. You must help people, be reliable, give a little extra, answer questions, be cheerful and friendly. 
3. Communication skills. You have to give a 90 minute non-stop speech with well chosen words. You have to vary your language and it helps to have a sense of rhythm and poetry, to offer cultural references and have a sense of humor. Meanwhile you have to speak clearly. To the whole group, but also connect on an individual level.
4. Leadership skills. You have to be a good example. By practicing and learning, making healthy lifestyle choices and bringing your energy to the class. You have to share and relate experiences in order to help students understand the practice on all levels. You show rather than just tell. This also requires a deep understanding of who you are and a good dose of honesty.
5. Business skills. You have to understand how to price what you offer, no matter to what degree you teach yoga. You must create sustainable business models and probably run your own company. 
6. Patience skills. You cannot rush into this profession. Becoming a good yoga teacher will take about 10 years, most experienced yoga teachers agree. Be humble and let it take time. Don't take on too much. 
7. Voice skills. You use your voice a lot, and you can and should work with it. Your students' nervous systems are directly affected by how your voice is perceived. 
8. Branding and Marketing skills. You are a brand, no matter to what degree you teach. Knowing who you are, what your purpose is and who your target group is are essential components to efficient marketing.    
9. Networking skills. You will likely be more sustainable if you build a network of other teachers similar to you, other yoga teachers from other lineages, specialists (such as massage therapists, therapists, physio therapists etc.), yoga studio owners etcetera, rather than just struggle on your own.    

How to price yoga is always a big topic in our True North Vinyasa 200 hour teacher trainings. It can feel uncomfortable and even wrong to put a financial value on this practice that you love and want to share. For many, especially as studios and gyms may not be an option at the moment, starting where you're standing is a good idea. Most of our trainees have colleagues, friends or family who are interested in taking their classes right after training. The big question is, how much should I charge them? What am I worth as a new yoga teacher? And, should I charge at all actually? Isn't yoga supposed to be free? 

Let's start with the last two questions. While it's true that the wisdom of yoga was once a master to student teaching tradition without financial transaction, that is no longer the case. And even then, there was an exchange of gifts (food and other offerings). If you would like to be a modern day yoga teacher and take yourself seriously, you have to be okey with talking about money. 

The thing is, yoga is free. Breath and movement exist already in every body, ready to be released. To be guided by a professional who invested in her craft however, should not be free. Step one in pricing is to know your own worth.

Step two is to understand the industry you work in. Yes, it's an industry – a huge multi billion dollar/euro industry. Being a yoga teacher, although often passion driven, is a job. Even if you are just starting out and don't rely upon yoga as an income, please understand that many others do. And that one day, you might also want to. Think sustainably and price accordingly. You want to price as if you had to live off teaching even if you don't. Otherwise you sabotage for others. 

But what if you are a brand new yoga teacher then? Wouldn't it make sense to charge less than a more experienced yoga teacher? Of course, if that makes you feel more comfortable. The trick, and we can call this step three, is then to set a time limit on your little internship. If you teach a small group of friends because the practice of teaching has a high value for you, communicate this: "For 3 months, my classes will be €10 per person because I want to build experience teaching a group. After this, I will charge €20 per person (or whatever is standard where you live)". By the time the 3 months are up, if you have done a good job, they will stay with you and you will work sustainably, insuring high quality classes for your group and a chance for you to keep loving your new job.

A few more general tips on pricing:

• Setting a price per session rather than per person protects you and works well with corporate groups/set groups.
• Read up on general pricing principles if you have never run your own business before. Keep in mind your expenses, taxes and insurance costs – don't just make something up.
• As a yoga teacher, not all gigs will be paid well. Some are worth doing for free, if you get something else out of it (publicity, email addresses, access to a new demographic etc.). If there is no particular gain for you, don't do it. 
• Know that there is a lot psychology in pricing in general. A person will put a higher emotional value of something that has a higher financial value. In yoga that can mean that a higher investment will trigger a bigger commitment. And ultimately, committed students are good for you, and for the world.

A while back we did a survey amongst our friends and graduates. We wanted to hear from you before setting a curriculum for our Advanced Vinyasa Teacher Training. Much of what we know got confirmed, and is now the basis of our 300hr YTT program. Some of what you helped us confirm:

• The main reasons you would sign up for a 300 hr YTT were to become a more skilled yoga teacher AND to re-connect with your personal yoga practice. Learning that the certificate was not actually a primary reason helped us decide to split the training into 2 and not rush the completion of the program. Our Advanced Training is a 2 week live-in program offered once per year, and it counts for 150 hours towards an optional 500 hr certification with Yoga Alliance.  
• You are longing for the "yoga bubble" – that little space where you live and breathe yoga with nerds like yourself in a beautiful place for a solid amount of time. This helped us confirm that we are not going online, we are absolutely doing an immersion style training with amazing food and venue, and we are certainly going for the concept of an up-levelled, filled to the brim yoga retreat for yoga teachers. 
• Advanced asana, transitions and physical assists will get a lot of attention through long morning practices, workshops and asana labs. 
• Class sequencing and the art of creating a personal yoga teacher style are high on your list of priorities. We love this, we are good at this, and we will do a lot of work in this area in our Advanced Vinyasa YTT.  
• We will allow more time for yin and/or restorative yoga as a complement to vinyasa flow. This will also help you design amazing retreats and events in the future. 
• As we suspected, many of you are craving more knowledge around the business of yoga. We will discuss topics like small business ownership, how to diversify income and how to build a yoga community.  
• The Advanced Vinyasa Teacher Training will include an opportunity to take professional pictures with our all time favorite and TNV team photographer Isla Grossi. 

One of the most common questions we get from potential trainees for our foundational 200 hour vinyasa yoga teacher training is, do you think I'm ready? If you are thinking about this, you are not alone. Most who show up to their first day of training are wondering if they are ready, glancing over at the other trainees and their yoga practice. Is she stronger than me? Is he more enlightened than me?  

We've had trainees from all walks of life graduate our program with flying colors. An 18 year old recent high school graduate having a taste of freedom. A 63 year old former marketing director looking for change. A 23 year old medical student on a gap year. A 34 year old psychologist in-between jobs. Along with most of our trainees (we've graduated over 100 at the time of writing), they have a few things in common. Do you recognise yourself in any of this?  

1. Practicing yoga is important in your every day life. You prioritise your practice. You sign up for workshops, look up vinyasa classes when you travel and you schedule your social life around your favourite teachers. 
2. You are hungry for more yoga knowledge. Ready to listen to the details of chaturanga dandasana. Ready to try challenging transitions and unusual poses. Ready to hear the story behind modern yoga. Eager to connect the dots. 
3. Your practice is so advanced that you know the unimportance of advanced poses. You know that listening inwards is everything. You know that progress is highly individual, and that an asana never ends. 
4. Your yoga practice is so important to you that you are not sure you want to teach yoga at all, but may just want to keep it to yourself. (That's right. Few trainees are career minded. Few know what they want. But all are very passionate about yoga and its' effects).
5. You are ready for change. In-between things. In transition. Tired of your job. Looking for meaning. Looking for like-minded people. 
6. You have already taught yoga casually to a few colleagues or friends, and noticed that you got away with it and actually had fun. 
7. You have a personal story behind your yoga passion. It has meaning and has had an impact on your life.
8. You are looking for a challenge and an adventure.
   
9. You haven't found a teacher your love where you live, and feel like you have to take matters into your own hands and learn the craft.  

Read about our next 200 hr vinyasa yoga teacher trainings here.  And feel free to contact us if you want to discuss if our training is the right one for you!

Less of a career choice, more of a heart's desire. That's what brought most yoga teachers to start teaching. Yet, it is certainly a profession, no matter to what degree you end up teaching. Here are few things we'd like to share that might help you if you are thinking about becoming a yoga teacher. 
​

• HAVE A PRACTICE. Meaning, have somewhat of a journey in your own practice, a development, to refer back to in training and as you begin to teach. In our trainings we ask minimum 2 years of regular vinyasa practice. 
• HAVE A PASSION. Ask yourself why you would like to teach yoga. Make sure you have an answer that holds up. You will need to be passionate about your new profession – it's a competitive business out there and if your WHY is in place you'll have a great starting point. 
• COMPARE TRAININGS. This is a big one. It's time consuming. And confusing. You need to find a teacher training that suits you. A yoga teacher training is a big investment in time and money. They vary tremendously in quality because unfortunately it's a very unregulated field. There are various certifications and it can all be extremely confusing. Still, you will have to do it. Compare and read all the fine print. Contact the directors of the program if you don't already know them, and ask all your questions. Talk to them on the phone. Find out if there's a real connection. It's important. Ask for references from former trainees. Get them on the phone. Trust your gut instinct. Consider these things:

1. My local trusted teacher or a teacher I don't know with a more exciting sounding program? Well...sometimes the local option is the only option, depending on your life situation. If your local teacher offers a training and the program doesn't appeal to you, consider waiting until your life situation changes. Don't invest and risk your future relationship with your local studio owner if you're not 100% sure the program is right for you. 
2. A program on weekends for a year or a live-in 3-4 week intensive? Another one that depends on what suits you. Not everyone can take 3-4 weeks off work and life and step in to a bubble. If this is the case, the weekend set-up is great. The biggest positive with this format is that it allows plenty of time to digest all the content. But if you can do an intensive, consider it. To basically go to summer camp as an adult, for several weeks, living only yoga, is quite a treat. You are unlikely to do anything like this again in your adult life. You'll make strong connections with others, you'll check out of your regular life and get a chance to contemplate it all. Make sure you pick a training with decent quality housing and meals included though.  A program like this is quite intense and to have to scramble and shop and cook will take your attention away from the beauty of immersion. It's worth the extra money to go for the all-inclusive option.   
3. A celebrity teacher or a less known teacher? A well-known yoga teacher can look impressive on your resume and may also help future students to understand what type of yoga they can expect from you – if they know that teacher. Quite often, the well-known teacher's YTT:s are big group trainings, where you may or may not create a personal connection with the teacher. It can be soothing to be "left alone" and just do your own thing on the sidelines, but ultimately getting personal attention is of very high value. To be seen and supported is key in a training. Make sure you get to talk to a former trainee who can describe the learning environment before deciding. Be aware of guru-like hypes (they do exist) and with lesser-known and well-known teachers, inquire about the main focus of their training to ensure it suits you. 
4. In-person or online? Since 2020, many yoga teacher trainings have gone online permanently. Again, if this is your only option for lifestyle reasons, go for it. For online trainings, aim for a well established and well known teacher. This way you are more likely to be offered a professional technical solution and high quality digital material. Also, you can access teachers that may not be accessible otherwise, so go big! If you have the chance to do a yoga teacher training in person though, consider it. Yoga is all about connection and community. It's about bodies and minds and humans. It's about the senses. Spending 200 hours in front of your screen doing something this embodied and connected may or may not take you to a place of confidence as a new yoga teacher. If you can, take the opportunity to learn with others, to see others and be seen. 

• GO ALL IN ONCE YOU'RE IN TRAINING. Let go of everything else and focus fully on the content. This is your chance to immerse. You're in the conversation, in the bubble to some degree. Step in, dive in. 
• TRAINING BEGINS AFTER TRAINING. Yes. It does. Start teaching right away while all the content is fresh. Start with friends and family and just do it. Hopefully your yoga teacher training prepared you for this. Teach the same class over and over until you feel ready to create a new one. Allow everything to take time. 
• 1–2 YEARS LATER. After you start teaching, allow a year or two of a couple of classes per week until you feel comfortable delivering a class. Usually you'll enter a new phase here, of some doubt and a new longing for support and fine-tuning your skills and offerings. But that's another story. 

Interested in a vinyasa teacher training? Check out our Yoga Alliance certified 200 hour trainings here ››  And our certified Advanced vinyasa teacher training here ››