From The Mysore Room To Your Living Room - My Path to Becoming a Private Yoga Teacher
In 2012 with twelve years of yoga practice under my belt, I decided to deepen my understanding of yoga with a foundational 200 hour teacher training. This program was well regarded for its faculty, content, and preparation of prospective teachers, however, it brought to light how much I didn’t know about yoga and the massive topic of study it can be. Of the many topics that were touched upon in those 200 hours, the practical application and skills geared towards teaching privately were never even mentioned.
200 hours of training felt like insufficient preparation to teach anyone anything about yoga, but it did teach me how much I didn’t know! I felt like I needed 200 years of further study to gain a modicum of understanding.
Luckily after completing this training I had zero aspirations or interest for teaching, so it was okay by me to be ill prepared to teach. I was already established in a career as an Account Executive in the digital advertising world, but the curiosity and interest of yoga deepened and led me further on the path.
Shortly after I finished my teacher training in 2012, I decided to continue as a student and began a practice in the Mysore room at Pure Yoga East in NYC. A Mysore room is a class format named after Mysore, India, where the tradition of Ashtanga yoga has its roots. Mysore is a supervised self led practice for which each student is taught a specific sequence of postures individually so they can memorize and advance at a comfortable rate with confidence.
When you see a Mysore room in action it appears that everyone is doing yoga asanas randomly in silence, however, Ashtanga yoga is a very specific practice with a lot of exactness. Having a skilled teacher is necessary.
Talking and speaking in a Mysore room is done informally and quietly between student and teacher unlike the model we have become accustomed to in modern times whereby a teacher pontificates at the front of the room. The contemporary westernized representation of teaching yoga (opposite to the Mysore setting) was how I was taught to teach during my 200 hour training. Conversely, the role of the teacher in a Mysore room is to work with each individual student at different moments in their personal practice. Students who practice in a Mysore room are dedicated and consistent to their yoga practice-showing up to class anywhere from 3-6 days a week.
I naturally took to this method for many reasons and quickly advanced on a physical level. Soon into my personal study of Ashtanga yoga, I was called upon by my teacher to assist him in the room. This entailed introducing new students to this foreign format of yoga by guiding them through the sequence for memorization as well as providing tips and hands on adjustments to already established practitioners. Quickly, though unintentionally, I learned to teach yoga in a very authentic and deep way. I was learning to teach as it has been done in ancient India in the guru shishya parampara tradition in which the guru imparts wisdom to the disciple through a relationship of trust over a long period of time. The Mysore room turned into the teacher training I needed all along.
Pure Yoga Mysore Class 2017
Two years of assisting in the Mysore room, I was granted my own Mysore teaching hours three days a week as an extension to the existing Mysore program at Pure Yoga East in NYC. I was on the schedule as a paid teacher while continuing to work my day job in Advertising. Slowly I built a dedicated group of students with whom I loved sharing my knowledge of the practice. Teaching was much more gratifying and purposeful than how I was otherwise spending my time earning a living.
Despite this very niche and skilled level of teaching I was already doing, I was asked to audition to teach group classes outside of the Mysore room at Pure Yoga. My post as a yoga teacher in the Mysore room was via a meritocratic system whereby my teacher mentored and pruned me into the role. My dedication and time spent assisting and shadowing him was the qualifier for the job in the Mysore room. Unfortunately this experience did not exempt me from the process of auditioning for further teaching opportunities at the studio.
Early in 2015 I auditioned with thirty other people to gain a coveted spot on the Pure Yoga group class schedule. Despite years of presenting in front of high level executives in the advertising world, standing in front of a group and presenting has always been a dreadful experience for me. When it was my turn to teach during the audition, I froze like a deer in headlights, with all eyes on me I was barely able to speak.
Needless to say, I was not granted a group class beyond my existing Mysore classes. I was devastated and humiliated. I felt like I had no place as a yoga teacher and questioned whether I belonged teaching at all. I did not handle the rejection well which took residence in my mind and heart for much longer than I care to admit. I was traumatized and immobilized by this failure and felt lucky to have a day job that I wasn’t going to quit any time soon!
Or so I thought…
Several months later in the spring of 2015, I was in the airport on a business trip and received a call from the program director at Pure Yoga asking if I would have a conversation with her about a position she thought I would be great for. She wanted me to be the Manager of Private Yoga and Wellness for Pure which entailed building the private yoga and wellness business, leading the private yoga teaching team, and interfacing with the private yoga clientele. I was honored she asked me for the job, but I felt sorely under qualified from a managing and teaching perspective. At that time I had never taken a private session of any kind or taught a private student in my entire life!
Or so I thought….
As it turned out I was perfectly qualified for this position, however, I did not realize until much after leaving my Advertising career and accepting the job as Private Practice Manager of Pure Yoga. I honed my skills in the Mysore room for the past three years prior -working with students in an individualized manner and tailoring the yoga practice to suit each person’s needs. This was my a unique foundation for success.
Generally it can be a very solitary and lonely experience as a yoga teacher, but especially working one on one. There’s only one other person in the room to witness your teaching and that’s the student. It’s difficult to get honest feedback when you are working so closely. I felt like I was improvising my teaching most of the time, developing my skills on the fly through trial and error. It would have been incredibly helpful to enter the job with some specific training, a mentor, and guidance about the art and science of teaching privately.
Despite these obstacles and a lot of self doubt, I was automatically having great success building up my own dedicated private yoga clientele. I seemingly flourished in this environment and overshadowed my past failure leading yoga in a group setting. I found my voice as a teacher and a genuine connection to my students. I believed I was doing work of value and making a difference in my students’ lives.
Private Yoga Students 2015
In 2018 a series of events led me to step out of my role of Private Practice Manager at Pure and set out on my own. Many of the students I was introduced to through Pure have stayed loyal working with me to this day. Several of the students I met in the Mysore room have turned into private students for whom I currently teach in their living rooms. Today I am proudly working for myself teaching a full roster of students privately in their homes, offices, and gyms. Although it may come as I surprise, I currently teach one weekly group class as well. Although my group teaching is limited, I overcame my aversion from that traumatizing audition back in 2015 to the point where I actually enjoy it now. Back then I thought the door to teaching yoga was being slammed in my face, though in hindsight it opened the door for me to discover my niche and purpose as a teacher.
It’s been more than then years since I took my 200 hour foundational training and I have noticed a dearth of education around the art, science, and business of teaching privately. I plan to do something about that. My future goals seek to equip the next generation of yoga teachers with this skillset of teaching privately. It is worthy of concentrated study and mastery. Stay tuned for what I have in store…
