Becoming a Yoga Teacher: The Journey at Divine Aura Yoga School

There is usually a moment when someone starts to wonder what it would feel like to become a yoga teacher.

Maybe you've practiced for years and something has started to shift. Maybe yoga supported you through a particular season of your life. Maybe you've found yourself wanting to understand why we do what we do, rather than simply following along in class.

Or maybe someone has looked at you and said, "You should teach yoga."

However you found yourself here, I think it's important to know that becoming a yoga teacher is about so much more than learning how to lead a class.

At Divine Aura Yoga School, our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training is an opportunity to become a student again. To explore where yoga comes from, experience the practice beyond asana, connect with others, and eventually discover what kind of teacher you want to be.

Yes, you'll learn how to teach yoga.

But there is so much that happens before, during, and after that.

Before We Teach Yoga, We Learn Where It Comes From

Yoga didn't begin in a studio.

It wasn't created as a workout, and it definitely didn't begin with leggings, playlists, or perfectly curated sequences.

Yoga has a rich history with roots in ancient India. Its teachings have travelled through generations, traditions, texts, teachers, and eventually across the world.

If we're going to teach this practice, I believe we have a responsibility to understand something about where it came from.

Not because I expect you to become a yoga historian.

And definitely not because I want you memorizing dates and Sanskrit terms just to pass an exam.

I want you to understand that when we teach yoga, we're stepping into something much bigger than ourselves.

One of the things I really want our students to understand is that yoga is so much more than the physical practice.

We spend time with the Yoga Sutras, the Eight Limbs of Yoga, the Yamas and Niyamas, pranayama, meditation, subtle body practices and other teachings that have shaped yoga.

But we're not just learning definitions.

We're asking: What does this actually mean in my life?

What does Ahimsa look like when I leave my mat?

What does it mean to practice yoga when I'm not practicing asana?

How do these ancient teachings still speak to the lives we're living today?

Those conversations matter.

Divine Aura Was Built From My Own Journey as a Teacher

Divine Aura Yoga School didn't begin because I wanted to create another certification.

It grew from years of teaching, learning, continuing my own education, and eventually training teachers myself.

And through all of that experience, I became really clear about the kind of teacher training space I wanted to create.

I wanted students to be able to ask questions.

I wanted us to have conversations instead of me simply standing at the front of the room talking for hours.

I wanted students to understand the traditions behind the practice while also learning anatomy, sequencing, cueing and how to work with the actual human beings who will eventually walk into their classes.

And I wanted people to teach.

Because you can read every manual, highlight every page and know the Sanskrit name of every asana — and then suddenly someone says, "Okay, your turn to teach," and every yoga pose you've ever known disappears from your brain.

It happens.

That's why we practice.

Experience Changes the Way We Learn

There are things you can learn from a book.

And then there are things you have to experience.

Throughout your 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training, we move, breathe, meditate, discuss, practice, teach and reflect together.

You'll practice finding your words.

You'll probably lose them sometimes.

You'll teach something and immediately think of three things you would change.

Then you'll teach again.

That's part of becoming a teacher.

I don't expect you to arrive knowing how to hold a room or create the perfect sequence. You're coming to teacher training to learn.

Over time, something starts to happen.

You stop trying quite so hard to sound like a "yoga teacher."

You start sounding like yourself.

And that is something I really want for every person who comes through Divine Aura.

I don't want you to leave sounding like me.

I want you to leave sounding like you.

Tradition and Modern Yoga Can Exist Together

I think one of our responsibilities as modern yoga teachers is learning how to make the practice accessible without disconnecting it from where it came from.

Those two things can exist together.

We can honour tradition and still teach the person standing in front of us today.

We can understand the roots of a practice while continuing to learn about anatomy, accessibility and different bodies.

We can appreciate a traditional asana and also understand that it may not be appropriate for every person in the room.

The more you understand, the more intentional your teaching becomes.

Instead of simply asking, "What pose should I teach next?" you start asking different questions.

Why am I choosing this movement?

What am I preparing the body for?

Does this transition make sense?

What is the intention of this practice?

When should I offer another cue?

And when should I just be quiet and let my students experience yoga?

That's where teaching starts to become more than memorizing a sequence.

Then There's the Part You Can't Put in a Manual

The connection.

This is probably one of my favourite parts of Yoga Teacher Training.

You arrive as a group of people who may have very little in common other than the fact that yoga brought you into the same room.

Then you spend a lot of time together.

You move together. You breathe together. You learn about one another. You practice teaching on each other.

You laugh.

Sometimes you cry.

And yes, you encourage the person who suddenly forgets every yoga pose they've ever known the second it's their turn to teach.

Somewhere along the way, you're not just a group of people taking a course anymore.

You've created a community.

I have watched friendships come from teacher training. I've watched students encourage one another, practice together, celebrate each other's first teaching opportunities and continue learning beside one another long after training ends.

You can't manufacture that part.

It happens because you're sharing an experience.

And I think that's part of yoga too.

What If I Don't Know If I Want to Teach?

Come anyway.

Seriously.

You do not have to walk into Yoga Teacher Training knowing that you want to teach professionally.

Some of our students absolutely know.

Others simply want to deepen their practice.

Some are curious about philosophy or want to understand the poses they've been practicing for years.

And sometimes someone begins training thinking, I'm doing this for myself. I don't think I'll ever teach.

Then something changes.

Or it doesn't.

Both are completely okay.

Teacher training can be a professional certification, but it can also be a deeply personal educational experience.

Your reason for beginning doesn't have to look like anyone else's.

Becoming a Teacher Really Means Becoming a Student

One thing I hope you never feel after completing your 200 hours is that you're "done" learning yoga.

I'm certainly not.

There is always another teacher to learn from, another perspective to consider, another text to explore, another training to take and another experience that makes you rethink something you thought you understood.

That's one of the things I love about this practice.

Your certification is an accomplishment. You worked for it and you should be incredibly proud of it.

But it's also a beginning.

Becoming a yoga teacher means making a commitment to continue being a student.

To stay curious.

To ask questions.

To honour the traditions that came before you while continuing to learn how to serve the people practicing with you now.

Your Journey at Divine Aura Yoga School

Our 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training at Divine Aura Yoga School is rooted in Hatha Yoga and brings together history, philosophy, anatomy, asana, pranayama, meditation, sequencing, teaching methodology, practice teaching and connection.

I want you to leave knowing how to create and guide a thoughtful yoga practice.

But I also want you to understand a little more about the practice you're carrying forward.

To know its history.

To respect its traditions.

To experience the teachings instead of simply memorizing them.

To build relationships.

To find your voice.

And hopefully, to finish your training with even more curiosity about yoga than you had when you started.

Because the best teachers I've known aren't the people who believe they know everything.

They're the ones who keep learning.

If you've been wondering whether Yoga Teacher Training might be your next step, maybe that curiosity is worth following.

You don't need to arrive as a teacher.

Come as a student. We'll begin there.

Om Shanti. 🤍