Life as a yoga teacher is both liberating and enlightening. Since the time I have started taking classes, I have changed so many lives. I have been successful in giving the best of my knowledge to all my students because of my passion. With a year of working tirelessly, completely giving myself to yoga and leading people towards spiritual discovery, I was able to become the best version of myself. Today, I have six centres in all the metropolitan cities where people need something like yoga the most. I am extremely fulfilled with the kind of work that I am doing. I honestly believe that yoga rekindles the true nature of an individual, controls the mind and the body and heals people.
In my opinion, the best part about being a yoga teacher is that I am was able to nourish souls and help them gain confidence to deal with whatever life throws at them. The yoga teacher training I went through in Rishikesh helped me to give my students the tools to live in a state of tranquillity and blissfulness.
MY JOURNEY OF BECOMING A TEACHER:
My encounter with yoga was not planned. They say that there is no such thing as a coincidence. I understand this today, after consistently dedicating my life to yoga and encouraging hundreds of people toward enlightenment through the divine practice of yoga. Let me give you some background on how my journey with yoga started and changed the direction of my life.
When I was studying to become a Computer Engineer in India, I had never thought of becoming a trained yoga teacher. The very first time I got introduced to yoga was in Rishikesh. I had gone there with my friends after getting through the mid semester examinations of my last year in computer engineering. The whole idea of the getaway was to just rejuvenate ourselves in the beautiful nature and taking some out to prepare ourselves for the upcoming placement season in our college. We booked a yoga teacher training India. During this retreat, we took a beginners class in yoga as just a part of the retreat we had booked for our holiday. Just minutes through holding those body postures for some time and consciously controlling the breath, I experience a feeling like any other. To say the least, it calmed my entire state of being. After three days of taking regular classes during a week’s stay in Rishikesh, I just had to know more about yoga. The curiosity in me kept developing because I literally felt my entire system calming down like never before. All my friends were worried about finalising their CVs and preparing themselves for big corporate recruitments but I was on a completely different track. Thankfully, because of many saints, sages, spiritual gurus and experienced yoga teachers available in Rishikesh, I gained a very good insight about what yoga is all about. I got to know about the different aspects of yoga, where it comes from, what purpose it serves and what can a person do adopt it in life completely. Something in me just clicked and I decided to take classes for the 200 hour yoga teacher training in Rishikesh after getting through with placements season and final exams. I got placed in Dell as a computer engineer and a decent package. Getting placed didn’t change my decision to return to Rishikesh to learn yoga in the three months’ time after my final exams. I did the same because the feeling that yoga retreat gave me, stayed with me. And that was exactly where I consciously took a decision to devote my life to yoga and open good yoga centres across the country.
THE WAY IN WHICH IT CHANGED MY LIFE
The level1 course of teacher training changed my life in a very subtle and slow manner. It fascinated me. The more I learned about yoga, the higher my curiosity towards yoga developed. In that one month of the 200-hour yoga TTC, I experienced life like never before. Every cell in my body was enlivened with a deep sense of ecstasy. I decided to consciously enroll for the higher-level certifications of teacher training. This decision was the biggest risk of my life because it meant, I had to leave my job. But the calling was so strong that I just took it without any doubts in my head. And still, to this date, I go on record saying that it was the best decision of my life.
I gained 300 and 500 yoga TTC certifications and learned everything about yoga with a deep and sincere passion. I experienced the power of this mind, body and soul unification. I learned and experienced the innumerable ways in which yoga started changing my mental, physical and spiritual state of being. I became aware of the real sense of the word. Getting these certifications and learning more and more about yoga designed my life in a way I had never imagined while studying to become an Engineer. Taking yoga teacher trainer classes in Rishikesh is an experience like no other. If anyone is interested in learning yoga authentically, Rishikesh is the place to do it from. Learning from the best in the divine lap of Rishikesh allows you to sink truly into your subconscious and change the entire system.
Getting certified from the Yoga Alliance, USA and becoming a credible yoga teacher was just one part of it. Actual soul-enriching change within me was the most important.
CONCLUSION:
I immediately knew that this magic of yoga should reach a wider audience and change the lives of people. Yoga is a medium that can make people realize the power they have over their problems.
I have come really far in my journey of yoga. Teaching yoga isn’t about making money for me. It is way more than that. It’s more like a purpose. I am so proud of the 21-year-old me who took the decision to go back to Rishikesh and enroll myself for the teacher training class. If I wouldn’t have had the courage to follow my heart and listen to the soul, none of this would have happened. The ultimate thing is to pay heed that inner call and move with conviction. That call is your truth, that call is your path. Yoga was mine.
Author Bio:- Devakar Sandhu is an avid yoga enthusiast and a great entrepreneur. He is the founder of Tapovan Yoga Peeth which is a yoga teacher training school located in Rishikesh, India. He aims to teach yoga in the most elaborate and professional form. Certified, skilled and highly experienced teacher impart the teachings of yoga both practically and theoretically in the yoga school. Devakar loves travelling and yoga. His dream is to provide world class practical yoga knowledge while promoting a lifestyle full of wellness, health and positivity via his website and other social media platforms.