The 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at VSBM follows the guidelines set out by the Yoga Alliance, ensuring the highest educational standards of quality, integrity, and professionalism.
Participants will develop a personal yoga practice appropriate for each individual while learning to foster a connection with their own inner wisdom and voice. It is from this deeper connection to Self that the ability to communicate the practice to others in a dynamic and sensitive way blossoms.
VSBM concentrates on exceptional training. We do not operate as a Yoga studio running daily classes, but focus on training great teachers. The philosophy of our training is to make the practice of Yoga accessible, fun, safe, and honor the traditions of Yoga while playing a part in its’ evolution. The foundation of the program is grounded in an "Open Source" philosophy - all paths that lead to deeper understanding are honorable, and as Consciousness is expanding and evolving, our path is open to continuing inquiry and refinement. Every being is seen as a condensation of Supreme Consciousness, with an innate wisdom. As the artist Michelangelo said, in order to make a sculpture he simply had to “remove all the stone that was not a part of the statue”. Yoga practice is as well, a process of revelation. In our methodology, Yoga practice is not imposed on the individual - Yoga practice is adapted to the individual. Teachers in training develop their innate, sometimes dormant skills of clear communication and leadership along with a personal practice suited to their individual needs and goals.
It is a tradition of ancient teachers to send their students to another teacher, a teacher who may offer a completely different approach. We bring in guest instructors from a variety of Yoga disciplines - Yin, Vijnana, Vinyasa flow, Restorative Yoga and Mantra Yoga. In this way, the students’ faculties of discrimination and inner wisdom are stimulated. A clear understanding of differences in approach allows an honoring of that approach, and even incorporation into one’s teaching of what is helpful.
Participants need only have the desire to embark on what is essentially a life-long discipline, and the energy and time to give full attention to study and practice for the duration of the program. Many students have asked if it is important to have an advanced physical practice in order to teach Yoga. The ability to perform difficult postures is not necessarily a hallmark of advanced practice. Advanced practice is the ability to go deeply into even the most simple postures and exercises.
Graduates will receive a Yoga Alliance recognized certificate and can expect to be employable worldwide in the yoga industry.
Yoga’s popularity is often equated with its’ health and fitness benefits, and its’ ability to reduce stress. The practice we are most familiar with primarily is asana, or the practice of performing postures. Even taken on its own as simply a physical practice, it has enormous benefits – re-aligning the body, increasing strength and flexibility, stimulating organ function and aiding insomnia. But if we dig a little deeper into this profound practice, it is possible to understand why Yoga does what it does so well.
One definition of Yoga is to unite. To unite means to bring at least two things together. The root of the word Yoga is “Yug” – to yoke. A yoke attached to an ox brings the power of the animal and the skill of the ploughman (or woman!) together to open the soil in order to plant a seed. Yoga practice serves to unite our individual nature to its source – Supreme Consciousness. When we lay in Savasana, or relaxation, after a Yoga practice we can get a glimpse of this union. The body is still and quiet, subtle energy pathways have been opened through asana practice and our energy is less scattered. In this setting, we intuitively sense a deep peace. Deep peace is always available - it is in fact our true nature as part of Supreme Consciousness, simply revealed by the science and art of Yoga practice.
Now, when we rise from relaxation, to leave behind this experience of re-connection would be a colossal waste. If we view our life circumstances, whatever they may be – ageing, relationship troubles, loved ones departing – in the context that the essential part of us is in fact immortal, everything changes. All relationships, jobs, lines on the face and troubles are transitory. Embodying this wisdom through Yoga practice is where the true “stress reduction” takes place. Yoga is able to turn the tables, affording us the opportunity to see this life in its true context. Embodying this understanding to greater and greater degrees, we can then effectively allow Consciousness to permeate our own lives, and our interactions with others.
Excerpt from Teaching Hatha Yoga
The materials presented in this manual represent a personal composition and interpretation of universal truths. Yoga is both a science and an art of a deeper understanding of the human condition. In my inquiry into this subject, I have had the good fortune to meet great teachers, whose wisdom has shed light on my own search for greater understanding. Such an approach will, in turn, benefit students and teachers alike. Whatever the style of your practice, Yoga is a practice of revelation. What is revealed is our true nature as an aspect of Supreme Consciousness. Consciousness, like the sea, underlies all of our individual qualities. One of the qualities of the individual ego is the notion of ownership. In my philosophy, ownership is always based on fear. Ownership is manifested in the form of deeds to land that has been here millennia before we put a fence around it, or a desire to accumulate goods in our name, or the branding of ideas that are simply an aspect of Supreme Consciousness. Ultimately, we leave everything behind but our understanding, and it is our privilege as teachers to share that understanding. Swami Mutkananda once said “It is good to be born in a church… very, very bad to die in one.” In this simple yet poignant statement he implies that whatever beliefs we are given, or handed, we must eventually put them aside in the process of our own spiritual growth. Yoga cannot be owned because it is in all of us. Every time you have taken a deep, conscious breath you have experienced Yoga.
Namaste,
Dan Clement
