The Year of Saying Yes!

Soon after I became a yoga teacher I went on a “yes” kick and made a pact with myself to say “yes” to any yoga class I was offered to teach. 

The goal was to fill my teaching schedule AND get more confident as a teacher. 

I let other teachers know that if they needed a sub, I would say yes if I could. This “yes” phase lasted about a year and it worked. I found new classes, and most of them came from word-of-mouth from my experiment.

Hand-me Down Classes

What also happened was my first five regular teaching jobs were hand-me-down classes for teachers I subbed for through the year. They passed the classes on to me after I had subbed for them and when one teacher moved to a new city, she offered me a number of classes. 

But my favourite “yes” moment happened in the bathroom!

Yes I was attending the winter solstice yoga retreat in Florida when, in the bathroom, I overheard a teacher asking her friend if she could teach the morning sadhana class.  

Now, this is the kind of yoga where the day begins at 4 am with a total of two and a half hours of prayers, yoga, and meditation.  It was also a pretty big retreat, hundreds of people, usually about 300 or 400 people showed up for morning sadhana. 

Back to the bathroom, one person asked the other to teach and the other was all, “Oh no, I couldn’t teach that many people! Hard no.”  

I was overhearing this as I came out of the stall and the person said something like, “I’ve got to find somebody to do it.”

Saying it Out Loud

“”Yes!” I thought and then I said it out loud! 

“Yes, I’m a teacher, I can teach it.” 

Long story short, the next morning there I was up on the platform, leading the morning program. It is still the largest class I’ve had the opportunity to teach, and it was my first year as a teacher. 

I’ve been teaching since 1998 and I can say that these kind of opportunities do not come along often. I’m so happy I got to teach the class and I’m proud I had the “yes” mindset that helped me grow as a teacher. 

Eventually, my schedule filled up and I had to start saying no to subbing, but I did try to sub if I could to help out other teachers. 

When You Give Yourself a Push

Now I’m not saying you always want to “yes” to everything.  Years later I had a “summer of no obligation” where I went to the other extreme.  I’ll tell you that story another day. 

My point is, it can be helpful to push oneself in the direction you want to go with challenges like these.  

Right now, I’m saying yes to the 300 Hour recorded training and planning the 2027 cohort of the 95 Hour Certification.  

I’m saying no to trying to juggle the end of the 2026 Cohort and the beginning of the 2027 Cohort. There will be a gap when the training is closed to new registration so I can work.

What about you? Do you have some yes’s you want to push?

Feel free to add a comment here and I’ll read and give you some encouragement.

The post The Year of Yoga Yes’s appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

That’s what led me to walking out of a noisy step class with the loud pumping music, and into the yoga class that people were raving about. It was pretty much love at first class!

I don’t know if you can relate to that feeling of “aaaaaah, yeah!” when you finally feel relaxed and human again after a yoga class.

Truth be told, I didn’t want to go back to my job but I didn’t know what else I could do which began a quest for options. I stumbled upon the book: Do What you Love, The Money will Follow by Marsha Sinetar. The title alone spoke to me, but I didn’t know what I loved. I had no clue.

Noticing What Makes You Happy

The author gave a bunch of ways to figure out what you love, mainly by looking for times when you feel happy and what you look forward to. This noticing was very similar to mindfulness practices yet to come.

One day I was riding my bike to yoga class and I noticed I was whistling as I rode. I though, “Hey! I’m happy!” If you’ve ever had post-traumatic stress, happiness is a special feeling. I notices that my yoga classes had become non-negotiable, I would schedule other things around them, and I started wondering if yoga could be something I loved? Could I become a yoga teacher?

Now in 1995 there weren’t that many yoga classes or teachers, Yoga Alliance didn’t even exist yet! It felt radical to consider quitting a salaried position to start a business as a yoga teacher.

30 years later, it turns out, yes! I was able to do what I loved and the money did follow.

I won’t try to convince you that magical thinking made it all happen. No! Every yoga teacher I know works hard on their business and to create meaningful experiences for their students. It took years to build a new career.

But it was worth it and I feel very grateful to have a career that I love.

Do What you Love

30 years later, I lead teacher training now and everyone, yes everyone, who takes the training does it because of how much they love yoga.

Not everyone wants to quit their job, which is probably a good thing. If you love your stable job, you’ll have a lot more financial security. But if you are like me, where you couldn’t go back to your job another day, you may have to make a choice and make a change.

I did a little test drive of my dream job, and slowly moved from my old career to my new one. I’ll tell you more about that process another day.

Remember the Passion!

After all this time, sometimes I think it would be easier to get a regular job with less responsibility. Then I think it through and wonder what I could do where I would get to choose my hours and work at something I care about.

My hope today is that you can look back on what got you into your career.  

Do you remember how you felt about getting into your field when you first started? Did you love it? 

Do you still love it now? If not, what do you feel happy doing? What do you look forward to?

You don’t have to do anything but notice where you are at.

You can see what follows later : )

The post How I Took the Leap to Become a Yoga Teacher appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

1. You Don’t Need a Certificate to Teach

Yes, there are organizations like Yoga Alliance, but these are voluntary registries who started to establish yoga industry standards. Some people follow them and some people do not. But is is not mandatory to have this type of certification or any certification at all (with the exception of getting insurance if you are starting a kids yoga business).

The main thing worth sharing here is that knowing how to teach an engaging kids yoga class is more important than certificates.

2. A Mindful Classroom Starts With A Mindful Teacher

One of the pioneers of Mindfulness, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh said,

“Mindfulness is a kind of energy that we generate when we bring our mind back to our body and get in touch with what is going on in the present moment, within us and around us. We become aware of our breathing and come home to our body, fully present for ourselves and whatever we are doing.”

When a teacher brings their own mindful energy to the classroom, things change. A huge part of kids yoga involves a teacher keeping up with their own mindful practices.

3. Create The Environment You Want Children To Have

The world can be big and scary. It can also be beautiful and profound. All kinds of things are going on at the same time. We only have control over so much of it in each moment. Being a mindful teacher helps you stay in the moment so you can create the classroom environment you want children to be exposed to when they attend class. That’s the power we always have!

4. No Kid Wants To Sit On The Sidelines

Once in the summer intensive practicum in the children’s yoga training, the trainees were divided into small groups to teach actual children at a daycare.
In one group, there was a non-verbal autistic child who had a support staff provided by the facility. The assistant and child sat at the back of the yoga class. The assistant told us, “they just like to watch.”

Fortunately, one trainee in our group had a lot of education and experience working with children with autism. After we finished the practicum classes, we debriefed what happened and our trainee let it rip!

“No child wants to sit at the back and watch life go by! If someone tells you that, don’t believe them! It’s our job to figure out how to engage this child so she can participate in life, not watch it from the sidelines.”

We started working on a strategy for the next day.

And eventually, that trainee became the trainer in our Inclusive Yoga module when we moved the kids yoga training online!

5. It Takes Time to Build Your Business

You’ve probably heard that many businesses fail after the first few years. So, if you want to make a business of teaching yoga to children, yoga better be your passion. You might be doing it for a while!

Occasionally, people build their business in the first few months, but it often takes years to find a schedule that is sustainable and that you enjoy.

I’ve been self-employed as a yoga teacher since 1998. My goal now is to help new teachers share the gifts of yoga. But so much of my business comes back to my passion for yoga, for keeping my own practice going as it changes over the years.

I still take yoga classes and learn new things too. My newest hobby is songwriting where I explore yoga in this new way.

Learning helps keep things fresh and supports your passion to keep your business going!

6. Kids Yoga Makes A Difference

I got this letter out of the blue from a former student. You can read about it here. Bottom line, she is now 30 years old but still returns to what she learned in kids yoga.

7. Training also Makes a Difference

You don’t need a certificate to teach yoga to children but that doesn’t mean you stop learning. Training gives you tools to enhance the way you teach yoga to children. It gives you fresh ideas, confidence, and it refills your tank to help prevent burnout.

Training helps in so many ways which is why most successful teachers are lifelong students.

Our next training cohort starts soon. Check out the details here.

The post 7 Things Worth Sharing About Kids Yoga appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

Here’s what her message said:

I’ve been thinking of you lately and wanted to let you know I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy this month. I did a lot of prenatal yoga and breath work and set some positive intentions for the birthing experience, and I feel like I already knew so much from the years of yoga classes with you.

I wanted to share how grateful I am for your presence in my life and everything you have taught me over the years. I do think of you often, always warm and lovely thoughts. I’m sending you lots of love and some pictures of my little one.

Charlotte said I could share this picture of her and baby from last week.

I share this because you may wonder if teaching yoga to kids makes a difference, and it really does!

There are so many ways yoga helps kids now and later in life.

If you’re thinking of teaching yoga for kids, go for it!

You’ll be glad you did.

The post Why I’m So Grateful I Started Yoga as a Child: How Early Practice Shaped My Adult Happiness appeared first on Young Yoga Masters.

Every month I offer a free kid’s yoga teacher training. They’re a fun workshop with insights in to one of the elements of teaching kids yoga.

Recently, I had a few emails about how the free training works.  People wanted to know how long they would have access to the replays.

The short answer is, you have until the next free training to watch the replay, which could be between 2 – 4 weeks. Then I replace last month’s replay with the most recent one in the Free Training.

If you miss the free replay, you can catch up in the 95 Hour Certification.

Here’s the story behind how the Free Kids Yoga Teacher Training works. 

Why give Training away for Free?

A little history of the free monthly kid’s yoga teacher training, I offered the first one in December 2020 so there have been over 50 free workshops!!!

It started as a coping strategy during the COVID lock downs. That was a tough time, very lonely and difficult for so many, including those of us who are used to seeing a lot of students every week!

Connecting live with people about my passion for bringing yoga to youth helped me get through. The silver lining was that a very focused community of kids yoga teachers started to form around the monthly event.

Running a Successful Yoga Business

However, it wasn’t all silver linings.  Like many yoga teachers, I worked hard pivoting online and got hit financially when the lock-downs ended. It was a tough time for everyone, including me, as a self-employed yoga teacher.

Yoga teacher training also changed completely.  Prices dropped significantly and Yoga Alliance changed the training requirements and people no longer had to attend a training in person.

I started working with a business coach to help me get perspective and see what opportunities might be available.

Pivoting the Free Training

One opportunity was the replays I was creating each month.

When I first offered the Free Monthly Kids Yoga Training, I had EVERY replay available in the free course. At the height, it was over 30 hours of free training, the only cost was giving an email address.

With some business coaching, I began to think about opening a membership site for kids yoga teachers. Here’s what resonated with me about it:

• The free replays weren’t organized by topic or category. It was getting unruly!
• Instead of the free training being a quick win for people, it was more of a monumental task because people didn’t know where to begin. Plus all that training didn’t count towards certification,
• There was a gap in my business model and not a lot of support available for people after they graduate to build their classes. Those who were already teaching kids yoga were often on their own too. This membership would help.

Yoga Alliance Certification Changes

But the biggest motivation came when Yoga Alliance changed their training rules for 2024 onward.

The 95 hours Certificate now requires a minimum of 14 hours of real-time training. This is up from 1 hour of real-time training during COVID, and down from 87 hours of real-time training required before 2020.

With just a little more structure, the free training also could count towards the real-time training requirement.

Business Coaching

You can listen to the business coaching I had with Mado from the Yoga Teacher Resource Podcast here.

How the Free Training Works Now

For a while the membership site was running, but as people moved back to in-person training, there was less interest in more training outside of the Certification.

For 2025 – 2026, the training now includes:

• A replay available until the next free training date (usually about 2-4 weeks),
• The one hour live training also counts as a real-time training hour for those registered in the 95 Hour Certification,
• The replay is available long-term in the 95 Hour Certification!

Free Kids Yoga Teacher Training and Certification

If you’d like to get some helpful tools for your teaching toolkit, check out the Monthly Free Kid’s Yoga Training here.

And if the time comes where you are looking to earn a Certificate (or perhaps another Kid’s Yoga Certificate if you already have one but like learning!), please check out the Young Yoga Masters training!

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