Is a Yoga Teacher Training Right for You?

Welcome to Living Yoga.

My name is Darren Main.

And in this podcast, I like to talk about all things

having to do with yoga and wellness and self-improvement.

And in this episode, we're gonna focus on something

that may seem unlikely, but I think is an important topic.

And that is yoga teacher trainings.

Because a lot of people do trainings

because they want to become a yoga teacher

and other people do it just to deepen their practice.

But there's so many trainings out there

that it can be hard to know where to go

or what the best option is,

where you're gonna get what you need.

So in this episode,

I'm bringing in my good friend, Pete Quinoso.

We have done trainings together in various capacities

over many, many years.

And we are gonna talk about

how you can get the most out of a training.

Is it right for you?

What trainings you might wanna avoid

versus what twins you wanna check.

Cliff notes, anything that has our name

on the teacher list would be a good choice.

Shameless plug.

I'm gonna put Pete's contact information in the show notes

along with links to his current training,

as well as information on how you can connect with me

on social media and elsewhere.

We are going to talk about how you can get

the most out of a training.

We really encourage you to drop your questions and comments

so that we can respond to them.

And if you have any questions for Pete or me

about teacher training,

you're welcome to reach out to either or both of us.

With that, I'm gonna bring in Pete.

Pete, it is so good to have you.

Hey, Darren.

You and I go back so far.

Like I remember when we were both young

and vibrant and full of life.

And no one else.

No way.

Yeah.

That's a long time ago.

Now we're old, vibrant, and full of life.

Right.

But we've done a lot of work together over the years.

And a big piece of that work is I ran the yoga tree teacher training.

And you were one of the primary teachers in that training.

And now you're off doing your own training,

which now I'm a part of.

So the roles have reversed.

And I want to talk about this.

But I'd love to hear sort of your origin story.

At some point, you were doing yoga and thought it would be a great idea to do a teacher training.

I'm wondering how that worked out for you.

Well, you know, I like the origin story.

And I think that it kind of began with 30 years of running and cycling

and just beating the crap out of my body.

And then turning toward yoga when I used to work for Merck Pharmaceuticals way back in the day.

My background is science.

I worked in research and then manufacturing.

And I met you in probably like 2000, 2001, I think.

And I had just started my yoga practice.

And I was transformed by it.

You know, I remember one of the yoga teachers asking me a question about whether or not what I thought of yoga.

And when I first started practicing, I was like,

it's a great workout, you know, kind of like, you know, thumb on my mouth going, it's a great workout.

And sure enough, with a diligent practice after about six months to a year of practicing consistently,

I started noticing other transformations happening other than my abs getting stronger and more flexible.

You know, I felt like I was being a little more truthful.

I felt like I was being a little bit more kind to myself, a little more compassionate.

I felt like I was kind of.

Following a different path than I had been in the past.

Part of that is that, you know, later on, I read the yoga sutras and I started realizing I was following the path of a yogi.

That's right.

I was following, finding the hymns up.

But the origin of the training stuff was more around the, you know, just being inspired so much by this practice.

And then diving into a teacher training because I just want to learn more.

I just want to learn more about it.

And that changed my life.

You know, I think about looking back in 2006 when I did my first teacher training, it was a month-long training down in LA with Anna Forrest and it kicked my ass in all the great ways, kicked my spirit.

She had that effect on people.

Yes, right.

Exactly.

And it helped me find my voice.

And I remember leaving the training thinking, well, I don't really want to teach.

But I got offered a job offer on my own.

And I was like, I'm going to do this.

I'm going to do this.

And I got offered a job offer on my way back from LA to San Francisco up on the 5 to teach in a yoga studio in the East Bay one time a week.

And I was like, I guess I'll do this.

And then I started realizing the benefits of it.

And I never really looked back.

In fact, I've been teaching since 2006.

Yeah.

Thanks for the question.

I'd love to drill down on that because this is something I know you've heard it as one who leads teacher trainings.

I heard it for years.

I'm going to go in thinking I'm going to learn about yoga.

I want to learn the anatomy, the alignment, the philosophy, whatever.

But that transformative piece that some people see coming, but most do not.

They're really shocked to find out that they're doing a lot of crying, a lot of aha moments, a lot of the pieces of their life that seemingly have nothing to do with yoga.

Their relationships, their work, everything.

Being questioned and really being asked questions.

Right.

Being questioned and reevaluated.

I have my own theories, but I'm wondering, like, what was maybe for you personally or maybe some of the students you've worked with?

Like, why do you think that transformation happens versus, say, going and taking a college course?

You know?

Yeah.

Well, just to affirm, I think you're on to something there, Darren, because I have so many people come to my training, just exactly what you said, trying to, oh, I want to.

I want to.

I think I forget the kind of languaging, but it's like I want to nail this pose.

I want to know the in and out of the pose.

But I think, you know, yoga is a gateway to understanding ourselves better.

It provides a space for us to be vulnerable, to walk the path of healing, to kind of confront some of our shadow aspects of ourselves.

And that encounter is kind of what transforms us.

We have to encounter what we have to transform before we can transform it.

Right?

Yeah.

And so for most of us, we have, you know, I jokingly say, you know, part of my running and cycling was running away from my traumas as a kid.

I was bullied.

You know, I had a somewhat, I say, discipline-focused father is a good way to describe it.

And so, you know, I jokingly say that I felt like I was Forrest Gump.

I was running.

You know how Forrest just kind of.

The trauma of his mom was too much dying, so he just kept running.

And I felt like I was doing that same thing.

And then eventually yoga is kind of saying, okay, just stop running for a moment.

And then just pause for a second and start looking at what's going on in your world.

And that was the aspect that transforms.

I mean, it's so hard to describe the transformative aspect.

I'm kind of curious as to what, how you describe that or what's your spin on that, Darren?

My new mantra for you is run, Peter, run.

No, I think for me, it was the same thing.

Like I had this life-changing experience.

I was newly clean and sober and found yoga.

And it was like coming into my body, starting to realize that my body wasn't the enemy, even as a young gay kid.

And at that time, it was like learning just self-acceptance.

But then when I went to teacher school.

When I went to teacher training, it was like my head cracked open and like a whole new framework to see myself and the world entered.

And it was like such an exciting time.

It was like everything about my life changed inside a month.

And I didn't see it coming.

Like I had no idea.

I thought, oh, I'll meditate a lot and I'll do a lot of yoga.

I didn't nail the handstand just yet.

But I nailed a lot of other stuff.

Yeah.

Well, we were talking before we started and I was recently consulting with someone who had just done a training.

And I won't say which one because I don't want to trash another training.

But it wasn't a very well-prepared training.

And it was not what she was looking for.

Yeah.

It wasn't.

I don't think it prepared her to teach.

And I don't think she had that transformative experience that we're referring to.

Yeah.

And I'm wondering, I mean, obviously, when we do trainings, we hope people sign up for our training.

But I've always said when I was running the yoga tree training, there are trainings that I considered competition, not in a bad way, but like in the same league where there's a lot of competition.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a really good question, because like you said, people find yoga for different reasons. And I think, you know, doing any type of yoga is transformative. Like, I jokingly say that hot yoga is the gateway yoga to exploring the deeper aspects of ourselves. And, you know, you got to start somewhere on the path.

Um, I do think there's some questions you need to ask yourself before you enter in training. And, and I would say that's kind of held lightly with just being open to the experience as well. You know, I've had people come to my training, a certain experience, but, you know, they come, they're inspired to do these trainings for some reason. And I think there's faith and trust in the process. It kind of has to be part of it.

But

you know, for example, there's, like you mentioned, there's trainings out there that focus on philosophy, there's trainings that focus on anatomy, you know, there's trainings that focus on alignment. And, you know, the training that I offer is focused on those things, but also has a broad and big, deep grasp into going deeper is kind of like the catchphrase, which I always kind of laugh at, you know, like going deeper, what does that mean?

Um, you know, there's, there's, um, exercise yoga teacher training, right? Dive in the deep end thing, you know, and so deeper aspects, I think, are these, when I provide in my training is that these self reflective moments where, you know, we have, for example, a workshop around ethics, and before we dive into ethics, though, it's like, because I think it's important to become a teacher, you know, but it's also, you know, it's important to become a teacher.

So what values do you hold is important to kind of cultivate to reflect on what your values you hold, before you do the ethics exercise. And there's also recognizing, like, these values or ethics that I'm cultivated over the years are not mine, maybe they were handed down to me from my parents, or from religion, or from school, or from peer pressure groups, you know. So there's these moments where we go, we question our just, you know, our basic understanding of who we are.

It's kind of a big aspect.

Of that going deeper. It's like, oh, you know, like, I always jokingly say to my students, like, you know, the main aspects of this practice are breathe, feel, notice and be curious, just ever just curious about everything. Like, why is my hamstrings not flexible today? That's interesting. What's that about? Oh, if I do the poses the way it feels much different. Oh, if I breathe up to my heart, I know some tears there. What's that about? You know, and just like, it just

over and over again, coming back to breathe, feel, notice and get curious about the experience. And I think when you provide that space for people, it's just like, you know, that's kind of what cracks it open. So I think that just kind of back to your question, and I'll let you speak. And so I don't want to speak too long. But I think some of the main aspects that kind of separate my training from other trainings is, you know, there's, there's, there's space for you to practice teaching, I offer two practicums, where actually people

teach in front of a group of people. So they kind of codify that experience. There's this deep inner

work that we do. There's the morning intensives that provide a space for them for people to kind

of go into their own practice and, and touch the breath with their heart. So yeah, I mean,

there's just so many ways you can approach this yoga. You know, and so, you know, I always

jokingly say that there's enough yoga is enough for this lifetime. There's not enough lifetime

for all this yoga. It's just so I, I have to say, I think the thing that sets your training apart is

the really good looking philosophy teacher you bring in. He doesn't know much, but he's pretty

to look at, you know. Look in the mirror right there. There he is, right? So yeah.

Um, so I, I think you're really onto something because I think

it's like, I think it's similar to like what I consider a really good yoga class

in that some yoga teachers, especially newer teachers, and it's not bad. We were all there,

but they talk so fast. They're trying to fill every minute with an alignment cue or something,

and you never have the moment to just drop in and, and learn from the pose.

Not just learn alignment, but learn like, what is it teaching you about yourself?

And I think a lot of teacher trainings that just try and cram in everything you could ever know

about yoga into 200 hours, A, you're never going to do it. So it's sort of a fool's errand,

but B, that those moments of self-reflection, whether it's in group sharing or journal writing,

or there's a lot of ways we can do that, enable people to digest, not just in, in their brain,

what they're learning about yoga, but in their heart, in their body and, and, and really realize

that yoga becomes that metaphor for life, right? How you address the uncomfortable pose is probably

how you address the uncomfortable conversation with your spouse.

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I'll add into that. You know how much I love quotes. You and I both

adore quotes and we share them all the time. Emma has a beautiful quote that I think encapsulates

kind of what we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

She says, if your everyday practice is to open to all your emotions, to all the people you meet,

to all the situations you encounter, trusting that you can do that without shutting down,

then that will take you as far as you can go. And then you'll understand all the teachings

that anyone has ever taught. So I love that quote. So pretty, isn't it? Yeah. She could

recite a dirty limerick and it would sound like spiritual poetry, but right.

But I mean, like, yeah, that's a particularly powerful quote from her.

Yeah. Well, somebody listening to this or watching this, depending on where they're

taking this conversation in is maybe has thought about doing a teacher training. And when I was

doing the yoga tree training, I would do consultations and info sessions. And we always

got to the yeah, but. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

But portion of the program. Yeah. Which is where people would say, I'd like to do a training, but

I'm too old, but I'm not skinny enough, but I'm Christian and I might conflict with my religion,

but I can't do a handstand yet. But, but, but, but we all have our different bots. But

what I always tell people, and I'd love your thoughts on this is those bots that you encounter

are what make you a good teacher. You working through your hamstring injury makes you more

sensitive to your students who have injuries, you working through the balance between your

own personal religious views and harmonizing them with a yoga practice is going to help you do the

same for other people of faith and on and on and on. You being an older teacher will inspire other

people who are, you know, in the later half of life to.

Be fit and active in practice, mindfulness, all that. I, I see our brokenness. It was a saying

in marketing, your mess is your message. And I'm like, that's yoga right there. So being that you're

the messiest person I know next to myself, of course, I'm wondering if you have any thoughts

on that? Like the, yeah, but it's like, if somebody is listening to this thinking, oh yeah,

that sounds good. I should do a teacher.

Training, but I'm wondering how you answer that.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I think you're kind of hitting upon something that really resonates

with me is like, you know, if, if I get my acting gear, I will be a better person and I'll show up

better in the world, you know? And I think, you know, we all have butts before we actually start

somewhere.

Yeah. And I think, you know, there's a beautiful quote by Rumi says, if all you can do is crawl,

then start crawling, you know, and, and yoga meets us where we're at, right? We, we show up on the

yoga mat. We might be super tight. We might be a monkey mind kind of jump thoughts, jumping

thoughts and thoughts, but all we do is show up in the best way possible and start doing what we

can do. And, uh, there's never a better time than now to start living the life that you dreamed of.

I mean,

and getting clear about what that might be, because most of us are kind of just working

through life, almost sleepwalking. You know, when I worked for Merck, I liked working for Merck.

I made a lot of money. I had some really cool, I had a cool community, but it didn't really light

me up the way that teaching yoga does. And so I wouldn't have known that until I, until I'd done

the yoga practice and, and that really deep way and done the training. Um, and so I think, you

know, what my, my whole thing is, if not now, when, when is there going to be enough?

There are opportunities to do these things and, and walk the path of, of purpose and who you are

and figuring out all these things that have, you know, the importance to us and living the life we,

we dream of. Yeah. Is that how you see it too? I'm kind of curious. Yeah, definitely. And,

you know, I remember once this woman signed up for the yoga tree training and like, after she signed

up, she learned she was pregnant and she called me up freaking out like, Oh my God, I'm pregnant. I

can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I

can't do this. And, and, and I just said, I totally understand if it's not the right timing

for you, but being pregnant is part of life and yoga applies to pregnancy and non-pregnancy

alike. And she, she decided to do it. And over the course of, you know, her time in the training,

her body changed daily. And she was sort of like this incredible rock star in the

program because everybody was learning about the unique needs of pregnant women at different times

in their pregnancy. And she was learning about her body and bringing all this mindfulness and

intention to the pregnancy itself. And I think all of us are like that. Like, yeah, we step into

the, we never step into the same river twice. Yeah. So when is the right time now? Yeah. Right

now, I have one more question for you, but before I get to that, um, if you want to learn more about

Pete's work, his training and just all the other great stuff he's doing, uh, or get a good dad joke

because he, we also share dad jokes in addition to quotes, um, peachy yoga.com. Did I get that

right? Yeah, correct. Yes. Uh, and you can get information on everything there. Um, so Pete,

the one thing that many things surprised me watching students go through training,

but one is that whatever you think going into the training is not what comes out the other side.

So some people go in thinking, I want to teach and realize, Oh my God, I hate teaching yoga.

Some people are like, I just want to do my practice. Never do I ever want to teach.

And they wind up becoming Pete Winosa, you know, like that was me. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Some people think they want to teach heated,

Vinyasa yoga and wind up teaching restorative or learn that. Wow. Prenatal is my calling or,

you know, I really want to teach mindfulness meditation. It never works out the way you think.

And I'm wondering, um, if you have any advice to somebody who's like,

I don't know if I want to teach yoga. Should I do a teacher training or

yeah. Like, or maybe I don't even know what I want. I just have this

gut feeling.

That I need to sign up for something if you have any insights into that.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I think you're kind of hitting upon just kind of what we talked about

is like, when is the right time? When is, um, uh, I don't necessarily want to become a teacher

and you know, it doesn't, the skills we're learning on the yoga mat through the teacher

training benefit us off the mat. Um, and what I mean by that is, is like, you know, when we learn,

when we get clear about our,

our ethics, we show up in a better way. When we, when we become more compassionate and kind through our yoga practice and through teaching and find kindness for

ourselves, we're showing up in a better way for ourselves and our community.

One of the main aspects of a teacher training is learning how to listen.

And what I mean by that, the kind of broad listening is like, um, you know, listening to your brain and all the thoughts that are running through listening to your heart, you know, um, as your heart's,

beating, uh, listening to your, uh, your co-teacher next to you, teaching the class,

listening to the teacher. And there's a beautiful quote by Paul Tillich. He says,

the first duty of love is to listen. And so I feel like no matter how we show up on the mat

and our yoga teacher training, no matter how many fears we have, one of the main aspects of our yoga

is teaching us how to listen. I often think about how yoga is really this, this pathway to learning

how to love ourselves better or more in a bigger way, learning how to love each other in a better way.

And so, yeah, I, I, I think, you know, putting the teaching aside, I think it's transformative.

And, you know, if you're being called in some way to it, but you don't want us to want to teach, just jump in and figure it out and see, see, it works for you, you know, at least, at least you'll walk away with a really strong, amazing community.

Yeah.

You know, the listening piece, uh, like, as I think of the best teachers I've ever.

Worked with the ones that learn that skill of listening, because we live in a world where nobody listens, right?

We're all talking over each other and trying to prove our point, or we don't see, feel seen or heard or emotionally felt or connected.

And if somebody can walk into a yoga class and feel like, wow, this person really heard me.

They didn't have a solution to my torn meniscus, but they listened to me like vent about it for a few minutes, or they didn't solve.

My.

Marital woes, but I, I got to feel soon, like the struggle I have matters.

And I think a lot of teacher trainers trainings don't focus on that skill.

And I would argue that it's more important than knowing the Sanskrit word for Bhajangasana work that I get.

That is the Sanskrit word for Cobra pose.

Yeah.

Right.

Flip it around in my head.

Right.

Um, so.

Pete, if there's anything you want to say about your training, you can do that now, but I just want to say, I'm honored to be part of your training, doing just a small piece of the philosophy.

Um, and I know we have a few spots open in the upcoming training, um, and, and then you will be doing a future trainings if this one doesn't work out, but I'm wondering what you can say.

It's just practical stuff.

Like, do you have scholarships?

Do you.

Um, have prerequisites or requirements or, or just how, if somebody thought they might be interested, how would they, uh, how would they, um, like get more info, like an info session or a consultation, that type of thing?

Yeah.

I mean, um, just, but briefly, I just want to thank you for this time to share with you.

And it's always inspiring talking to Darren and, um, just kind of adding on to your last statement around.

Um, there's.

A beautiful quote by Maya Angelou.

She says, people forget what you've said, people forget what you've done.

They'll never forget about how you made them feel.

And I feel like that's part of our teaching, right?

It's like having people feel first of all, and then kind of move through the feeling and starting to feel actually better.

Maybe there's some, some stumbles along the way, but eventually feeling better.

Um, yeah.

So you can check out Pete G yoga.com.

Um, and, uh, I can send you an inquiry letter, you know, um, we have, I have a training once a year.

It's a six month training.

I'd love to have you be a part of it.

Um, and you know, Darren, both Darren and I are here to support you in any way possible.

Yeah.

Well, um, Pete, it's amazing.

Like there's something, have you heard the Dolly part in Kenny Rogers song?

You can't make old friends.

I like it.

Alrighty.

It's, oh, it's an amazing song.

Like it's a duet that they did something like 30 years after islands in the stream.

Um, and they're singing about how you can make new friends and that's great, but there's something about old friends that you have this history.

And I feel like you're one of those people in my life.

You've just always been there.

It's hard to remember a time when you weren't there.

And, um, yeah, you're just one of those teachers that I love seeing and passing.

I love working with you.

And I love that even post pandemic, we still get to partner on things like your training.

So thank you.

Thanks, Darren.

Yay.

Oh,

um, dad, love.

Oh, wow.

You made hearts.

That's great.

Um, so please drop some comments.

We will get to them like share, subscribe, and certainly check out one of our classes.

We both have classes in person and online, and of course the training and we'll see you in the next video.