Guest Post: How I went from Teacher Training to Actually Teaching with Valerie Brett

By Valerie Brett

I completely agree with Cassidy that it's normal and OK to be very nervous to teach after you complete your first yoga teacher training. 200 hours may sound like a lot, but there is so much to yoga that after 200 hours of training, you've just scratched the surface. 

I took my first (200-hour) yoga teacher training at a power yoga studio in Rhode Island, with the intention to become a full-time or part-time yoga teacher afterwards. A few days into training, when I first tried my hand at teaching, I was mortified. It was so much more difficult than I had expected! Then and there I thought, "OMG! Never mind, I can't do it, it's just too hard." 

I graduated the program, moved back home to Hawaii, and started visiting yoga studios as a student, looking for my new yoga home. One day, I was the only person to show up for a yoga class, and it was AWESOME. I loved the class so much, and of course, since I was the only person there, I got to talking to the teacher. It turned out that she and I had graduated from the same college (she was a few years older than me). I told her how I'd just done training but felt too scared to teach, and she offered to mentor me. For a year, I assisted her most popular weekly yoga class, and I learned a lot. 

I eventually began to teach at several studios, and then became a full-time teacher with 10-12 classes per week. At first, I was so nervous to teach that I wrote down and memorized my sequences, and stuck to my mat (like Cassidy). Now, after more than 1,000 hours of teaching experience, I don't plan anything; I just show up, trust my own knowledge, experience, and ability, and meet the students where they are. 

​Follow along with Valerie on Instagram! @valeriebrett
Check out Her Website Here: https://www.valeriebrett.com/yoga
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