Sacred Paths Yoga online yoga teacher training
Sacred Paths Yoga online yoga teacher training program follows the same curriculum as the onsite program but is delivered as an online training through recorded lectures and practice videos, live online lectures, live Q&A sessions, live one-on-one check-ins, and exercises. All live classes are also recorded and released so that you can attend the training from your home at the scheduled times or at a later time that suits your time zone and schedule. The online training is running as an ongoing program that you can join at any time suitable for you.
During this online yoga teacher training, you will have access to Sacred Paths Yoga's yoga teacher training video content and full course curriculum. This course offers the opportunity to deepen your yogic knowledge with classes on yoga history, yoga philosophy, the art of teaching asana, posture breakdown and analysis, yoga anatomy, chakras, Ayurveda, meditation, Pranayama and more!
During the ‘live question and answer' sessions, you will have the opportunity to join discussions with your peers and highly qualified instructors to bring life to the online lectures. The school will also be offering live classes such as yoga, meditation, pranayama, Yoga Nidra and Kirtan to supplement the pre-recorded sessions.
Pre-application requirements
There are no pre-application requirements but some experience with yoga is recommended.
Certifications
Students who complete this online training before December 2023, are eligible to register with Yoga Alliance as Registered Yoga Teachers (RYT®).
How the training works
The training will be held online via Zoom, Youtube and Facebook. You will have live lectures and Q&A webinars with Sacred Paths Yoga teachers. One-on-one sessions are offered to each student for advice and guidance on personal questions and experiences over email and Zoom.
Teachers will also provide feedback on video recordings of your own yoga practice and teaching. You will have access to a private Facebook group only for you and your fellow classmates to build community throughout the experience, share challenges and insights, ask questions, etc. You can take the course in real-time or at your own pace that suits your schedule from 40 days to 12 months.
Contact hours
Approximately 40 hours of contact hours via live webinars on Zoom and one-on-one Zoom sessions.
Non-contact hours
Approximately 160 hours will be completed via recorded videos, practice exercises and assignments. Teachers will provide feedback on exercises and assignments.
Course information
- Explore traditional yogic teachings, earth medicine and spirituality in a process of self-inquiry and personal growth
- Learn to teach sacred flow Vinyasa sequence as well as receive guidance on creating and teaching your own unique sequences
- Explore traditional Hatha, Restorative, Yin and Prenatal yoga
- Experience a yogic living, deepen your personal practice and commitment to this path
- Practice meditation, pranayama, and asana
- Experience a spiritual immersion
- Explore the art of teaching, touch and alignment to gain knowledge, insight, and clarity
- Practice Kirtan, chanting and medicine songs from around the world as we experience Bhakti bliss!
- Experience ceremony, including full and new moon ceremonies, fire ceremony, water blessing ceremony, earth gratitude ceremony, puja (Hindi offering), cacao ceremony and more!
- Study yoga anatomy and physiology and applicable techniques to incorporate these principles into your own teaching and practice
- Study Yoga Sutras and philosophy
- Explore chakras, bandhas, and energetic anatomy
- Study Ayurveda and experience the yogic diet
- Practice advanced pranayama
- Learn kriyas, yogic cleansing techniques
- Practice how to integrate yoga into your daily life through spiritual lessons and art of living discussion
- Learn the art of yoga marketing and explore your vision for bringing this practice into your community
40-day journey
The Sacred Paths Online 200hr yoga teacher training is a 40-day journey divided into four cycles of 10 days each. Throughout each cycle, you will use one of the four elements earth, water, fire, and air as your guide and as the foundation of your experience for lessons, insights, ceremony, and healing. Each cycle, you go deeper into your journey of learning and revealing with this potent Earth Medicine.
Day 1 - 10: Earth cycle
- Practice: 30-minute meditation x 4
- Practice: Sacred flow Vinyasa sequence x 4
- Intro lecture
- Earth medicine spiritual lesson lectures and activities x 4
- Intro Patanjali Yoga Sutras (1-3)
- Yoga Sutras (Vrittis 1.5 - 1.16)
- Yoga Sutras (Kleshas 1.29 - 2.13)
- Yoga Sutras (8 limbs)
- Paths of yoga / yoga history
- Meditation 101
- AOT - Art of teaching overview
- AOT - Art of touch overview
- AOT - Sacred Vinyasa flow
Day 11 - 20: Water cycle
- Practice: 30-minute meditation x 4
- Practice: Sacred flow Vinyasa sequence x 4
- Earth medicine spiritual lesson lectures and activities x 4
- Sutras (books 3 and 4)
- Trauma-informed language or NVC
- Qi Gong
- Anatomy lectures 1-3
- Complete AOT - Sacred Vinyasa flow
Day 21 - 30: Fire cycle
- Practice: 30-minute meditation x 4
- Practice: Hatha flow x 3
- Practice: Restorative
- Practice: Yin
- Practice: Yoga Nidra
- Earth medicine spiritual lesson lectures and activities x 4
- Om and intro to Sanskrit
- Anatomy (3 gunas, yogic diet, and digestion)
- Kriyas
- Ayurveda
- Anatomy lectures 4-6
- AOT - Hatha
- AOT - Restorative
- AOT - Yin
- Prenatal
Day 31 - 40: Air cycle
- Practice: 30-minute meditation x 4
- Practice: Hatha flow x 3
- Practice: Restorative
- Practice: Yin
- Practice: Yoga Nidra
- Earth medicine spiritual lesson lectures and activities x 4
- Pranayama, bandhas, vayus
- Chakras
- Yoga in the marketplace
- Reintegration
- Themeweaving
- Communication / cues
- Art of sequencing
- Posture playshop: Categories and advanced postures
Evaluation
- 30-minute meditation and sacred flow sequence
- 90-minute creative flow sequence
- Anatomy pose presentation
Curriculum
The RYS educational categories are:
Techniques, training, and practice
In this category, you will explore techniques as well as practice and teach: asanas, pranayamas, kriyas, chanting, mantra, meditation and other traditional yoga practices. The classes will emphasize both guided practice of the techniques themselves as well as analytical training in how to teach and practice the techniques.
- Asana: Trainees will deepen their knowledge of poses including beginner and more advanced variations. Benefits, risks, and contraindications will be explored as well as safe transitions, intelligent sequencing, alignment, and hands-on assists. The five main categories of poses will be covered including standing/ balancing poses, forward bends, backbends, twists, and inversions.
- Pranayama: Students will practice, experience and learn how to guide several pranayama techniques. They will learn the benefits and effects of such practices as well as how and when to incorporate them into a class. Pranayamas covered in depth will include abdominal breathing, three-part yogic breath, ujjai pranayama, nadi shodhana, anuloma viloma, and kapalabhati.
- Kriyas: Yogic cleansing and purification techniques will be taught and practiced in the form of Jal neti, kapalabhati, agni sara, and tratak. Trainees will be guided on the benefits and how to incorporate these techniques into their personal practice.
- Chanting / mantra: You will explore mantra as a path to connection, to invoke the spirit and to create sacred space. Trainees will experience, practice and learn mantras to share in class such as Om, the Gayatri Mantra, the Bija mantras for chakra clearing and others.
- Meditation: Various forms of guided meditation will be shared including breath focus, sensory withdrawal. visualization, mantra, chakra. Emphasis will be on quieting the mind and experiencing divine union on this path of yoga.
Teaching methodology
In this category, you will share how to refine and apply your skills as a teacher. You will discuss the principles of demonstrating asanas as well as how to effectively observe, use verbal cues and incorporate hands-on assistance in a class.
You will explore the use of language and voice: active vs. passive language and the effective use of each; positive and conscious communication, and habitual speech and communication patterns. This category will prepare trainees to be transformational space holders.
Topics in this category will include:
- Communication skills such as group dynamics, time management, and the establishment of priorities and boundaries
- How to address the specific needs of individuals and special populations, to the degree possible in a group setting
- Principles of demonstration, observation, assisting and correcting
- Teaching styles
- Qualities of a teacher
- The student learning process
- Business aspects of teaching yoga (including marketing and legal)
- Teacher/ Student relationship and teacher ethics
Anatomy and physiology
Topics in this category will include anatomical terms and basic overview of the physical body, classes, and discussion on the skeletal, muscular and nervous systems as well as how these systems are benefited by yoga. Trainees will gain knowledge of the cardiovascular system and the heart and the digestive system and the yogic diet.
This category will also include subtle energetic anatomy and physiology, including studies on the chakras and nadis. Trainees will be guided in studying both anatomy/ physiology along with its application to yoga practice including benefits, contraindications, healthy movement patterns, etc.
Yoga philosophy, lifestyle, and ethics for yoga teachers
This program emphasizes a whole lifestyle approach to yoga as a practice and offers guidance on how to live this practice on and off the mat. In this category, you will cover the study of yoga philosophies and traditional texts, particularly, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
You will explore this 8-fold path as a means to quieting the mind to reach liberation. This study will include group-work, discussion, and application to practice and daily life. This category will also include the transformational framework in which trainees can practice self-inquiry and develop themselves as embodied practitioners and embodied guides.
Practicum
In this category, trainees will actively practice teaching as the lead instructor. They will also observe others teaching, receive and give feedback and assist students while someone else is teaching. Trainees will begin peer teaching from day one as they gradually learn and practice teaching the poses and mini sequences in the Sacred Flow that is practiced in the morning and studied in depth in the art of teaching/touch classes throughout the first half of the training. They will teach this set 90-minute flow in full to a peer, observed by a facilitator. In the second half of the training, students will create their own full sequence from the tools provided, share a 90-minute class through peer teaching and receive feedback from their peers and facilitators.
