Yoga Teacher Training in Coastal Northern California. Are you ready?

“I don’t think I’m good enough at yoga to sign up for teacher training.”

I hear that comment a lot. Actually, I said it myself six years ago. I was participating in a yoga fitness class at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Some other guys were there for teacher training. They told me I should join them. I thought they were nuts. “You’re ready, plus (and this plus was their key point which totally resonated then and has guided me since)…

… if you work hard the training will get you ready.”

I received my 200 hour teaching certification from an amazing instructor (Carolyn Smith, Farm Studio, NH), graduating on June 28, 2014. Since then I’ve had the privilege of instructing over a hundred classes for all ages and ability levels, such as the above teacher training group in Bali. Yoga teaching the past two years has also taken me to India, France, Spain and throughout the U.S. and Canada.

I’m now at the Ratna Ling Retreat Center in coastal northern California. Shivakali Yoga 200 Hour Teacher Training takes place here November 29th through December 16th. The instructors will be Gloria Baraquio (pictured above), Serge Berliawsky and Pranathi Reddy.

Ratna Ling Retreat Center, located in the towering redwoods of coastal Sonoma County 90 miles north of San Francisco, offers an escape into a quiet, naturally sacred space.  Guests stay in elegant private cottages (below), each with an expansive view of the surrounding countryside. Daily I see and walk close to deer, wild turkeys, rabbits and quail.

 

Delicious, healthy meals are also included in your stay at Ratna Ling 🙂

 

 

Outside the lodge, spectacular views (above) can be observed a short distance west.

And on our grounds at Ratna Ling towering redwoods provide quiet space for hiking, meditation, fresh air and/or all of the above.

Where can this yoga teacher training take you? Whether you are interested in teaching only with friends, earning an income as a yoga instructor, or solely feeling called to deepen your personal practice, we welcome you.

People ask me about my yoga inspired travels. “I would like to do that,” they say. “What’s it like?” Well, for one I never thought I’d go to Rajasthan, India where our classes at a 500+ year old ashram included western guests and locals, including a group of first-time yoga girls from the nearby village (below). They were laughing at me through the ashram’s gate so I invited them in for an impromptu class. It was not my most organized one, but it stands as a class I will never forget. It just goes to show that yoga can benefit anyone. You can teach all ages, all abilities. The choice is yours.

 

Or being able to teach and meet people from around the world in awesome places like Spanish and French castles (below).

 

Or just join in to learn how other people live…

 

My education continues in these travels as I practice new styles of yoga and learn from others around the globe (below).

 

Interested in creating your own yoga teacher training adventure? November 29th through December 16th here at Ratna Ling on the coast of northern California could be the start. This will be a 200 hour program fully accredited by Yoga Alliance. For more information leave a comment, click here or call 510-809-4995.

Love and Peace,

Dave