Every year, Inner Power Vinyasa runs one or two Vinyasa yoga teacher training programs. If you dream of becoming a yoga teacher, one of the things that may stop you from pursuing it is the thought that there are already too many yoga teachers. At IPV, we believe that there is no such thing as too many yoga teachers. In fact, we need more. Here are some reasons why we need more yoga teachers in the world:

1. Health and well-being: Yoga has been shown to have numerous health benefits, including reduced stress, improved flexibility and strength, and enhanced mental clarity. With more yoga teachers, more people can experience these benefits and improve their overall health and well-being.
   
2. Increased demand: As more people become interested in practicing yoga, there is a growing demand for qualified yoga teachers to lead classes and workshops.
   
3. Personal growth and development: Becoming a yoga teacher is a transformative process that can lead to personal growth and development. By sharing their knowledge and experience, yoga teachers can inspire and empower others to achieve their own personal growth.
   
4. Community building: Yoga classes provide a sense of community and connection, bringing together people from different backgrounds and cultures. By becoming a yoga teacher, individuals can help to build and strengthen their local communities.
   
5. Career opportunities: With the growing popularity of yoga, there are increasing career opportunities for qualified yoga teachers. Teaching yoga can be a fulfilling and rewarding career path for those passionate about health and wellness.
   

Overall, having more yoga teachers in the world can help to promote health and well-being, build community, and provide rewarding career opportunities.

We are running a new 200-hour Hybrid Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training Course this March 2023. If you're interested, check out our "Training" page. We hope you can join us. The world needs you.

I started my yoga practice when I was in college at around 19 years old. As a physically active person, I was always so used to being pretty good at whatever new activity I got into. Yoga was something I found difficult because of the mindset it took to “perform” it but also because it didn’t come naturally to me.

I worked hard to do asana well. And like most of you who are probably reading this, it didn’t take long for me to feel that Yoga was more than asana. There was a shift in the way I practiced over the years and while I found a new level of depth in my mindfulness and intuition, my practice grew in physical technique and skill as well. 

I’ve been practicing Yoga for around 16 years. Hitting my 30’s was different when it came to my physical practice. I found myself going through a phase of insecurity as I felt my body and what it could do were starting to change. And while I found a brand new level of equilibrium in my life, that old familiar feeling of having to “perform” was starting to rear it’s ugly head. 

I had to go back to my intentions and my why’s for being in this practice. 

I realised that just like Yoga itself, our relationship with it evolves as we do. This practice has been around for so long because of exactly that. It adapts to each person’s life and serves as a guide to live our lives mindfully and that is exactly what it’s become with me at this point in my life. 

The minute we realise that this practice will always meet us where we are, we begin to see that the asanas are just a medium for us to get to know ourselves better. As our bodies get older, it becomes another way to figure out the way we work through the way we relate to our bodies and our asana practice. I started to see how I dealt with my ego, what I placed my self-worth on, and my intentions for why I do what I do. 

My practice has come to a point where asana is not the scoring system that I base how good I am at Yoga. At the end of the day, it boils down to finding a sense of compassion and self-love. My Yoga practice has grown to shift along with who I am as I age. I find so much beauty in it and it’s been such a passion of mine to cultivate that change in the classes I teach. 

For any of you going through the same thing, don’t worry. Enjoy the process of your body changing and embrace it! There is value in age and value in figuring out how to navigate your life through your practice. All you have to do is let it in and see what happens.

- Teacher Rianna

I used to have the misconception that Yoga was something strict and unchangeable. When I was a newer practitioner, I had so many misconceptions about the kind of person you had to be to be “legit” – vegan, celibate, in an endless good mood, strong in asana practice, and physically lean like most yogis were. Yoga felt like an impossible standard that I was trying to achieve. It took a good amount of time before I realized what Yoga was really about. 



For anyone who has truly dived into Yoga’s history and Philosophy, part of why It has been around for so long is because it has adapted to the changing times and cultures. Yoga doesn’t need a prerequisite for anyone to take part in it because it exists for us to figure ourselves out. We do Yoga to connect to ourselves and peel away the layers what keep us from realizing we’re already complete. If you practice Yoga to “add on” to who you are, believe me when I say this might not be the route. Yoga is a practice that helps you explore and realize that you are more than enough exactly as you are. The practice teaches us to burn away what keeps us from seeing ourselves as whole. 



It is definitely a process. And over a decade into this practice, I still have a lot of things to figure out and let go of. One thing that keeps me going is remembering that I have to take things one moment at a time. Mindfulness in my asana practice, my ability to be non-reactive, and a steady sitting practice helps too. Yoga doesn’t need us to be perfect. It doesn’t ask us to be anyone else except who we are. And the truth is? It’s a pretty fun process.

I’m the type of person who likes knowing the exact outcome of anything I do. I love when things can be measured, are precise, and are predictable. It’s evident in the way I teach and that is a source of comfort in my life. 

The Eight Limbs of Yoga are meant to be a guide on to how to live a life free from attachment to what doesn’t matter in the end. I’ve been thinking of Isvara Pranidhana much more in this pandemic lately — it is the surrender of your ego to your higher power. I have never been a religious person, but I truly believe that there is more to this world than me and us. I feel it. 

COVID-19 sent all our future plans spiraling out of control. I went through a lot of anxiety over the loss that it brought and how unstable I was feeling. I had many moments of doubt because I didn’t know if the hard work would pay off. It was so easy to hold myself back because not knowing felt crippling so many times. 

I had to muster up the courage to keep moving and find ways to take care of myself as a Yoga teacher. Trust in the process and surrendering the effort was one of the biggest things I’ve learned because of all this. Yes, “the universe has got your back” but we need to do our part too. I worked hard to gain skills, create good content for classes, and build connections to my students. 

Work hard, study, have good intentions, and then LET IT GO. When we focus on the process instead of what we’re getting out of something, the Universe supports what we direct our energy towards. When we surrender the attachment to the outcome, we surrender what holds us back from reaching our fullest potential. Having faith and trusting myself has made me more confident in what the future has in store.

- Teacher Rianna

I’ve gone through quite a lot in my life. Family problems, financial struggles, losing people I love, and trying to find closure from things I never got a sorry for by myself - a lot of times that rile my nervous system up whenever I get reminded of these events.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my own fair share of mistakes and moments I can’t say I’m proud of. While all this feels like a really long time ago, I sometimes see how these have created an effect in who I am today. 

I used to think joy is something I had to continually keep chasing. That it was something I needed to find. A constant thought was how lucky some people had it compared to me and I always wondered how much points I needed to rack up with God to get on his good side. Thinking this way left me consistently exhausted and mentally drained that It was easy to find temporary fixes. I spent a lot of time trying to look for joy in places outside of myself. 

Stepping onto the mat changed that. 

A couple of months in, I was able to find a sense of solace on my mat. Without ever being told how to, the practice brought me back to me. Being with myself and coming face to face with who I was and the life I had wasn’t easy. But I learned that what I go through and for the most part, the thoughts I didn’t define me. Who you are on your mat is who you are off of it. The opportunity to spend time with yourself is valuable because you see exactly how you work and put that into perspective. I felt really happiness within myself - something I hadn’t for a really long time. 

We usually talk about Yoga as something that brings you harmony. I’d like to challenge that by saying that this practice is an unveiling -that you are whole, complete, and beautiful. It leads you to the steps that help strip away what keeps you from realizing that. The secret was that I never needed to look for joy outside of me, it was never gone in the first place. I never even had to look for it, I just had to see it was in me all along.

- Teacher Rianna

​Today is April Fool's Day, a day that is celebrated with pranks and trickery and the ensuing laughter that comes after the discovery of the deception. It's probably one of the few days of the year when we allow ourselves to be completely duped for the sake of a few goodnatured laughs. And the appeal of the activity is almost universal.

Historians trace the roots of the April Fool's Day to various places: in ancient India in celebration of the coming of spring and in ancient Rome, where citizens exchanged fake gifts to commemorate the transition from the Julian Calendar (which starts on April 1) to the Gregorian Calendar.

Regardless of its roots, April Fool's Day revelers have one objective: to find joy in the small things. Whether that's sharing an obviously satirical article to close friends or staging a full production of a prank, we are all motivated by our search for the joy of laughing together, even on the smallest of things.

So today's lesson is: joy doesn't have to come in big packages. And joy is not found in faraway places. Joy can be right here at home in the smallest of things. Try to find that joy in everything near and dear and then you will learn that true joy is just within. 

- Teacher Ben