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Distance Learning and Yoga

April 13, 2012 •

I’ve been curi­ous about the online/web-based options for learn­ing yoga, or deep­en­ing a yoga prac­tice. Not to men­tion teacher train­ing options for peo­ple who aspire to become teach­ers, but can’t afford the thou­sands of dol­lars required to achieve Level 1 cer­ti­fi­ca­tion via the usual means. Or even spe­cial­ized classes to help teach­ers advance to the next level, or become more savvy busi­ness peo­ple.

Given the tra­di­tional guru-stu­dent rela­tion­ship, how open is the yoga com­mu­nity to using online ser­vices for guided stu­dent prac­tice, teacher train­ing, inspi­ra­tion?

I found myself pleas­antly sur­prised at the num­ber of choices avail­able today. That said, when it comes to home-based study, many options appear lim­ited to online order­ing of tra­di­tional media (such as printed man­u­als and DVDs) that will be mailed to the stu­den­t’s home. These are early days but we haven’t yet seen the full poten­tial of online ser­vices and mobile devices as an aid to a guided prac­tice, or even a yoga immer­sion.

Is “Distance Learning” the Right Term?

What sur­prised me was to find how often peo­ple use the phrase “dis­tance learn­ing” in con­junc­tion with yoga. Although this phrase is used quite com­fort­ably within aca­d­e­mic or com­mer­cial set­tings, it’s dis­con­cert­ing in the con­text of a yoga-cen­tric learn­ing envi­ron­ment.

Per­haps it’s time for the yoga com­mu­nity to come up with a label that does­n’t empha­size the notion of phys­i­cal dis­tance between peo­ple. Instead let’s choose a phrase that is more pos­i­tive, one that embraces the con­ve­nience of online ser­vices, espe­cially as a prac­ti­cal alter­na­tive for days when things get in the way of show­ing up for a real-world class.

I dream about the day when I can “take a class” from a favorite teacher, via a future online ser­vice. This would be an attrac­tive and prac­ti­cal alter­na­tive to hav­ing to miss her stu­dio-based class due to work or fam­ily con­flicts. For those of us who travel reg­u­larly, being able to take online classes from our teach­ers would be a won­der­ful option while on the road.

If I knew I could take “make-up classes” via an online ser­vice, I’d be more com­fort­able about sign­ing up for 12-week class passes. Instead I jug­gle classes at sev­eral local stu­dios, based on which classes are the best fit for my sched­ule. I’d much pre­fer the option of choos­ing the teacher first, and then the sched­ule, rather than the reverse.

New Teaching Opportunities?

And would­n’t it be nice if deserv­ing yoga teach­ers could earn a decent income, assum­ing the future “online class­room” could cre­ate more teach­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, or allow them to serve a larger num­ber of stu­dents.

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Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

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