The Jivamukti Yoga 300-Hour Teacher Training is a month-long residential program held at different locations around the world. This rigorous program taught by Sharon Gannon, David Life and other senior Jivamukti Yoga teachers is considered by many to be the most comprehensive yoga teacher training available. It attracts students from around the world and produces empowered, knowledgeable and confident yoga teachers. Ideal for intermediate and advanced students, the 300-hour training program provides a blueprint for incorporating the physical, psychological, spiritual, and mystical aspects of yoga into modern life, without losing sight of the universal goal of the practice: liberation. Emphasizing interconnectedness and a non-dualistic view of life, this practice awakens within us a need to protect the planet and all life on Earth. Participants gain the skills to confidently achieve those goals for themselves, as well as the ability to teach others how to live in harmony.
The month-long training program covers yoga philosophy and scriptures, history of yoga, introduction to Sanskrit, introduction to anatomy, practice teaching sessions, study groups, mentor guidance, quizzes, midterm and final tests, and all aspects of Jivamukti Yoga. The training focuses not only on the physical postures, but also on how the postures evolved. We explore yoga’s ancient sacred texts and five-thousand-year-old traditions, as well as the psychotherapeutic benefits that develop with a steady practice and the spiritual power that is set free when energy flows throughout the heart, body and mind. A special segment of the program offered each spring at the Omega Institute also includes full participation in Spring Ecstatic Chant, where we join some of the West’s leading devotional singers in an exploration of transcendent musical prayer (kirtan), yoga, and meditation.
Throughout the month, participants experience:
- Immersion in daily yoga practice
- In-depth sessions focused on vinyasa sequencing and alignment, including standing poses, forward bends, twists, back bends, inversions and balances
- Study of the physical and energetic anatomy of the human body
- Sanskrit language immersion, where you learn to read, write and recite the Sanskrit alphabet
- Exploration into major yogic texts, including the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, the Bhagavad Gita and the Hatha Yoga Pradipika
- Meditation practice twice a day and instruction on how to teach meditation to others
- Practice teaching and instruction for how to give hands-on assists to students while they are practicing asanas
- Lessons on how to practice and teach healing, purifying and detoxifying hatha yoga kriyas
- Exploration of philosophy, ethics, and activism: how to live a more effective, positive and harmonious life
- Direct experience of the importance of a vegan diet for human health, for sustaining the ecosystem, for reducing violence in the world and as a means to enlightenment
Successful completion of the 300-Hour Training Program certifies the teacher to call their classes Jivamukti Yoga Classes (so long as the classes are taught strictly in accordance with Jivamukti Yoga methods); to advertise and identify themselves as a Certified Jivamukti Yoga Teacher; and to be listed on the Jivamukti Yoga web site as a current Jivamukti Yoga 300-Hour Certified Teacher.
