There’s a saying: if you want to learn something, teach it.
Let’s kick this off with a little Zen Story
A little monk-et in training doesn’t know what to do. S/he goes to the master monk and says I am lost I do not know how I can go on. The master monk says
“Go out and be of service”
There’s something interesting I have come to witness in myself and other teachers I work with and alongside. I notice it in my own body and mind : if you want to heal from something, learn how to guide others through it. It sounds back-to-front. When you’re in the middle of your own grief, your own burnout, trauma, teaching someone else can feel like the last thing you have to give. And yet that’s often exactly where the teaching becomes the healing. I’ve spoken to and mentored many teachers that have been in the middle of a huge life challenge – and the moment they step onto the mat to teach – something changes. The powerful effect of putting yourself in a position to help, to be of service to others takes over. I can relate to this change that happens also. The effects this can have on your body, mind and energy can be exactly what is needed to move through what ever it is. At the same time teaching from that place of resignation that may first feel like ‘nothing left to give’ – can be the beginning of authentic teaching and getting yourself (your intellectual mind) out of the way and allow something organic to flow through you. In these moments both students and teacher as a collective get what they need from moving, breathing and being in their bodies.
The Life Situations
Myself, together with so many other teachers have moved through grief that felt like it will never end, navigating the exhaustion of healthcare work. Struggling with perfectionism and the inner critic. I’ve moved through and continue to move through anger at various systems and injustice. These ‘life situations’ are turning points. There’s an energy centre in yoga called the Solar Plexus (Manipura Chakra) – the space in and around the navel that is associated with our motivation for change, our drive for taking action. It too is known as ‘The Turning Point’. Weather you are a Yoga or Mindfulness Teacher or Practitioner you can use this point to focus on, to breathe into, to rinse and release tension from to get centred, steady, grounded and present.
Turning Points
When you commit to showing up and guiding someone through what ever it is they are needing support with – for example grief and / or loss, you are being asked to first meet your own grief or loss at a cellular level. You have to tend to your own history so you can build capacity to hold and share space that is not masked but authentic. Sometimes holding space happens and sometimes it’s messy. It is why practicing being okay with what you are feeling and staying with it, rather than turning away from it becomes the turning point for everyone present.
We Heal Together
I didn’t heal first and then teach. We heal together as we go. I don’t often use the word ‘healing’ probably more ‘learning’ . By having to articulate the teachings and contemplate them – then apply them to life situations – these real life situations can become potential discussions or class contemplations (always optional) that people can leave or contemplate when or if the time is right. What creates real, lasting change — two human beings sitting across from each other, onesaying: I’ve been here too, that moment when someone asks – how did you get through it?
Why I Train Teachers
This is why I vowed to train others to teach Yoga, because it wasn’t only Yoga & Mindfulness – time at classes or time on the meditation cushion that has helped me get through hard things – it’s learning to Teach and Teaching itself . I’ve felt firsthand that it is what makes transformation sustainable. I’ve trained hundreds of teachers now. Several nurses, doctors, allied health workers, parents and carers have come to training because despite being burnt out and exhausted – something in them still wants to help others and find ways they too can lighten their load and find relief from different forms of suffering.
The Bridge
Although no two life situations are the same – the compassion and understanding of what it is like to go through hard things is what can create the ‘union’ – this becomes the Yoga. Witnessing each other go through and see how we are all capable of doing hard things are shared turning points that morph into healing. Teaching grows from authenticity. When you stand in front of someone and say, here’s what I went through and here’s how the practice helped me, a two-way bridge forms. The student receives permission to heal in their own way. The teacher deepens their understanding by listening to others and learn how it lands in another heart. It’s not to say that you share your own story all through the class – it maybe just when asked. It maybe that you share a teaching that has helped you through or helped you let go and leave the rest up to the student to take what they need from it in their own way.
Finding Your Way Home
Here’s something many people don’t expect, whether or not you ever teach a single class: the training is an investment in getting clear on your own purpose. In understanding what actually matters to you. In building the discernment to stay true to it when the road gets rough. A class gives you tools — breath, asana, a meditation — and you leave feeling steadier. The training gives you time to understand what’s happening in your nervous system, and space to build real discernment: the ability to see what’s true for you, underneath the pull of all of the ‘conditioned’ habit patterns – what the world has told or is telling you. Given there is SO much information coming into our field of awareness – it is important now more than ever to learn the art of discernment. It is often these hidden qualities that deepen during a Teacher Training. Along with getting fit, flexible, having new connections with others – you get to take home new tools, and deepen ones you are curious about from classes – which take you into a new chapter of understanding.
Two Paths, Same Destination
Not everyone needs the full training. Some people are best served by mentoring — one-on-one guidance with someone who knows them and has walked a similar road. Others are ready for the immersion of training alongside others. The real question is which one fits your current need, your learning style, your season of life. Either way, you’re saying: I want to understand myself more deeply, and build tools that actually work for me. And I have a desire to want to help others (you don’t have to teach Yoga on the mat to do it!) This maybe through what I fondly refer to as “Stealth Yoga” – the ripple effect of sharing tools within your current role as a parent, friend, school teacher, health professional. Or just helping you cope with how fast the world moves (especially in this new age of AI and technology)
Where to From Here
If it’s been on your mind or there’s a pull to teach Yoga or Mindfulness, this is what Teacher Training has capacity to offer you. I’ve spent more than thirty years in health as a Registered Nurse and Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and over 19,000 hours teaching mindfulness and yoga. That depth is woven into every part of the training — although you get resources and guides that will last you a lifetime – you’re not learning scripts, you’re doing your own deep work and learning to teach from your life experiences. This is one of the gifts within the training is shared community and time and space to go within. The Yoga has a profound way of taking care of what ever it is that you bring with you to the training.
→ Explore the Teacher Training, mentoring and trauma-informed pathways: HERE
© Tammy Williams 2026 | Yoga NRG & Mindfulness Training Australia | yogaenergy.com.au | 0439 418 571