Module 1 - Foundations & The Yogic Path
Welcome to the first month of your 200-hour Vinyasa and Yin Yoga Teacher Training. This opening module lays the foundation for everything that follows: how we will learn together, what this training asks of you, and the deeper heart of the path we are walking.
This month, we begin by orienting to the structure of the training, the rhythm of the portal, and the values that will guide our time together. We will also begin exploring yoga as more than movement practice—yoga as relationship, philosophy, discipline, inquiry, and devotion.
You’ll be invited to reflect on why you are here, what you are being called into, and how the themes of effort and ease, strength and stillness, already live in your body and your life. As you move through these lessons, allow this first month to be less about “mastering” and more about arriving.
In this module, you will:
Understand how the training is organized and how to move through the Squarespace portal clearly and consistently.
Learn the expectations, agreements, and rhythm of the 8-month blended format.
Explore the philosophical roots of yoga and the meaning of practice beyond poses.
Reflect on your intention for the training and your relationship to teaching, study, and self-inquiry.
What to complete this month:
Watch or read all lessons in order.
Complete the reflection prompts.
Submit the Month 1 intention assignment.
Bring your notes and questions to our first in-person weekend.
Lesson 1 - Orientation
An opening welcome to the training, how this journey is structured, and what to expect as we begin together.
Welcome to this 200-hour Vinyasa and Yin Yoga Teacher Training. We’re honored to walk with you through this season of study, practice, reflection, and transformation.
This training is designed as a blended experience, with online learning woven together with in-person weekends so that our live time can be grounded, experiential, and relational. Over these eight months, you will study asana, anatomy, philosophy, sequencing, yin, vinyasa, breath, ethics, and teaching methodology, while also deepening your own personal practice and capacity to hold space.
This is a foundational training, but it is not meant to be superficial. You are being invited into a deeper relationship with yoga—not only as a physical practice, but as a path of listening, awareness, discernment, and embodiment. The intention is not simply to produce teachers who can lead sequences, but practitioners who can teach with integrity, clarity, and presence.
In this lesson, you will:
Understand the overall arc of the training.
Learn what the online and in-person rhythm will feel like.
Begin orienting to the heart and intention of the program.
Reflection Prompt:
What is calling you to this training now, and what are you hoping to deepen in yourself through this experience?
Assignment:
Write a one-page intention letter to yourself about why you are here and what you hope to cultivate over the next eight months.
Lesson 2 - How to Move Through the Portal
A practical guide to using the student portal, accessing lessons and resources, and staying on track between weekends.
This portal is your home base for the training. Each month, you’ll find a new module that includes an overview, lesson content, practice resources, downloads, reflection prompts, and assignments.
To keep the learning experience clear and supportive, move through each lesson in order. Begin with the module overview, then complete the lessons, download any needed handouts, and finish the reflection or assignment before the next in-person gathering. Use the Training Calendar to stay connected to release dates, live sessions, and due dates, and return to the Resource Library whenever you need supporting materials.
Consistency matters more than perfection. Your goal is not to rush through the content, but to stay in relationship with it—to read carefully, practice sincerely, and arrive prepared for the experiential work we’ll do together in person.
In this lesson, you will:
Understand where lessons, assignments, and resources live.
Learn the recommended order for completing each month’s work.
Create a simple structure for your own study rhythm.
Reflection Prompt:
What helps you stay steady, present, and organized when you are learning something meaningful?
Assignment:
Create a folder or notebook system for this training, bookmark the main portal pages, and write out your personal plan for how and when you will complete online lessons each month.
Lesson 3 - Where Strength Meets Stillness
An introduction to the central theme of this training: cultivating both steadiness and softness in practice, teaching, and life.
At the center of this training is a simple but profound inquiry: how do we cultivate strength without hardening, and stillness without collapsing? Yoga invites us into both steadiness and surrender, discipline and receptivity, clear effort and deep listening.
Strength, in this context, is not force. It is presence, discernment, commitment, truthful effort, and the willingness to stay with what is real. Stillness is not passivity. It is spaciousness, receptivity, regulation, listening, and the capacity to be with experience without immediately trying to control it.
This balance will guide how we approach both vinyasa and yin in this program. Vinyasa asks for clarity, rhythm, stamina, heat, and directional energy. Yin asks for yielding, patience, sensation awareness, and the capacity to remain present in quieter spaces of the body and mind. Together, they offer a more whole and mature practice—one that can support both expression and introspection, action and repair.
As teachers, we are not simply learning to lead poses. We are learning to create conditions in which students can feel, respond, regulate, strengthen, soften, and come home to themselves. This is part of what it means to teach where strength meets stillness.
In this lesson, you will:
Reflect on the deeper intention of this training.
Explore how vinyasa and yin complement one another.
Consider your own tendencies toward over-effort or collapse in practice.
Reflection Prompt:
Where in your life are you being asked to develop strength, and where are you being asked to soften into stillness?
Assignment:
Journal for 10–15 minutes on the reflection above, then sit quietly or rest in stillness for 5 minutes and note what you observe in your body, breath, and mind.
Lesson 4 - What Is Yoga? History, Context & Purpose
A foundational introduction to yoga’s roots, major paths , and the broader purpose of practice beyond posture.
Before yoga became widely known as a movement practice, it was understood as a path of liberation, awareness, discipline, and inner transformation. While modern yoga often emphasizes postures, the broader tradition includes philosophy, meditation, ethics, devotion, inquiry, and relationship to consciousness itself.
In this training, we will honor the physical practice of yoga while also widening the lens. We will study yoga as a tradition with depth, complexity, lineage, and multiple expressions across time. This helps us teach with more humility, integrity, and context.
You do not need to become a scholar to teach yoga well. But you do need to understand that yoga is larger than asana, and that teaching postures without any connection to the broader path can flatten the practice. Our aim is to keep returning to the question: what is yoga asking of us, and how do we live it—not just perform it?
In this lesson, you will:
Understand that yoga includes more than physical posture.
Begin to situate asana within a larger philosophical tradition.
Reflect on your current understanding of yoga and how it may be evolving.
Reflection Prompt:
How has your understanding of yoga changed over time, and what parts of the path are you being invited to explore more deeply now?
Assignment:
Write a short reflection on the question: “What is yoga to me right now?
Lesson 5 - The 8 Limbs, Yamas & Niyamas
An introduction to the 8 limbs of yoga and the ethical foundations that support both personal practice and teaching.
One of the most widely referenced philosophical frameworks in yoga is the 8-limbed path, which offers a map for practice that reaches far beyond the mat. Rather than seeing yoga as only postures, this framework reminds us that practice also includes ethics, discipline, breath, sense withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and states of absorption.
The yamas and niyamas—the first two limbs—invite us into relationship with how we live. They include teachings such as ahimsa (non-harming), satya (truthfulness), tapas (discipline), svadhyaya (self-study), and ishvara pranidhana (surrender to something greater). These are not abstract ideals; they are living practices that shape how we speak, listen, teach, choose, and show up.
As teachers, these teachings matter because our presence teaches as much as our cues. The way we hold power, boundaries, honesty, humility, and care is part of the practice we model. Returning to these ethical roots helps keep our teaching grounded in integrity rather than performance.
In this lesson, you will:
Learn the basic structure of the 8 limbs.
Reflect on the yamas and niyamas as lived practice.
Begin connecting ethics to your future role as a teacher.
Reflection Prompt:
Which yama or niyama feels especially alive for you right now, and why?
Assignment:
Choose one yama or niyama and write a one-page reflection on how it shows up in your practice, relationships, or teaching path.