Help Esther become an awesome yoga teacher

Aim

I need help to be able to study an inspirational yoga teacher training course to be able to help people in my community through yoga

My name is Esther Nagle, I am a 41 year old single mother of 3 boys, two of whom still live with me. The youngest is 4 years old, the older boy living with me is 17 and is hopefully heading for Cambridge University in 2016 to study Physics.

I am hoping that you might be able to help me achieve a long held dream to study a yoga teacher training course, and be able to provide for my children while also offering huge potential benefit to people in the wider community through well taught yoga classes and courses from a well trained teacher who lives the life she teaches.

I have worked in computer and IT based roles for about the last 12 years or so, and had to give up working last year in a difficult and demanding related role when many difficulties in my personal life, combined with a difficult job, caused harm to my mental health, which took an inevitable toll on the children. I am currently on Income support but am working towards setting up a holistic therapy business (including yoga) from May.

I have practised yoga for about 8 years, and have long felt a very real calling to teach it. I have trained both as a primary school teacher and an adult education tutor, and am the child of a teacher, so teaching is in my blood, as is yoga. I firmly believe that had it not been for my yoga practice, last year would have taken a far greater, and more harmful, toll on my mental health. I now realise that for the sake of my health and the happiness of my children, I must find a way to earn a living that doesn’t create such high levels of stress in me.

I have started a distance learning teacher training course, which while it will provide me with the certification necessary to gain insurance and be able to teach, I don’t think will give me sufficient knowledge and understanding to enable me to be the sort of yoga teacher I need or want to be. I have also started studying a Foundation Course in Om Studio in Cardiff, which is linked to a teacher training course, which I felt would give me the additional support, knowledge and understanding to enable me to be an effective teacher. The course is linked to an ashram in India, and teaches the whole system of yoga incredibly thoroughly, a total contrast to the distance learning course.

However, since beginning the Foundation course I have felt the teacher training aspect of the course calling to me very strongly. I want to share what I am learning so that others may experience the benefits yoga can bring to them. In the short space of time I have been studying the Foundation course, I have already learned such a lot about yoga, the human mind and body and myself, I just know that the teacher training aspect in addition to this will give me the very thorough understanding needed to be a good yoga teacher.

The course is 13 months in length, and just started in March. Because we were only in week three when I contacted the teacher, Kalavathi Devi, to ask if I could switch. Having seen my enthusiasm and commitment displayed through my communication on a Facebook group set up for the course, she was happy to allow me to do so. She is also willing to let me be on the course despite not yet having the funds to pay for it, such is her belief in me as a potential yoga teacher.  She has also written a letter in support of my funding search, which you can read here

Yoga can offer such an incredible range of benefits to the physical, mental and emotional well being of the person practising it, and a good yoga teacher can open people up to this and help them to achieve things they never thought they would be able to achieve. I know I can be a very good yoga teacher and really help people. Yoga can be so beneficial for health, it can help with such a wide range of complaints. I am hoping to rid myself of the asthma I have suffered from since childhood through the course, and know that through good teacher training I can take this to my community and help so many others. I am also very interested in the ways yoga can help people with mental health issues, children, pregnant women and the aging population, and would like to be able to offer tailored courses and classes for these key groups in the community.

I firmly believe that while the distance learning course I am studying will provide me with some knowledge, and the certification that will allow me to teach yoga, I will not be able to become the teacher I know I can and should be without further study, and the Teacher Training course run by Kalavathi Devi at Om Studio will provide me with all that and more.

I have already paid £295 as I have started the Foundation course aspect of the training, and will of course be able to continue to pay the additional £420 (£35 each month) , so I have to pay another £1435 for the teacher training aspect of the course. In addition to this, I will have to travel to Cardiff an extra day per month a month for the course, at a cost of around £120, and to a yoga class in Rhydyfelin once a week, at around £200 for the year. I may also have to buy books , but I may be able to borrow books, or buy cheaply second hand. The total amount of money I need therefore is £1755.

I would be so grateful if you would consider helping me out with the cost of this training to enable me to fulfil my dream. Any help you could offer me would be gratefully accepted.

This project closed unsuccessfully on 20th May 2014