55-Day 500-Hour Holistic Yoga Teacher Training Retreat in Mandrem, Goa

For teacher training courses, students should be prepared to be mentally and physically challenged during the intense course. For those looking for a more relaxed exploration of yoga, Shree Hari Yoga offers yoga retreats. This course is an excellent opportunity to learn more about fundamentals and traditional yoga.

The Shree Hari 500-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Course (TTC) combines the coursework of our 200-hour and 300-hour certification courses into a single program over 54 days. It is a complete curriculum covering both the foundational and advanced aspects of teaching. 

You will be immersed in the ancient spiritual origins, philosophical teachings, and meditative traditions that make up the practice of yoga. With this traditional framework, you will combine the wisdom of yoga with modern alignment, sequencing, and various styles of practice.

Shree Hari Yoga welcomes anyone with a sincere desire to learn and grow through the practice of yoga. This training is an opportunity for you to enjoy life while learning about the timeless tradition of yoga, cultivating greater health and happiness, and making new friends. If you plan to teach yoga professionally, seek to deepen your personal practice, or even just want to learn more about yoga’s philosophy and history, this course will exceed your expectations.

What you will gain from this training

Techniques, training, and practice

In this training, you will explore both basic and advanced asana. Through practice, you will learn how to create sequences using these yoga postures for students of all levels. The coursework will guide you to a deeper understanding of yourself through asana, pranayama (breathwork), meditation, mantra, and other traditional yoga techniques. You will engage in these practices daily which will refine your personal yoga practice as you develop the skills to become a more skilled yoga instructor.

The methodology portion of the course will cover both basic and advanced techniques to find, refine, and empower your unique teaching voice. By combining your expanding understanding of yoga’s wisdom with daily exposure to practical teaching techniques, you will learn to share the practice with others. 

The techniques covered will include improving your communication skills, translating yoga philosophy into meaningful guidance for your students, enhancing your observation and assisting skills, and supporting others in their overall self-development. You will learn to safely guide students of varying abilities with thoughtful sequencing, modifications, and adjustments.

Understanding the anatomy and mechanics of the human body will enhance your teaching capability. By combining the basics of the 200-hour course with the detailed anatomy and physiology portion of the 300-hour training, you will learn how to analyze each student and apply your knowledge to deliver more personalized teaching. 

This comprehensive approach will include an expanded exploration of the subtle yogic body systems: the chakras, nadis, koshas, and prana. Comprehending the relationship between the gross and subtle bodies will empower your teaching and benefit your yoga students.

Yoga philosophy and ethics

A key component of this yoga teacher training is an in-depth study of yoga philosophies, yoga lifestyle, and ethics for yoga teachers. Within the expanded curriculum of the 500-hour coursework, you will deeply explore ancient texts of yoga philosophy including the basic concepts of Vedanta philosophy, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and more. 

This wisdom found in these volumes will act as a guide to enhance your personal yoga practice, skillfully guide others, and ultimately discover your own true nature.

What is the best yoga path? Where does life come from? How to reach the ultimate goal? All your questions might be answered in this Yoga Philosophy class. There are 4 Paths of Yoga. One of these is Jnana yoga, the Yoga of Knowledge. Real knowledge comes only through experience. 

Yoga philosophy is the most exciting class where you will get food for thoughts and tools to get spiritual experience. You might know your body, your mind, and your emotions. But what is the energy behind everything? What makes your body move, your mind think, and why do people feel differently? 

There are also ways to get experience through your emotions, mostly through love. This Yoga Path is called Bhakti yoga. Physical actions, asanas for example can also lead to reaching the ultimate in yoga. This path is the Karma Yoga path. If you are more inward active, like with meditation and transforming energies, we call it Raja yoga or Kriya yoga. These four Paths are actually part of you all and just dominating in one way more. 

It's amazing what this body is able to do, how the Prana is changing constantly and energy brings life. Prick up your ears in Yoga Philosophy class.

The practice of yoga is often viewed as a therapeutic tool. It utilizes physical yoga and yogic philosophy to heal or manage certain physical and emotional conditions, such as injuries shoulders, or emotional stress. In the 500-hour version of this portion, you will be exposed to both the basics of therapeutic yoga and to an in-depth presentation of conditions that can benefit from it. With the use of case studies, lectures, and analyses of each individual’s unique circumstances, you will learn how to apply yoga as a healing modality.

Teaching practicum

Over this course’s 54 days, you will gain ample experience in teaching students. Components that make up this portion of your training include teaching your peers, receiving and giving constructive feedback, observing others teaching, assisting students while another person is teaching, and more. 500-hour trainees also get the opportunity to teach public drop-in classes if they wish to.

Pranayama

In the classical understanding of Pranayama from the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, it is taught that prana is the life force while Yama is the practice to control. Therefore, pranayama can be understood as ‘to control the life force’. The various techniques of breathing exercises and regulatory methods performed by the yogi can allow access to deep levels of healing, psychic expansions, and vital energy which can both support the overall yogic practise (sadhana) as well as the health and strength of the practitioner. During the practice of pranayama, the stimulation of the system of Nadis in the body is activated, in time giving through experience perception realms beyond the physical such as the emotional, the pain, the pranic, and the bliss bodies.

Eventually, this leads the practitioners through a process both of self-healing and spiritual advancement. Several interpretations and understandings of what pranayama is and does have been stated by advanced and realized yogis as well as have been written in sacred texts of India. Some prominent examples of this come from the well-known spiritual teacher Shankaracharya who expressed in his profound teachings on the spiritual thought that the practice of pranayama is to retain nothing but the experience, though, and perception of Brahman (pure consciousness).

While in the sacred scripture The Gita, it has been written that there are two aspects of the breath which are; the outgoing (apana) and the incoming (prana). In this manner when these two parts merge together there is the experience of pure Brahman (pure consciousness). In this state of Brahman, it is beyond the mind, the ego, and duality. In deeper states of pranayama practice, you have purified the mind, body, and the nadis to such a degree that true meditation is accessed.

Beyond the body and mind, you are Atman (soul). Meditation is the art of observing, realizing, and merging the body and mind with the Atman. Ultimately the yogi wishes to merge the Atman (individual soul) with the Paramatma (universal consciousness). An essential principle of yoga is to utilize asanas and pranayama practices to prepare the body and mind for meditation, which is the path of Raja yoga (king yoga). Dhyana (meditation) is about immersing your consciousness into one of the infinite aspects of the divine; which are bliss, truth, joy, compassion, love, peace, forgiveness, and humbleness among the other virtuous moral values.

Through an authentic meditative practice, you will cultivate a clear relationship with your true self. Additionally, meditation helps you not only to calm your mind but also to boost your immune system with continued practice meditation improves all aspects of your life, and your relation to the world. Through meditation, you can learn to elevate your energy beyond the destructive patterns of stress, depression, anxiety, or addictions. Ultimately, leaving you feeling completely content and complete within yourself.

Ashtanga style of yoga is taught in the Mysore manner by K. Pattabhi Jois. This method of practice is more associated with toning the body and expanding your physical strength. It is more grounding and helps in digesting thoughts. It also helps in activating the nadis, the energy channels, through the structure of the practice. The resulting effects of Ashtanga yoga practice will be experienced immediately. This particular practice involves a more potent experience of bodily and mental release. This can produce swift healing and strengthening experiences, leaving the practitioner more energized.