Listen to know more about Lucas Rockwood:

I was brought to my first yoga class by a friend, and right away it was so difficult I couldn’t make it through the first class standing. I was actually laying on the floor blacking out in the lobby for most of the class. After that, I decided I really needed to get myself in better shape. That was in 2002 and I’ve had a daily practice ever since.

The great thing about yoga is you can own it, personally. With other practices or activities, you have to depend on other people, on facilities (gyms, pools, ski slopes, etc), or even weather conditions. With yoga, you can do it anywhere, anytime and that’s a really amazing tool to have. Yoga for me allows me to work extremely long hours, travel, and connect with people all over the world… all while staying sane (for the most part).

For me, yoga is all about personal transformation. That’s really all I’m interested in as a student and as a teacher. My favorite thing is to see my students make massive changes in their lives for the better all triggered by a simple yoga practice.

Training teachers is really interesting because it’s an opportunity to great a new type of yoga teacher, one that is dedicated to service and enabling transformation. Because yoga is such a personal practice, it’s easy to get self-absorbed and self-interested, particularly as a teacher. What I love is helping teachers learn to serve as it’s really where all the rewards are.

The biggest challenge I see with yoga teachers is burnout. This is when yoga teachers are teaching too much and practicing too little… they lose all their juice for teaching. It’s really sad when something you love turns into something you just “do”, so the challenge is to stay motivated, stay committed to your own growth, and to never stop learning.

I’m excited to see the guru systems in yoga quickly disappearing and a maturity and a free flow of information readily available. It’ll be great when you can tell someone you love yoga and they don’t roll their eyes– and instead they say, “me too!” That’s what I hope happens. I hope yoga becomes an obviously cool thing to do, great for you, and something that draws people in from all walks of life.
The advice I have for people considering teaching or deepening their practice is so simple, but so true. You just need to practice more. You can’t expect your students to work hard for you if you don’t work for yourself. Roll out your mat every morning, stop making excuses, and do it. Yoga is action. Get to work.