Such a juicy topic! No one wants to be mediocre at yoga, it seems, whether as a yoga teacher or as a yoga practitioner.
What can we do as yoga teachers to make that shift from good to great and simultaneously help our yoga students take that same leap?
Three energetic shifts must happen first inside the heart of the teacher, in order to open the channel for the next three traits to flow through the teacher, into the class.
Energy #1
Always be open to growth.
The longer we do something, the harder this becomes, so we must continuously choose to be better, seek out resources to help us, and stay humble.
This is actually one personal motivation for creating Asana Insights. Teaching somethings makes us better at it. It forces us to embody all angles of the material, refine our words, and sharpen our communication skills. Through writing and sharing these blogs, I am able to help other yoga instructors while helping myself. Without honest reflection and introspection, the blogs are worthless. When I examine the lessons to share, I find a more comprehensive view of what worked, where I was lacking, and how I can improve next time. You learn and I learn. Without a continued openness to grow, neither of us would benefit.
Begin every class you teach as an empty vessel just waiting to be filled with love, insight, and possibilities. Approach every class on the mat this way as well, so you can absorb the lessons from the teacher with an open mind and unobstructed flow of energy.
For Example
Do you remember Anusara Yoga? It had a moment in the early 2000's for about a decade, with a strong hold in the yoga community. While I never trained to teach this yoga style, I took Anusara classes along side my Bikram yoga practice for the first few years of my teaching career and it influenced my teaching style.
Ansuara Yoga had principles of alignment and the first principle was "open to grace." I love this now just as much as the first time I heard it. It has stayed in my heart and infused every moment on my mat ever since.
"Open to grace" can mean almost anything to anyone, and something different to everyone. For me, this phrase inspires me to stay open to growth. In my heart and mind it acts as a gentle reminder to be compassionate, aware, open, and willing to grow.
If we are closed off and stuck in sameness, how can we inspire ourselves or our students?
I used to have my teachers sign a code of ethics and expectations upon hiring. "Have a willingness to grow" is the first guideline I asked them to acknowledge and embody as part of our studio staff, inspired by Aunusara Yoga's "open to grace."
(As a side note, I let go of this part of the hiring process over the last few years, I can't remember why anymore. I've brought it back for West Wind because clear expectations make strong employees committed to a singular vision. I recommend to have something in place for your teachers is you are a studio owner. And as a teacher, have your own set of core values in place to provide guidance for how you approach your classes. It will make you a better teacher.)
No one has to be perfect, but as willingness to grow is imperative to keep an edge and stay ahead in our teaching craft. I always expected my teachers to take yoga classes, workshops, and keep learning after their initial 200 hour certificate. This principle inspired me to create the Yoga Sanctuary Wisdom Retreat for Yoga Teachers. We all need both a willingness to grow and the opportunity to do so.
Energy #2
Get as much experience teaching yoga as you can.
As a studio owner this was really tough, because I hired new teachers just out of my teacher training program and they had no experience. I knew they needed to get on the schedule for the chance to be good, forget great.
It takes 10,000 hours of practice at something to become "a natural." Start logging those hours! Nothing can replace experience. But without an willingness to grow, experience is useless.
Don't be the yoga teacher who teaches exactly the same way 10,000 times.
Every class contains a different set of student with a unique set of needs on that day. Take time to look at the class before you begin. Who is here? Who is new, who is returning? Take the time to see individual students.
Be willing to grow so you can learn to recognize the individuals instead of seeing a sea of sameness. When you can do this, corrections to make will catch your eye, and with experience, you'll learn to cue the best words for students to make adjustments.
Over time, through experience combined with effort, your teaching practice will evolve into a refined craft.
Energy #3
Embrace discomfort.
Leading a person through transformation on the yoga mat is not always easy, working with the public is fraught with its own challenges, and feeling inexperienced brings out insecurities. The more we can embrace discomfort, the faster it transforms into stability.
These first three points are very personal and require internal shifts from within. And since teaching yoga is super personal, we must start with ourselves.
Once energetic housekeeping is in order, infuse your yoga class with these next 3 ingredients for greatness.
I didn't come up with these next ones myself. Sociologists and researchers did the legwork with studies to define what makes a person stick with something. And since great yoga teachers have strong client retention, even raving fans, we can apply these principles as expert advice to make us better yoga teachers!
To maximize student commitment and therefor student transformation, each student in class must:
Learn something new
Make progress
Have fun
Pretty simple.
Take a look at your classes. Do you incorporate these traits in some way for every student in every class you teach?
Be really self-reflective here, driven by a willingness to grow, and gauge your classes as best as you can against each one of these three factors. Let's take a closer look.
Energy #4
Learn Something New:
What is the feedback after your class? Does anyone come up to you and say, "I learned something new today" or "I never understood until now how to..." Or maybe they ask for clarification after the class on something you said during the class, or even ask how to do a posture. These are all signs of your students learning something new.
If this never happens, examine your attention to your students and your verbal cues during class. Can you be clearer with your cues? More refined or specific? Are you taking time to observe your students to say what they need to hear, or are you just phoning in your regular spiel for the posture? Is your tone so monotonous that your students tune out? Is the music too loud so they can't hear your instructions?
When I first began teaching, I remember a more experienced yoga instructor told me, "I feel if I can give one student one really good correction during class, then I did a good job." And she was right. Because this strong, clear intention focused her entire class energy. She examined each student in every posture to find that one thing she could say to the class that would offer up a really good correction.
We felt her eye on us, so we tried extra hard. And even though in her mind, that one correction was meant for one particular student, because it was so clear, every student in that class benefited from it. Our awareness perked up at her focused tone and we all thought, Do I need to do that? How does that apply to my posture today? We all learned something new.
Energy #5
Make Progress:
Sometimes on the mat, progress is hard to recognize. We don't trust ourselves in the process. We can easily feel stagnant, even discouraged, when really working through something on the yoga mat.
Because of this, I believe in giving a shout-out either during the class or after class when I see a student progress in a posture. Point out your students' success. Too often, headway is cloaked in something much less glamourous than a "picture perfect" posture. Your student may not actually recognize an achievement without your help. And they will be so grateful to you for reflecting their own beauty back to them.
Energy #6
Have Fun
It sounds so easy. Isn't "fun" borne from learning something new and making progress? When we stop learning, we stop having fun. When we feel we've maxed out our potential, the fun dissipates. We lose inspiration to keep trying and instead seek out something else.
In turn, when we are having fun, we're more willing to try something new, even when it is uncomfortable or unfamiliar, like a yoga practice can be.
This is so important to understand as a yoga teacher because when students get frustrated, they stop having fun. As the class leader, we must recognize their frustration and lead them back to fun. We must be in tune with their experience on the mat, so we notice when and where to guide them. Experience teaches us how to guide them.
Lighting the way to the fun in the practice makes the yoga class specific to each student's individual needs. This is what a great teacher does. A great teacher makes every student feel you were speaking directly to them, as an individual, leading them toward fun, offering them something new, and recognizing their progress.
Think about your own personal practice. How did you feel the last time you came out of a class really feeling amazing, excited to get back on your mat? I bet you had fun, learned something new about yourself while on your mat that day, and made progress of some kind, physically or otherwise. And I bet you credited the yoga teacher for guiding you through such a successful class journey.
In Closing
Be open to growth.
Get as much experience as you can.
Embrace discomfort.
Create space for your students to learn something new.
Highlight their progress.
Lead them to fun.
Infusing all of these as much as possible into your classes will move the needle from being a good teacher to being a great teacher. It takes continuous time and effort, but you're worth it and so our your students.
I'm happy to answer any questions or comments you have about this vast topic.
Namaste,
Lara
"I took my first hot yoga class [with Lara] in 2009. I was told it could be life changing. Walking through the door I felt so welcomed, that [every class] became the best part of my day."
- John Laboranti, Yoga Client since 2009
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