10 things I have learned about teaching yoga

All around the yoga blogspshere, yoga teachers are lurking! Some of us blog openly, how many others are just reading a bit here, a bit there?


Since moving to Oxford I am on a teaching hiatus, and it has given me time to reflect on the joys and the challenges of being a yoga teacher.  Here are a few things I can say I've learned, in no particular order.  Enjoy! Share! Comment!

1. "Don't make it up": [This is an unforgettable quote from my own teacher.  It's hard for me to convey just how many things are summed up by this, but I'll try to scrape the tip of the iceberg.]  Yoga is a system.  It is tried, tested and it has worked for thousands of people, possibly for thousands of years. There are fountains of knowledge available about it, and incredible teachers who transmit it.  What this quote means to me is: Immerse yourself.  Dig deep.  Get to really know - and experience - what you are teaching and assimilate what you have learned in order to pass it on.  Because when you teach yoga you are reaching into people's sacred spaces - their bodies, their health, their wellbeing, their souls.  Respect that and teach what works, with that honour code etched always in the forefront of your mind.  Don't make it up.

2. Don't be afraid if you don't know: There has been a lot of blogging about the role of the teacher and the pedestals that we risk putting ourselves on or being put on.  When put in the position of the teacher, it's natural to want to be able to answer every question our students ask us.  And they will ask questions - hard questions! Left-field questions!  Sometimes you will be able to answer confidently.  But when a question leaves you with your mouth opening and closing again - don't be afraid to say those 3 little words: "I don't know".  Maybe even follow them by: "but I'll find out for you!".

There is also another type of question that yoga teachers get asked - deeply personal questions, the soul-searching ones that really, nobody can answer except the student themselves.  When confronted with these I've found that the best answer is to reassure people that what they're feeling is normal, and remind your student that yoga is experiential, that their personal experience is just as valid as anything I could offer, and that it's up to them to make their own choices and decisions.

3. Speak up!  I think this one is self-explanatory: when teaching, project, project and project some more! As with the theatre, when you teach yoga, especially if you teach to music, remember that when you speak you should be facing the class (not the floor or the wall!) and to look up and back while you speak to make sure everyone can hear you.  If you do always teach to music, try teaching without it (even an imaginary class will do) - you will suddenly be aware of just how important your voice is, both in speech and in silence, in creating the mood and energy of the class.

4. Demonstration is a tool, not a teaching.  Demonstrations are great and valuable tools.  But demonstrating every single pose in front of the class is not the same as teaching!  If students want a guided practice, they can get a DVD - your role as a teacher is to teach, not just to lead.  (Hey, we all start out there... it takes time, too right?) A good example is downward facing dog.  If you are leading your class through this pose and at the same time demonstrating it, who benefits from this? After all, from this pose, you can't see your students, and they can't see you (or hear you, likely)! So use demonstrations as a tool, but let it be just one of many tools in your teacher's bag of tricks.

5. Smile.  Laugh! Play! Be silly! And encourage your students to do the same. Yoga is supposed to be relaxing, and people relax when they are having fun and feel comfortable.  Let your sense of humour shine through and have a good time - the chances are that if you do, your students will too.

6. To adjust or not? - Have the discussion.  This is such a huge question for teachers, students and the yoga community in general.  What I have learned is this: whatever you choose, share it with your students.  If you are going to adjust, explain it to them and give them a chance to opt out of it if they want one.  If you are not going to, explain it to them also, and give them other ways to get your feedback on their asanas.

7. Don't ignore the core! Core strength is fundamental to every yoga pose.  Whether expressed through a subtle understanding of mula bandha or a rocking navasana, the key is always in the core.  And yet, so many teachers shy away from core strengtheners because we dread the pained looks on our students faces!  Something that works for me is to work the core into verbal cues in standing poses like Tadasana, Warrior II, Utkatasana or Tree pose.  Also, if you teach Vinyasa or any type of flow, you can integrate your core work into a vinyasa so it doesn't feel like such a slog.


8. Stay rooted in your own practice.  As I said earlier, yoga is experiential.  We can only teach what we know about yoga, and we can only know by doing.  When we first start teaching we have to struggle to maintain our own practice, and many teachers fall into the trap of using their classes as personal practice times.  But as a teacher we still need to be taught, to learn, to grow, and to explore.  The more you practice, the richer your teachings will be, and the more you will evolve as a teacher, keeping your students interested and constantly learning as well.  Maybe this is the most important thing of all!

9. Teach yoga, not just asana.  We all know that yoga is so much more than asana.  But do our students?  I'm not saying that we should all get preachy every class.  But I do find that when I am inspired to branch out onto a yoga philosophy tangent, people are interested and want to know more.  So many teachers I know are afraid of bringing a spiritual element into their classrooms.  And if yoga isn't spiritual in any way for you, then that's how it should be.  But if yoga is transformational for you, share it.  It doesn't have to be a philosophy lecture.  Teach the little things - like stress-busting yoga poses you do at work or pranayama for road rage.  Talk about how santosha can manifest through everyday acts of kindness, or how ahimsa might lead you to improve your diet.  Just as yoga creeps into every aspect of your life, let these aspects feed back into your teaching

10. Be yourself! By far the most important of all - teach what you love, and teach from the heart.  We all have teachers that we aspire to be like, but at the end of the day, yoga is really just all about being yourself.  So dance if you love dancing, chant if you love chanting, play music if you love music, or don't if you love silence.  The best teachers are the authentic ones.


Well, those are some of the things that have been on my mind about teaching...  Readers, can you add any lessons you have learned from teaching or being taught, or relate from personal experience?

Teachers, Students and Ethics: Oh my!

This post was inspired by the discussion on It's All Yoga Baby around the ad featuring Jivamukti teachers from a NY studio posing naked for PETA.  Roseanne ends her post asking:

"Despite these positive aspects, there still is a  slight breach of professionalism in this ad – these are working yoga teachers, who will encounter students and potential students in class and in their communities. I think it illustrates the precarious and awkward place that yoga teachers hold in our culture, somewhere between entertainer and health professional."

A commenter on her blog, Dharma teacher Frank Jude of Mindfulness Yoga (yay, new blog!), left this insight that touched me profoundly:  

"Seeing my teacher in this and other social situations most definitely helped to de-construct any potentially de-railing projections, and did so without at all diminishing my respect and appreciation for him as a teacher. What it may have done — and I think this is a good and important teaching — is make it clear to me that ‘the teacher’ is a role; it’s not about the man/woman. When I take the teacher’s seat, this understanding leads me to have great reverence for the role without taking myself so seriously."

Which brings me to muse...  When we are teaching yoga, it IS a role we are enacting for a specfic period of time.  I personally can feel it pour down over me like a cloak when the clock strikes the start time.  It's like a switch goes on, it's a muse, it's a groove!  And when the final namaste is said and the lights go on, I feel it lift again and I become myself.  And thinking about Frank's comment, I don't want my students to put me on a pedestel, to think that yoga teachers are somehow elevated people, that we don't have flaws and beliefs and good days and bad days.

In Donna Farhi's book Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship, the author talks about keeping "healthy boundaries" and maintaining a "necessary distance" between the teacher and the student.  In her view, maintaining this distance is a way of honouring the deeply transformative process that the student may be undergoing, and keeping it sacred by maintaining the formality of the relationship.  She also says that casual relationships with students are often more serving of the teacher's needs than the students.

Farhi goes on to say: "I have come to recognize that when a student becomes a personal friend, my ability to serve her as a teacher has effectively ended."  The key concept here is service.  Farhi isn't suggesting that you can never be friends with your students, just that the changed dynamic of the relationship and the recognition of the student as your "peer" will diminish your effectiveness as a teacher. Farhi suggests that the student may or may not decide to seek another teacher, or may be quite happy to maintain a "student-peer" position in class and a friend outside of class.

This example is specific to the student who becomes a friend.  But what about the friend who becomes the student?  When I was first teaching, I felt awkward about having my friends in my classes and found it hard to find my groove as a teacher, or would refrain from chanting at the end of class thinking "what will my friends think?".  As I have grown as a teacher I have become more comfortable with my role as the teacher and more able to easily slip into it.  And my friends who come to my classes also seem comfortable and respectful of my role: I have never had anyone try to use our friendship to modify what they get in their yoga class!

My musings also lead me to this question: as yoga teachers, how do we see ourselves?  In my yoga class, I strive to create an atmosphere that allows people as much choice as they want, a place that embraces all body types, beliefs, ages, sexualities as equals.  But outside the classroom I still have my own beliefs, body type, age, sexuality etc. that define me as a person, and that are important to my own identity. While I would never press these on anyone else in a yoga class, outside the classroom they give me guidance in my choices and make me who I am.  Where the boundaries exist are different for every different person I guess.

I live in a very small community and I teach classes to my friends, and some of my students become my friends.  Beyond these friends, I also see my yoga students at work, at the beach, in restaurants, and at parties. And (after the initial shock of seeing someone in another context!) I have never felt weird about that (I mean, this town is so small that it would be weird if I didn't see them!).  I think that if we are uncomfortable with our students seeing us outside the classroom, it's partly because we might be uncomfortable with ourselves. Perhaps we feel like we aren't living a "yogic" enough life.  So are we ourselves are holding ourselves up to some unrealistic ideal?

What do you think?  How does Farhi's "necessary distance" contrast to the notion of not putting the teacher on a pedestal?  Can you be friends with your students or teachers and still be effective as their yoga teacher or student? How do you feel about seeing your teachers or students in social spaces?  Do teachers have a responsibility to their students to live a "yogic" life off the mat?

Or should we all just go for ice-cream? ;)

Yoga for Soldiers

My life here is a little bit out of the ordinary.  You got that, right?  Anyway, twice a week I teach yoga to small groups of (mostly) men from the defense forces who are here as peacekeepers.  Yep, yoga for soldiers.

Teaching the troops has been a really educational experience for me as a teacher.  After all, they are pretty much the polar opposite of my own body type: small, female, thin without much muscle.  And what's more, they are not exactly your average beginner Yoga students.  First of all, they have been training their bodies for years, so generally they are very physically aware.  And secondly, they follow instructions!  LOL.  By which I mean that they respond well to verbal cues about the body, which is a skill that it took me years to develop.

I feel that I'm pretty lucky: in addition to teaching the gents of the Oz and NZ army, my twice weekly group classes have also gone from being nearly all female to having an almost equal male to female ratio, mostly thanks to a bunch of keen helicopter pilots and body builders.

So, what are these guys looking for in a Yoga class?

In my experience, these men, who are relatively fit already, come to yoga because they are looking for flexibility and injury prevention.  The majority of my women students are after weight loss, muscle tone, strength and fitness - most of which these guys already have!  What these men suffer from are tight hamstrings, stiff shoulders and lower back issues, to name the most common.  Many of them have also been injured from intensive physical training, sports, or combat, so injury prevention and/or recovery is a big theme as well.

Most of them are runners and/or weight trainers, and some do short interval training.  So building lung capacity and breath awareness, increasing oxygen intake, and developing a longer physical routine can also be motivating factors for them.  As they progress through the practice, those that get into it will come to see yoga as a way of honing their strength in a more uniform way and developing balanced bodies with flexibility as well as muscle, as well as enhancing their focus and concentration during athletic activities.  For more ideas of what might motivate these athletic guys, have a look at this website, which is the site of a personal yoga trainer for elite athletes!  She provides a neat list of physical and mental benefits that athletic types can expect from yoga.

Teaching the Troops

I have found that my best approach is to focus first on the physical benefits and then to let the mental benefits slowly sneak up.  People who are generally very physically focused will probably be put off (at least at first) by a spiritual approach to yoga.  So I usually start a practice with breathing exercises instead of meditation, and finish with a guided mind-body-awareness practice instead of chanting.  We work on challenging the breath and building awareness of 3-part breathing, the role of the diaphragm and shoulders, and how to expand lung capacity.

Other things I have found in working with this demographic is that I have to hit the level of challenge just right.  On the one hand, they are much stronger and fitter than most beginning students.  So I will introduce strength poses fairly early on, such as Chaturanga Dandasana, Plank and its variations (one-armed, or plank with leg lifts or knee bends), Navasana and Bakasana, to keep them challenged.  Arm balances and standing balances are great because they require strength as well as balance and give that special sense of achievement or reward for your efforts - Bakasana is a good one because it doesn't require much flexibility in the hips, as many others do.  For standing balances I like Tree with arm variations like Eagle to challenge the shoulders, and also poses like Warrior III which require a lot of core strength and focus.  I have found that the guys are more than willing to try 'scary' things like Bakasana - and I have seen a few of them get it on the first or second go (and it took me only, oh, 4 years or so?!)!

On the other hand, my muscle-bound students need encouragement that yoga can be accessible for them despite their low flexibility.  So I generally don't try to push them with too many seated forward bends or postures that require flexible hamstrings or bendy backs, which can be really frustrating and discourage them because they won't see much progress even over a 6-week period, and may not stick with the practice.  Although I do insist on paschimottanasana and janu sirsasana, with the emphasis on lengthening the spine - knees bent if necessary - I also offer lying down hamstring stretches and hip openers so they can go deep into the hamstrings without compromising the lower back.

Because most of these guys have limited hip and shoulder flexibility, we work on those areas through the standing postures, with a heavy emphasis on alignment too.  Poses like extended angle pose, warrior I and II, lunges with both hands inside the forward foot, and the occasional supine pigeon are good hip-openers, and poses like utanasana, Prasarita Padotonasana and parsvottanasana can be done with hands clasped behind the back to open the shoulders.  For all forward bends I try to encourage them to keep their knees bent and emphasize lengthening the spine in order to protect the tight hamstrings and slowly open up the lower back. 

Being, if you will, a bunch of boys, these guys are prone to challenge each other and themselves, so I try to discourage their competitive edge by emphasising breath and drishti, and by reminding them over and over to respect their limits and not push too far.   I also find that warming up properly is extremely important to make sure that they are stretching with the minimum possible risk of injury, so we start the practice with lots of repetitions of sun salutations.

Mind Body Balance

Over time (sometimes not very much time!) the mental benefits of yoga will start to shine through.  These can include improved relaxation and sleep habits, heightened focus and concentration, better overall energy levels and mental alertness, and emotional stability are all in the list.  And yes, some of my longer-term muscle men now chant with gusto, hands in namaste and all.  :)

These mental benefits of yoga have led to it also being used to treat soldiers who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, something Svasti blogged about yesterday, and something I found a short article about on this blog as well.

Your turn!

All in all it's been a great teaching experience for me and I've learned so much and am still learning.  Now, it's your turn....   Fellow teachers, what have been some body types you have learned a lot from working with?  Fellow students, what have you learned from people with different body types from your own?

My amazing students: overcoming chaos and staying in the flow

On Fridays I teach a gentle flow class. It's my favourite class of the week - calm music, breath-focused flow - it even leaves me, the teacher, feeling refreshed!

This evening we had a bit of a 'special' class. First of all, we practice in a small conference room annexed to the back of a local NGO. For the past few weeks the air conditioners haven't been working properly and it has been HOT. Like, hot-yoga-hot, but the heat and humidity are 100% natural and you can't just turn them down or open a window! Said NGO office is adjacent to a local football (soccer) field, and today just before yoga class the inevitable happened: yes, you got it, ball through the window. Glass everywhere, chaos, and, yep, gaping hole for noise, mosquitoes and yet more humidity to come in through.

As we started our practice, the game next door continued, seeming louder than ever through the broken window. When the game finished, the guys decided to string up a net between the field and the NGO building. Great idea! Also, loud, chaotic and complicated idea which meant that we had 15 young guys standing on the wall in between the NGO and the field, shouting to each other, holding a net, trucking ladders back and forth, and yes, staring in at whatever-on-earth-the-wacky-foreigners-are-up-to-now: our Yoga class.

So there we are in our 100% humidity, mats sliding on tiled floor, mozzies buzzing, footballs flying, ladders clanging, boys shouting, and I am turning up the music and practically shouting
"stay with your breath"... And somehow, we manage to stick with it, somehow, we manage to stay in the flow. As we hit Savasana night falls, I turn off the lights, turn up the music, and finally find that teeny bit of stillness.

And then, after the class, one of the students comes up to me and says: "I think that was the best yoga class I've ever been to in my 60 plus years."

So this post is dedicated to my students. As I said to them tonight, they never cease to amaze and inspire me. There we are in our far-from-perfect conditions, and yet they keep coming, week in and week out, to practice Yoga. Here they are, far from home and family, from country and loved ones, living in the crazy uncertainty of this chaotic town and yet, they practice. They practice through sticky heat, power-outages, mosquito bites, broken glass, football games, and shouting youth. They come to practice through the dust and the heat, or wade through the muddy, flooded parking lot in torrential rain. Despite all the obstacles this place can throw at them, they practice. And THAT, I was reminded tonight, and reminded them, is Yoga.

Because life is unexpected. You never know what it's going to throw your way. It's not a smooth, easy road - it's a 4x4 obstacle course and the ride is going to be bumpy! Yoga is about self-discovery, and it is in facing adversity that we really learn about ourselves, it is how we deal with the challenges and the potholes that teaches us who we are and helps us to grow. And if we can keep a soft breath and a steady gaze amidst all the chaos - then truly, what can we not do?