You’ve just become a yoga teacher and are looking for ways to make your yoga teaching smooth and continuous. As a teacher, you are responsible for an entire class of those individuals who want to seek yoga as a practice. As a teacher, you must always be open to improvements and feedback from your students. Below are some ways to ease the pressure of becoming a yoga teacher and how to handle an entire class with ease.
What Difficulties Does One Face as a Yoga Teacher?
As a yoga teacher, one may think it as a rewarding experience, but it doesn’t come without challenges. Below are some challenges that one faces as a yoga teacher.
1. Imposter Syndrome
Many yoga teachers undergo imposter syndrome. They don’t feel capable enough to teach in the beginning. They feel unsure about themselves. However, it’s okay to have a bad first class. One should do their best in making the other classes better. As a yoga teacher, one will improve over time.
2. Stage Fright
For those yoga teachers who are introverted, stage fright is a very big challenge. They feel frightened to teach in front of a class. This affects their teaching style. The best way to improve this is by teaching in front of a mirror.
3. Handling Challenging Yoga Students
Those who are first-time yoga teachers find it difficult to handle challenging students. Such students affect the environment around them, thus affecting the class productivity. Thus, one has to devise tactics to deal with challenging students.
4. Maintaining Work-Life Balance
Most teachers who start new overlook the work-life balance. They work outside their working hours, and because of this, they end up exhausted from conducting so many classes. Thus, balancing your scheduled hours and supporting students is very important.
5. Staying in Practice
One should know that there is always room for improvement. Thus, staying in practice is crucial for beginners and other yoga teachers. So, learning and development should never stop. One should keep looking for sessions and workshops to stay in practice and in shape!
Tips to Make Your Yoga Teaching Smooth
1. Purpose For Teaching
The very first thing is to identify your purpose for teaching. One has to define the purpose of teaching to stay on the chosen path.
- Ask yourself questions like, Why do I want to teach yoga?
- What is my motivation for doing so?
- Can I serve others through yoga?
- Also, what aspects of yoga do I want to teach?
By asking these questions, one will clear many challenges on the way and also solve doubts.
2. Keep Practicing Yoga and Become Skilled
Practicing yoga regularly is also vital for teaching yoga. Regular sessions of yoga help to keep the muscles engaged and also keep you flexible. One should keep in mind that they cannot teach yoga if they don’t keep practicing it themselves.
3. Understand The Vast Ways of Teaching
Each teacher has a different style of teaching. Thus, one should focus on their learnings and experiences and how they differ from other teachers around them. Thus, one should look into the various teaching methods and incorporate them into their practice.
4. One Should Not Compare Themselves to Others
It’s very easy to compare oneself with others and feel sad about it. Instead of that, one should focus on celebrating their own achievements and growth.
5. Grounding
With grounding, one reconnects and realigns their energies with the Earth; this, at the end, promotes well-being. The many techniques include earthing—placing bare feet on the ground. If one grounds before and after teaching, this will help to maintain equilibrium between the body and mind.
6. Protect Your Energy
While one teaches yoga, they absorbs others’ energies—which can be very draining. In order to protect your energy, ask students to position their heads towards you and their feet away during Savasana.
7. One Should Always Stick To a Routine
One should structure a schedule that would allow for activities that you enjoy. Take out time for loved ones, meditate, or even enjoy hobbies.
8. Learn to Expand Your Income
As a teacher; there are various ways by which you can expand your income. These include areas such as starting your own yoga podcast, creating a yoga YouTube channel, working on a yoga blog, offering private yoga classes, and also selling yoga-related products.
9. Be a Yoga Teacher With a Plan
As a yoga teacher, one should always prepare before class so that they don’t appear lost. Thus, have a flexible plan and also be ready to adapt based on the student’s needs and the class’s energy levels.
10. Always Be Ready for Feedback
As a yoga teacher, one should always be ready for constructive feedback. Ask students questions like whether they enjoyed the class, what was challenging about it, and what are the difficulties and challenges they faced. By building this connection, one becomes an authentic yoga teacher and has good connections with their students.
Conclusion
Thus, to become a successful yoga teacher is not very easy at all. To become a yoga teacher, one needs time, dedication, and passion. One should remember to work on themselves and also embrace both learning and growth.
If you’re someone who wants to deepen your yogic journey, then you can avail of various comprehensive yoga courses at Pure Soul Yoga School. These courses include 100 hrs YTTC in Rishikesh, 200 hrs YTTC in Rishikesh, 300 hrs YTTC in Rishikesh, and 500 hrs YTTC in Rishikesh.
Some Frequently Asked Questions About How to Become a Yoga Teacher
1. What are the qualifications that I need to become a yoga teacher?
To become a certified yoga teacher, you typically need to complete a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) program from a recognised school. Many teachers continue with 300-hour or 500-hour advanced training.
2. What styles of yoga can I train in?
You can train in various styles like Hatha, Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Yin, Kundalini, Iyengar, Restorative, and more.
3. Do I need to be flexible or advanced in yoga to become a teacher?
No, you don’t need to be extremely flexible or advanced. Yoga teaching is about guiding students safely through their practice, understanding alignment, and cultivating mindfulness.