students in a yoga teacherThe 3 Pillars To Teaching Yoga

Let’s be honest, after finishing a yoga teacher training (ytt), there are many ways you can teach yoga. But there are some main pillars which should be followed in teaching  yoga right. Here are three tenants for teaching yoga while still a,owing you to teach in your particular style.

1. Competency

One of the biggest things new yoga teachers struggle with when starting their teaching  careers is with knowing the yoga poses thoroughly enough. Too many yoga teachers throughout their career learn only a set number poses a set way. And they don’t know how to accommodate or modify these  poses for different  populations that come into their classes, over the years.

yoga teacher lecturing at yoga teacher training

2. Professionalism

My grandmother always told me that if you say something with confidence in your professionalism, people will believe you.  

This is  no less with teaching yoga. People teach yoga for many reasons and one of those reasons is  people want to feel like there is somebody special or an authority and this can derive from personal issues.  

All professionalism means is that you act like a yoga teacher, where you’re open and then empathetic to your students. It also means that there is a delineation between you and your students and where you know where your job begins and ends as a teacher. 

One example is not becoming a counselor when holding space for somebody who is suffering in a yoga class. Doing this doesn’t automatically mean that you need to spend hours listening to that student when realistically in such a situation the student should go to a therapist or a counsellor.

yoga students practicing teaching to each other

3. Following Yamas & NiYamas

This means living a yoga lifestyle based on the yamas and niyamas like being honest and  not stealing as two examples. In the context of being a yoga teacher, being honest would be not trying to act perfect around your students, when you’re not having a great day  you let others know. 

And with not stealing this would be acknowledging other sources that you used with music,  sequences, or poses others have created. This will  keep the energy positive with any of the classes you teach.

 We will all teach yoga classes differently because we all are at the end of the day different aspects of the Divine. But these three pillars will allow you to teach yoga in a better way.