What I learned my first year as a yoga teacher

It’s been a little over a year since I graduated yoga teacher training. It’s been an incredible journey with the usual ups and downs, and most importantly, lessons learned.

I am still learning of course, and forever will be, but for now I wanted to share my most valuable lessons this past year. Some of these may seem obvious as in “duh how did you not know that,” but the truth is, they weren’t that obvious for me.

If you’re thinking about joining teacher training or recently graduated, then I hope these are helpful to you.

1. It takes time to find your voice

After completing yoga teacher training, I started reading articles for new yoga teachers on things like “how to find teaching opportunities, “how to audition,” and “how to teach your first class” and so on. I noticed that almost every article I read had one tip in common, “Be yourself.” Of course I agree.

Being yourself is by far one of the best things you can do as a yoga teacher. The thing is, when you first graduate yoga teacher training and have zero teaching experience, all you have is the information you were given by your teachers and mentors. You have never taught Warrior 1, but you have a script written by someone else who has taught Warrior 1. And so in this case, you are giving out cues using the words of someone else.

The first class I ever taught was with a very simple sequence I had created right after graduation. I wrote down notes and cues as they were given to me, and practiced teaching it for weeks. When it was time to teach my first class, I felt prepared and slightly less afraid. I used the same sequence for a few months since I was just subbing and teaching at different places and could get away with teaching the same stuff.

Eventually I started to get more and more comfortable teaching and speaking in front of people. And as I got more comfortable, I was able to start teaching from a more authentic place, finding my own style, my own voice, and figuring things out along the way.

The main thing to remember is to be kind to yourself and to know that it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re being yourself at first. It takes time. I definitely don’t have it all figured out yet. I mean, who does anyway? Enjoy the journey and your true teaching-self will blossom at the right time.

2. It’s important to have a mentor to help guide you along the way

I was fortunate enough to start teaching yoga right after graduating teacher training. I taught group classes, private sessions, seniors, children, pregnant women, complete beginners, and pretty much anything you can think of. Within a short period of time, I had a lot of “firsts.” First time teaching kids, first time teaching a private…etc.

For each of these firsts, I really, really wish I had some guidance. Someone I could ask questions to and get feedback from.

Unfortunately, I was going through a tough time financially and wasn’t able to join a mentorship program. Fortunately though, I had some amazing coworkers and teacher friends who never hesitated to answer every silly question I had.

If you can afford one, I strongly suggest joining a mentorship program to help guide you through the early stages of your teaching. Find a teacher whose teaching style you resonate with, and not just someone who is popular, has lots of Instagram followers, or has lots of experience.

I mean, yes they need to have a good amount of experience to be a mentor, but that shouldn’t be the only reason to pick them as a mentor. And, if you can’t afford one, ask your peers, friends, anyone you can think of. Keep your teaching simple, safe, and fun.

3. You can’t please everyone

As a recovering people-pleaser, perfectionist, and overall “I’m not good enough” kind of gal, I have to admit I struggled with this one. Although I’ve had good retention rates and repeat clients, I’ve also had those unfortunate instances where people never came back, and yes, even walked out of my classes.

I always wondered what I could have done wrong and why they didn’t come back. Sometimes, these thoughts would come up during teaching and all of a sudden I wasn’t present anymore.

I felt exhausted and drained until one day I suddenly became conscious of what was happening. I was teaching “ok” classes that I thought “everyone” would like. In other words, I was trying to please everyone with my classes. When you try to please everyone, you become this person who is just “ok” in everyone’s eyes.

On the other hand, when you’re being authentic you get the “love it, or hate it” response. As soon as I became conscious of this my thoughts started to shift. I began to be more thankful for the students that actually kept coming back and stopped wondering about the ones that didn’t. Not that I didn’t care. I just finally understood that I couldn’t please everyone.

And if you are pleasing everyone, then mostly likely you are not being yourself.

4. Teaching beginners is a rewarding, yet VERY challenging experience

When you’re a beginner at something it’s like you’re a baby. You don’t know much and everyone around you, your teachers, your peers, and your overall environment can influence what you shape into. When I get a “first-time-doing-yoga” client or student in class, I feel that I have a big responsibility as a teacher.

Because I truly believe that although not always correct, first impressions are everything and I feel that it may be up to me whether the student likes or dislikes yoga.

More importantly, teaching beginners takes a lot of experience. It requires super clear and effective cuing, more attention to alignment, safety, and more individualized instruction. When you’re teaching a class to intermediate/advanced students, it may just be a matter of saying “crow pose” and voila, up they go into crow pose.

Of course, every class should be carefully taught in terms of safety and alignment, but you get the idea.

I learned so much this past year and these were just my most valuable lessons so far. My learning will never end of course but I look forward to sharing more lessons with you guys.

FREE Yoga Sequencing Course!

Learn how to build a powerful yoga sequence your students will LOVE and keep coming back for.

SIGN ME UP!