Problems Faced By Yoga Teachers And How To Solve Them

Over the past few years, yoga has gained popularity worldwide and triggered many to become aware of their general lifestyle. Proving to be a booming business, it is impossible to find a large city without a spacious yoga studio. No wonder quacks are opening yoga institutions everywhere with no other purpose but to fatten their pockets. This and many more reasons have contributed to the challenges yoga instructors face today. Nevertheless, even some of the qualified teachers go through genuine challenges, so if you are looking forward to be a distinguished instructor, read on and get to know some of the challenges you could face, and how to handle them.

Practice teaching, not leading

During the first few months of your practice as a yoga trainer, you may have been enthusiastic and all psyched up, but a few years into the art and you probably don’t want to see a yoga studio again. What could be the problem? Maybe you have been leading instead of teaching. It is important to get the difference between the two. While teaching involves verbally demonstrating two or three poses and using student volunteers, leading is all about demonstrating all the yoga poses physically, something which ends up being both exhausting and discouraging. As a yoga trainer, don’t over-indulge in techniques, but enforce policies that enable students to learn and even practice yoga outside the class.

Finding balance in mixed-level classes

Another challenge that hinders the effectiveness of yoga trainers is having classes with mixed-level students. What could you possibly teach in a class that has both new and experienced yogis? Finding the level of balance in such a class could be hectic and frustrating, because both groups have different expectations and competence levels. The best way to handle such situations is restricting the beginners to some of the classes, and teaching them at their own pace. Even though this will mean that less students will attend certain classes, it will yield better results in the long run since the whole group will attain a certain level of balance.

Often forgetting to help yourself

Most of the time, instructors find themselves so engrossed in their students’ welfare and performance, that they don’t have time to look after themselves. Most people assume that yoga teachers practice yoga as they instruct their students, but that is never the case. In a normal class, an instructor will engage in 3-4 poses briefly and use the rest of the time to give verbal instructions. As an aspiring trainer in this divine art, you have to come up with a personal routine when you are free, to master what you teach by exercising and even trying out new poses. You have to be a partaker of what you preach. Failure to practice the different sequences could result to uncertainty during classes, and giving wrong guidelines.

Relationships getting out of hand

It is normal to get used to each other, and even open a doorway of vulnerabilities. Yes, you can open up to each other, but don’t open up too much, especially when it comes to student-teacher relationships. If you are not watchful of how you relate with your acquaintances, you may find that you already crossed the mental barrier you had set and things can start getting less professional. For more yoga effectiveness, avoid extending any emotional attachments. As shown above, yoga practitioners are not the only ones who have to worry about handling situations in the studio. Instructors too, have their own challenges, some which are greater than a normal yogi’s. By getting a mentor/close colleague to give appropriate advice, you will never have recurrent challenges.