Conversations for Yoga Teachers

This episode is a chance to bring your fears to the surface and discover easy ways to re-frame them, move past them and move forward so you can teach and feel confident and empowered. We cover a number of fears that are common but often not discussed so teachers live for years with these fears and just accept them as part of teaching. Nothing could be further from the truth! When you listen, you’l...

In today’s episode, you’ll learn about the key aspects of assisting. We’ll cover both the techniques of assisting and also the mental and mindset related aspects of assisting in your classes.    At the end of the episode, I share a podcast offer with you. If you’d like to take this offer, you’ll need this link:   https://barebonesyoga.thinkific.com/courses/Yoga-Anatomy-Accelerator  

Have you ever thought about what beliefs you have about teaching yoga and how this impacts how you teach? Here’s a simple one: if you believe your students might get hurt in your classes, that might cause you to worry before you go into class. If you believe your students need to see you practicing, that will cause you to be the kind of teacher who practices with their class.   In this episode, yo...

For this episode, I did a query of Chat GPT and asked it, “What are popular questions you’re getting from yoga teachers?” I got the top 3 questions and I answer them in this episode.    I start out speaking from the heart and from my passion for helping you in sharing how this month’s group is doing inside the Yoga Anatomy Accelerator Program and what’s possible for you if you enroll.    The link...

In this episode, we take a look at understanding the “why” behind some cues. These cues were submitted to me via comments on my social media posts by yoga teachers. I put out a call to teachers to submit cues where they’d like to understand more about why that cue might be used.    For this episode, I also did an IG LIve workshop. The link to the workshop is below.    Link to workshop:   https://w...

Sometimes you might feel like there’s so many different aspects of teaching yoga: there’s your cues, your sequences, understanding anatomy, feeling confident, sharing philosophy, building community and maybe even building a yoga business and brand.  With all these areas of focus, it’s important to know what your priority is right now, so you can create a plan of action. It’s hard to work on everyt...

Yoga teachers use lots of common phrases when they talk about how things are going with their classes. I know because over the years, I’ve talked to hundreds of teachers and am always listening to their word choice. It’s part of what I do as a coach and it’s always interesting to me how they classify their challenges and struggles using similar phrasing. You’ll have to listen to the episode to fin...

This past week, my podcast hit a special milestone with over 2,000 people listening to the show! In this special episode, I share the details of this milestone and share how this inspired me to set a big goal for the rest of this year.    Listen in and when you do, you’ll need these links:     One on one Program   https://barebonesyoga.thinkific.com/courses/blueprint-learning-program   Group Progr...

Are you working a full time job and teaching yoga also? For a lot of teachers I’ve talked to over the years, as well as myself when I was teaching in this model, they share their special challenges that go with this lifestyle.    Yoga teachers sometimes feel that teaching “on the side” isn’t as good or as important as those who are teaching full time. Nothing could be further from the truth. And t...

When you share anatomy in your cues, do you understand the reason for the cue? Many times, teachers tell me they share the words but they don’t understand the rationale for the cue but that doesn’t stop them from sharing it.   Imagine using cues that you can actually explain. It’s what I call “Understanding the WHY behind the cue” and it’s transformative. You’ll feel more confident, be able to re-...

What’s your vision for how you want to teach yoga? When you close your eyes and dream about how you want to show up in your classes, what do you see? For many yoga teachers, they have a clear vision but their day to day experience doesn’t match that vision. In my work with yoga teachers in my program, I get to see what it looks like when a teacher starts teaching in a way that is more in line with...

Are you speaking to the benefits of yoga in your classes or assuming your students know what they are? In this episode, you’ll discover the benefits of yoga by looking at the medical research instead of just listening to the stories and “things yoga teachers say” that might not be backed up by science. Having said that, there are lots of benefits of yoga that might not (yet) have medical research...

In this episode, you’ll discover how to save time as a yoga teacher from the weekly and monthly tasks that so many yoga teachers do. These things include prepping a new sequence every week, practicing it at home, researching anatomy questions and more. These activities, while they may seem required, are often fueled by beliefs that are perpetuated by a narrative in the yoga industry that doesn’t s...

Ever look at your students knees as they practice? The knees and the feet can tell you quite a bit about what’s going on in the body. Correcting alignment at the feet and knees can allow students to feel more grounded and steady and can even lead to better knee health.   In today’s episode you’ll hear about cues to several common poses and how to correct problems in alignment that show up in the f...

Ever wonder about the connection between the benefits of yoga and what’s discussed in medical studies? In today’s show, you’ll learn about how a study on osteoarthritis has a connection to teaching foot and knee alignment in yoga. While this might sound like a stretch, once you listen to the episode, you’ll see what I mean.   You’ll also hear about themes from the book, “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gi...

Do you consider yourself an over-thinker? Over-thinkers stand in the way of their own progress and often over-think because they’re not confident in how they’re teaching their yoga classes. In this episode, you’ll hear some of the signs and symptoms of an over-thinker and discover an interesting experiment you can try to shift from being an over-thinker to being a confident decision maker!   In th...

Imagine you had a step by step way to feel more confident not only in your life but when you’re teaching your classes. This is what you’ll discover when you listen to this episode. In it, you’ll discover The Confidence Practice, a 6-step framework for building your confidence, grounded in science and mindset principles.    Once you listen, you can take the next step by doing the 5 Day Confidence C...

Catch this episode and you’ll walk away with solutions to problems that yoga teachers are having. These are problems I hear about from teachers all over the world and with all levels of experience. In many cases, they’re driven by the narratives in the yoga industry around different things: cueing, sequencing, student injuries and how to teach your class. These beliefs drive behaviors that lead te...

Do you feel like your intuition is guiding you when it comes to how you’re teaching or are you following what you were told or what others are doing? In this episode, you’ll discover ways to listen to your intuition so that you can find the most authentic, easy, confident way to teach your yoga classes. By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clearer idea of the direction you want to go as a tea...

Are you feeling overworked and underpaid or even one or the other? Catch this episode and discover how to swap that out and instead feel rewarded, balanced and valued. I heard this statement from a yoga teacher recently as a comment on my social media and I used it to query my email list to see if it resonated. I got a bunch of replies and that told me that we’ve got a problem. Feeling overworked...

In today’s episode, you’ll meet Dr. Jodi Blinco. She is an educator, former yoga studio owner, entrepreneur and leader in higher education. Jodi and I have a spirited conversation about confidence, managing your energy, learning and building a life you love. Listening to this episode, you’ll hear more about:   Developing your intuition Jodi’s work owning and teaching in her yoga studio outside Bos...

When you’re teaching your yoga classes, what’s one feeling you wish you had? If you’re like a lot of yoga teachers that I talk to, you might wish you felt more confident.  In this episode, you’ll find out more about how to build your confidence and how shifting your focus might just be one of the keys.    Meet Divya Parekh, an ICF-credentialed executive and leadership coach who helps people connec...

When you hear the word “anatomy,” what feelings come up? If you’re like a lot of yoga teachers, you might feel nervous or you might feel a sense of pressure to “learn anatomy” when your attempts to learn it in the past haven’t given you the results or confidence you need.   Enter Dr. Andrew McGonigle, a yoga teacher with over 20 years of experience in anatomy, in part because he originally thought...

There’s no denying that yoga is both a physical and mental practice. When people practice yoga, they can experience all sorts of emotions and that may come out in various ways. In this episode, Dr. Lauren Tober and I discuss various scenarios that may come up in your classes and look at them through the lens of mental health, sharing emotions and human behavior. These topics are not often discusse...

In my years of working with hundreds of yoga teachers inside my program, I’ve discovered there are several different teacher types. Each has their own unique set of problems but many times, they don’t see it as a problem because there’s a strong belief causing them to keep doing what they’re doing…. even when it feels hard, pressure-filled and blocks them from feeling confident.    In this episode...