Uncomplicated Grammar in Your English Yoga Classes

Uncomplicated Grammar in Your English Yoga Classes

Listen to our podcast episode: The Negative Effects of Outdated and Complex Language in your English Yoga Classes with Marta Elena

We push ourselves to learn and use more complex language as we improve our language skills. So unlearning the desire to complicate our grammar use as a way of displaying our own knowledge is a new challenge. However, as mentioned in our previous blog on mindful pronunciation, mindful language and uncomplicated grammar is necessary for multilingual yoga teachers too. It is really important if you want to create inclusive classes that are accessible to a variety of types of language skills and confidence levels. So, let’s have a look at what uncomplicated grammar in your English yoga classes means.

 

Generally speaking, the less we say the better. 

Especially when our students lack confidence. When a student or a class is quiet, however, we often try to compensate by talking a lot and trying to create a chatty and relaxed atmosphere. We do it out of empathy but actually, this can be overwhelming for them.

While finding a balance between creating a safe space for your students and keeping your classes simple, clear and centred on your students’ needs, here are a few bits of grammar that we can avoid and replace with  uncomplicated grammar in your English yoga classes:

 

Examples of Complicated Grammar in Your English Yoga Classes

1. -ing:

Example: ‘Keep gazing in front, while pressing through the corners of your feet and staying connected to your breath’. 


These days, English speakers tend to overuse the -ing forms, such as using state verbs in the continuous form, which is incorrect. ‘I’m loving your photo’ is wrong! But let’s focus on the fact that a lot of structures using ‘-ing’ forms also need extra words like auxiliary verbs or prepositions. So, consider how you could rephrase and use short, more direct language. What’s wrong with: ‘Look to the front, press into your feet, connect to your breath’?

 

2. Conditionals:

Example: ‘I reckon you would feel better if you didn’t look at your phone within the first hour of waking up.’


We often use conditionals to talk about imaginary or unreal situations. These conditionals depend on two clauses and normally a variety of tenses which are often counter-intuitive. For example, for a present or future imaginary situation we use the past tense! It may seem natural to you now, but put yourself in the shoes of a beginner. It can be like putting a jigsaw puzzle together at the moment of speaking.
We are in a yoga class, not a language class or a job interview. So find simpler alternatives! Instead, to add the idea of possible or hypothetical situations, you can:
1. use the modal verbs ‘could/may/might + main verb’ to talk about possible situations in the present or future. Example: ‘You may feel better if you don’t look at your phone in the morning’.

2. use the words ‘perhaps/maybe’ for example: ‘Perhaps journal more frequently.’ 

 

3. Indirect questions

We use them because they feel and sound more polite, but in a yoga class that isn’t really your objective; you aren’t asking someone for a favour. In the student-teacher relationship, there is already an expectation of a certain amount of instructional language and direct guidance. Look at these examples:

‘Could you please make sure you tell me about any injuries you have?’
 ‘Would you be able to tell me about any injuries you have, please?’

These are complex, wordy and unnecessary. Some students might not even recognise them as a question because they do not follow the normal structure that we learn at lower levels. These are perfectly clear and polite:  

‘Do you have any injuries?’ (question)
 ‘Tell me about any injuries you have, please.’ (instruction)
                                 

Remember: it is about how you say something. Say everything with kindness: kindness doesn’t need complex grammar.

 

4. Open questions 

Open questions are questions that do not have a simple yes/no answer, and the person answering needs to give the specific details. That means that we don’t put specific ideas into the question. For example, a good open question is:

‘Imagine a beach. What’s the temperature? How’s the weather? You touch the sand. How does it feel?’

These are short sentences that are easy to digest and people understand sooner. However, in a lot of yoga classes and guided mindfulness practices, the teacher or speaker provides all the details. We want to give a lot more than we need to. An example of what to avoid is:

‘Imagine you’re relaxing on your favourite beach, sitting down or lying down; what’s most comfortable for you? Is it hot? Is it warm? Or is it cool? Is it sunny? Is it windy? Is the sand soft or hard? Or are there pebbles?’

In the last example, there is too much to understand. It takes time to process all the information and also increases the probability of confusion. Avoid this by asking more open questions. They allow our students to imagine for themselves and go to a place they choose to be for their practice. And for you as a teacher, it stops you needing to think of or write and remember so many details.

 

5. Wishes and Regrets

Advanced and fluent English speakers often use the phrase ‘I wish’ or ‘if only’ to talk about things they want to change about the past or present. A common example of when we use this is when we talk about things we regret or things that have caused us difficulty. These often come up in yoga and mindfulness practices.

Examples:

  1. ‘I wish I had started practising yoga when I was younger.’

Here, the speaker uses the positive form of the past perfect to describe something that did not happen, but that they want the opposite to be true (that it happened). If we use this structure, we expect our students to know we are saying something negative, when our verb is grammatically positive. Similarly, if it were negative, it would mean the reality was positive. Now consider this:

  1. ‘If only there were more hours in a day so I could do asana twice!’

Here, the speaker uses the past simple for a present situation that they want to be different. Now compare it to phrase 1 which refers to the past: ‘I wish I had started practising yoga when I was younger.’

The two past tenses might sound similar to your students; the only difference is that the first one uses the past perfect rather than the past simple. But only one has a past meaning! If we use these phrases, our students have to listen for precise details: which past tense you used, positive or negative, only to understand the key information of when this thing happened or if it happened at all!

There’s nothing wrong with saying:

  1. ‘I regret that I didn’t practise yoga when I was younger’ and 
  2. ’I would love to have more hours in a day to do asana twice!’

It isn’t easy to simplify your language – that’s why we always find ‘native’ speakers in a foreign language so difficult to understand when we start learning. They don’t realise how difficult their words are because the better you know a language, the harder it is to notice the complexity of what you say. 

These structures are often only really clear and natural to English learners when they reach upper-intermediate and more advanced levels of the language. So, find a simpler way to communicate wishes and regrets that uses uncomplicated grammar next time in your English yoga classes.

 

6. Phrasal verbs: 

One of the most difficult things about learning the English language is phrasal verbs. They require a big learning journey because they are really common but also very difficult to translate to other languages; they often can’t be taken literally.

Also, the meaning can change from region to region and country to country. For example, ‘work out’, to me, means to solve something, like a problem or a maths equation. To others, especially those who know American English, it means to ‘do exercise’! Some phrasal verbs also have more than one meaning like ‘get up’ can mean ‘get out of bed’ or ‘to stand up’ after you’ve been sitting down. 

As teachers, we need to accommodate these variations and the challenges they bring our students. In your yoga classes, it helps to give little extra clues where possible. Compare:

  • You’re all in forward fold (Uttanasana) when the teacher says: ‘Roll up slowly’.

‘Roll up’ can mean many things! It can mean your students might need to have a look at what you’re doing, wondering ‘should I roll up in a ball like a cat on my mat? Or long like the paper of a cigarette?’

 

Why might this be confusing? 

Well,  if you search for ‘roll up’ in a good dictionary, you’ll find multiple uses:

  1. ‘Come and pay/buy [something]!’
  2. ‘Arrive’ (normally late)
  3. ‘Wrap around/fold on itself’ i.e. a cigarette paper
  4. ‘Come together/congregate’ i.e. a group of people gathering


You can’t know which of these contexts individual students have learned the verb ‘roll up’ in, if any. So instead, as a teacher, you can add the necessary context easily to clarify the meaning:

  • ‘Roll up slowly; come up to stand; vertebra by vertebra, then shoulders, neck and head’.


Your students then know which kind of rolling up you meant and you won’t find them curled up on their mats like cats or rolling around like a cigarette.

Finding other uncomplicated grammar options in your English yoga classes can be difficult when it comes to phrasal verbs. They can be confusing but they are necessary.  So, when we can’t find a less complicated alternative, we need to clarify. We can give our students little pieces of supporting context and clues. 

 

Good language choice supports your students

Deciding on simpler alternatives to complex grammatical structures is a good idea when your objective is to teach yoga, not language! From  –ing forms, conditionals, indirect questions and open questions, to wishes or regrets and phrasal verbs. These are just a few of the things we can bear in mind when planning or creating inclusive classes with mindful language and uncomplicated grammar as multilingual yoga teachers. Language, just as everything else in life, is constantly evolving. As yoga teachers it is our responsibility to stay informed and meet our students where they are at. This goes for their yoga journey, but also their language learning journey. So, rather than making yourself heard in class, consider how you can simplify your language to make yourself understood.

Want to dive deeper into mindful language & uncomplicated grammar for multilingual yoga teachers? Register for our 10 tips for multilingual yoga teachers: video series here.

Listen to our podcast episode: The Negative Effects of Outdated and Complex Language in your English Yoga Classes with Marta Elena

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers who want to improve them communication skills and start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. Have a look at all you can learn here.

Mindful Pronunciation in your English Yoga Classes

Approximately two billion people speak English nowadays, so there are countless variations of the language. From country to country, region to region, and person to person. As teachers, we should be aware of how pronunciation in English is not uniform, and we should accommodate its variety at all times. The key? Being mindful of your pronunciation in your English yoga classes!   

What do we mean by pronunciation in your English yoga classes

When we talk about pronunciation in English teaching, many English teachers and learners immediately think ‘North American or British’, which is problematic for many reasons. The famous Nigerian author Chinua Achebe once said that ‘the price a world language must be prepared to pay is submission to many different kinds of use’. We must acknowledge that, in many cases, English was spread by force through colonisation. Our focus on British or North American pronunciation is western-centric and ignores all the other numerous countries where English is spoken! To centre our English pronunciation around one standardised way is to devalue, and even oppress, all the other perfectly correct variations of pronunciation globally.

Think of Kenya, Nigeria and India, to name only a fraction of the places where English is an official and widespread language. We can’t isolate only one or two ways of pronouncing a word and label them ‘correct’. In a language as globalised as English, and in a multilingual and international environment, it isn’t a reflection of reality.

Our language use is also extremely personal. Many other factors influence pronunciation even before we think about how or where you learned English. Or, what kind of English you learn and use. The physical shape of your tongue, lips and jaw, your speech development, your education. But also the other languages you speak or have learned, where you’ve lived and even just your confidence and personality. 

 

So, for the purpose of this blog…

Let’s open our minds and reframe ‘good pronunciation’. 

Let’s consider it ‘mindful pronunciation for communication’. And particularly mindful pronunciation in your English yoga classes. That means pronunciation that is accurate enough to be recognised and for communication to be maintained. Pronunciation is a flexible thing and needs to be listened to in a flexible way. Pronunciation can vary hugely and still be correct! So, when teaching anything in English, two things need to happen:

  1. Be mindful of your own pronunciation while speaking
  2. Be mindful of your students’ pronunciation while listening

Mindful pronunciation while you’re speaking means knowing how you speak yourself. It also means making an effort to avoid anything that might be difficult for others who don’t speak like you. For example if you:

  • talk fast, slow down
  • speak quietly,  pronounce sounds more clearly and project more (without shouting)
  • speak in a monotonous way, speak with more expressive intonation and use gestures
  • specific sounds or words are challenging  for you or your students: notice them and take note to remember them so that you recognise them next time
  • know which accent, dialect and pronunciation features you have and identify which aspects might be new to your students; how will they be different from what your students know now? 

How to be more mindful about your pronunciation in your English classes. 

Mindful pronunciation in your English yoga classes is something all English speakers need to do. The way we pronounce is so diverse that even native speakers within one place can need to think twice about what the other person is saying. For example, the letter ‘r’ is pronounced so differently in some regions  of the UK that a Scottish person might need to remember that their English friend doesn’t pronounce it at all. Instead, they make the ‘schwa’ sound /ə/ which sounds a bit like the word ‘a’, but some people in Scotland will roll the ‘r’ strongly. So, when the English friend says the word ‘poor’ when talking about taxes, for example, the Scottish friend might hear ‘paw’! But they now need to assume, given that the context is people, not animals, that their friend means ‘poor’.

Don’t be scared to take your time. It’s ok to stop and think about the context to help you work out the meaning. Sometimes native speakers also depend on checking the context to understand individual words. Where you think pronunciation could cause confusion, you can also choose synonyms without the sounds that are tricky for you, or slow down when you use words that might be less familiar to your students. This involves planning your language when you plan your class 

Analyse your students’ needs and experience

Being mindful of your students’ pronunciation while listening is part of analysing your students’ needs and integrating that knowledge into your teaching and planning. There’s nothing worse for a student than finally finding the confidence to speak in class, then the teacher not understanding them. So, try to take on any responsibility you can when you’re leading a class, for example:

  • if a student doesn’t understand, find new words to say the same thing; don’t just repeat the same thing again and again
  • Know what kind of accents, pronunciation variations and dialects your students have and use. For example, if your students speak French or Portuguese, anticipate that their /r/ sound might vary from the sound you produce yourself as, say, a Spanish speaker
  • Adapt your lessons to your students’ linguistic background where possible. For example, if your students speak a Latin language, integrate words rooted in Latin when they struggle to understand or use verbs i.e. use ‘move’ from Latin: movere, instead of ‘shift’ which is from Old English and linguistically more Norse and/or Germanic.*

Consider your tone of voice and grammar

The list goes on and on. Finding ways to let mindful pronunciation in your English yoga classes help avoid confusion is something we can do as teachers by researching our students’ language use. Be aware of your own language use and plan your classes around these things. Remember that kindness is an essential part of nurturing your students and offering them something that’s really valuable. Taking into consideration all the points above, these are things we can do to teach in a mindful and kind way: 

  • Research your students’ other languages and the type of English they know, and note down their difficulties 
  • Plan your sequences and cues around their challenges
  • Ask them questions that are appropriate for them as individuals and their confidence level 
  • Decide what you want to say before you speak: is it complex? Is it truly necessary for your students?

Students can sense kindness in your teaching, whether or not they fully understand every word you say, or vice versa!

Mindful pronunciation in your English yoga classes is necessary for multilingual and/or international yoga teachers. Speaking in a language that isn’t your mother tongue is a challenging thing. The point is, in a yoga class in English with an international and multilingual community, there needs to be a bit of flexibility and responsibility taken on both sides. Consider it a team effort: inform yourself so that you can speak mindfully,  listen mindfully, and be prepared to adapt to one another.

 

More about mindful pronunciation in your English yoga classes!


Are you interested in finding out more about mindful pronunciation in your English yoga classes? In our 10 tips for multilingual yoga teachers: video series, I speak more about mindful pronunciation, language use and complex grammar. Register here. 

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. The membership includes yoga practices, conversation classes and live training for obtain continuing education hours. Have a look at all that’s included here.

How to Find Support After Your Yoga Teacher Training

Over the past few months, I’ve been speaking to many newly graduated yoga teachers. It’s curious to see how everyone experiences their training so differently. Some feel extremely inspired and can’t wait to continue their learning journey while others feel a little lost, discouraged and disappointed. However, one challenge a lot of us seem to have in common is the feeling of not being prepared enough to actually teach. With this blog, I hope to give you some guidance after your yoga teacher training. It aims to provide you with the tools and support you need to fill the gaps in the information or teaching practice which are stopping you from teaching yoga confidently. So, let dive in: how to find support after your yoga teacher training!

“How was your yoga teacher training? “

“No one taught me how to write a sequence! What do I do now?”

“I’m disappointed, I never got the chance to teach during my training.”

“It was so overwhelming: too much information, very few practices.“

 

If this sounds like you, know that you’re not alone! Know that there are a lot of options, resources, communities and teachers out there that can help you further! Continue with this blog, to find out where and how you can find support after your yoga teacher training! 

 

I’ve been there too!

One of the reasons why I felt unqualified, incapable, or simply lost in this yoga teaching world was that, during my training, I had very few opportunities to actually practise teaching yoga. My course had a very academic twist to it; lots of talking, lots of terminology, but very little practice. You’re noticing now that I’m saying this on repeat, aren’t you?! But repetition is the key to learning anything new! With that, I mean repetition in all skills; receptive and productive. 

No one becomes an expert overnight.

And no one becomes an expert without identifying their favourite way(s) of learning. You might know that you’re naturally quicker at picking things up by either reading, hearing or seeing things for example. But to fully embody new information and to be able to explain it  as teachers, we need to use as many of our skills as possible. We need to work with our own skills: to hear, see, feel, write, speak, practise, make mistakes, reflect, try again, and the same again, again and again to really understand something to a level that allows you to teach it to others.

It’s for that reason we and many other school systems give you the opportunity to integrate your learning through various types of exercises. It is extremely beneficial to know  about the different learning styles and how you pick up things fastest. Make sure you know these things about yourself but also about your students! Find out how they learn to provide a smooth learning curve for everyone. If you’d like more information on this and/or want to take a test to find out what your learning style is, go to our blog: how to prepare for your yoga teacher training. 

Your 200-hour yoga teacher training is only the beginning

The majority of yoga teacher training only lasts 4 weeks. You’re handed your certificate and are ready to enter the world of teaching yoga. But, to be honest, I believe that’s where it really starts! And exactly where support is lacking for many of us. That isn’t a good combination, is it? For us as human beings, in such a short time it’s almost impossible to actually gain, remember and also integrate all the knowledge and skills we learn in our training. 

I want to reassure you that a four week training is amazing and an incredibly inspiring experience. But your yoga teacher journey, just like your yoga practitioner journey, are journeys that last a lifetime.
Just like all other jobs, it’s a never-ending evolving one; full of learnings, new discoveries and many many, many different studies in even more different aspects. Go into training with an open mind and don’t get discouraged by the wealth or extent of these studies. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed, but embrace it rather than let it  frustrate you. And know that if you need a hand, or simply need to chat with someone, we are here to support you. 

How to find support after your yoga teacher training that works for you!

Ask for follow-up and feedback.

After your training you may be surprised to never hear back from your teacher. It’s unfortunate, but not uncommon to not receive feedback after your certification. I believe it is extremely valuable to simply write them an email, or get on the phone and ask!
During or after your training you probably wrote an essay or discussed what you yourself, believed went well and would like to improve, but don’t be afraid to ask your teacher for their opinion/what they think. Your teacher could provide you with new insights and help you find your direction in your first few months or years of your yoga teaching path.

Search for teaching practice after your yoga teacher training

Teaching practice is highly underestimated and even neglected during many training courses. We get out of training and jump straight into teaching classes, but may experience feeling unsure or incapable. Sometimes we  don’t even know where to start. Participating in teaching practice classes provides you with a safe space to gain confidence, try new things, learn from others and exchange ideas and experiences.

Practice and experience are the stepping stones we all need after training and before having the pressure of a full-time teaching timetable. 

Having done training and having a desire to teach yoga means you are already capable. Enga’s teaching practices help you to realise what you know and can do, which will allow you to improve, add more detail to what you know and become even more efficient and confident as a teacher. 

Finding your voice after your yoga teacher training

Teaching yoga can be very intimidating. There’s heaps to remember: the breath, verbs, asanas, variations of asanas, potential injuries, preventing injuries, sensitive language, inclusive language, and so on. As a teacher, you want to share your enthusiasm for yoga. You possibly hope to share the sensations, feelings and insights you experienced and that have changed you for the better. 

Especially when you start teaching, it’s possible you feel the need to be able to teach everything and to try all the different methods. We often have an image of The Teacher and that’s not always compatible with who you truly are. If you try to create that persona, you need to act on top of teaching. 

Yoga and teaching yoga are very personal. When combined, we must accommodate for this even more. Perhaps take time for some Svādhyāya (self-study) reflection to define what your own teaching style is. Not what you want it to be, but what your natural style is at this point in your development. You want to practise what you teach and teach what you practise.  Mandarin teachers don’t teach French: they teach Mandarin because that’s what they’ve studied themselves, and they know it’s what they’re good at. We’ve written a blog dedicated to this topic that includes some really good journal questions and tools that help you find your personal teacher voice.

Continuing education after your yoga teacher training

As mentioned above, your teacher training is only the beginning. You’ll notice that Yoga Alliance has a ‘Continuing Education Requirement’ that requires you to complete an additional amount of training and practice every three years. Whether you’re registered with Yoga Alliance or not, I highly recommend investing time in continuing your education for six reasons:

It helps you:

  • fully embody your earlier learnings from your other teacher training
  • see your studies and interests from different points of view 
  • stay up-to-date and informed on new discoveries and developments
  • meet other yogis with whom you share an experience and can share past experiences
  • understand who you teach and what type of classes are most beneficial for them 
  • offer your students more up-to-date, detailed, educative and valuable classes 

 

Resources and other support after your yoga teacher training

In our last blog I shared with you some resources that I recommend diving into before your training. Here, I’ll share some resources I recommend for after your training:

Books (most are also available as audiobooks).

  • The Tree of Yoga – B. K. S. Iyengar
  • Light on Pranayama: The Definitive Guide to the Art of Breathing – B. K. S. Iyengar
  • Yoga Sequencing: Designing Transformative Yoga Classes – Mark Stephens
  • Your Body, Your Yoga – Bernie Clark
  • Yoga Anatomy – Leslie Kaminoff
  • Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses: A Practical Workbook for Integrating Themes, Ideas, and Inspiration Into Your Class – Alexandra Desiato and Sage Rountree

Documentaries:

  • I Am Maris: Portrait of a Young Yogi – Laura Vanzee Taylor 
  • Yogawoman – Saraswati Clere, Kate Clere McIntyre
  • On Yoga the Architecture of Peace – Heitor Dhalia
  • Heal – Kelly Noonan
  • Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator – Eva Orner

Podcasts: 

Facebook Groups:

 

10 Tips for Multilingual Yoga Teachers: Video Guide.

To help you find support you after your yoga teacher training, we’ve created a video guide to help you boost your confidence and design more effective yoga classes with these 10 yoga teaching tips & techniques to for professional development as a multilingual yoga teacher!

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. Develop your communication and teaching skills while obtaining continuing education hours with our live and recorded classes and teacher training sessions!

Have a look at all that’s included here.

How to prepare for your YTT as a multilingual yoga teacher

Listen to our podcast episode: How to Prepare for Your English Yoga Teacher Training

When I finished my 200h teacher training, I felt unqualified. I believed I was nowhere near prepared to teach and, in that moment, decided teaching yoga wasn’t for me. With this blog I sincerely hope to provide you with tips on how to prepare for your YTT as a multilingual yoga teacher or even a native speaker. I also want to give you the tools you need to feel better equipped, more confident and more capable when you start your yoga teacher training. So let’s get started: How to prepare for your YTT as a multilingual yoga teacher?

‘How do I prepare for my yoga teacher training as a multilingual yoga teacher?’ 

I asked my friend Helena this question before I did my first teacher training, and now I have been asked many times by you. Preparing yourself for yoga teacher training totally depends on your preferences, the skills you’re naturally good at and what type of training you want to do. If you would like help with choosing a teacher training, go to our previous blog for tips and inspiration.

When you start your training, you are going to be educated on all the different aspects that come with the job of a yoga teacher. So, really, good training doesn’t require you to know it all beforehand. However, many training courses do require you read a set of books and study a lot on your own before you start.

Let me start by explaining a couple of things that I wish I had known before my training. 

If I had known the following things before, I would definitely have made different decisions. And even though I slightly regretted them at the time, I can now use those experiences to help you not make the same mistakes. 

My 200h training only lasted for 3.5 weeks.

All the material was crammed into 10-12 hour days, without weekend breaks. It was exhausting and my brain didn’t have the time to actually give meaning to all the new knowledge that I was gaining. As a result, I forgot most of it within the first few weeks. If you have the time, I’d highly recommend a training that’s spread over a longer period of time. Time allows you to process information in a way that suits you best and doesn’t rush your learning, increasing the quality of it. Longer training gives you plenty of time to give meaning to your new knowledge and integrate your new learnings on and off the mat.

Some training only included about 5 hours of yoga asana practice.

To finish your yoga teacher training without having practiced a lot of yoga asana might surprise you, and you’re definitely not the only one! Despite my teacher describing the training as  having an academic focus and lots of personal development, I still expected to be practising yoga at least every morning. This wasn’t the case in mine and, from what I’ve heard, it’s the same in  many others. I truly think that practising with your teacher is necessary for integrating all your new knowledge. It’s a great source of inspiration and lets you experience the things you’re learning in real-time practice. If this is what you’d like, ask your teachers about the amount of actual asana practices led by them.

 

That said, what could help you to prepare yourself for your yoga teacher training?

If you’re like me, you like to read, write, take notes, do research and get practical practice of what you (are going to) teach. There isn’t just one type of good teacher. Nor is there one way to become an effective teacher and all of this depends on your personal learning style. Most training will provide you with a list of recommendations and some even give you their manual beforehand. Other training starts on the day you arrive. Either way could work, but I believe that your personal learning style plays a big part in how you access and digest new information. Some of us are visual learners and like to see and read things, others are tactile and learn through moving, touching and practising. It could be that you’re an auditory learner and you need to listen or hear new information before they start to make sense to you. Knowing your personal learning style allows you to choose what actually works for your preparation. If you have no clue about the way you learn, take this test here. And if you’d like to learn more about learning styles, have a look at the article here.

Reading and/or audio books

As mentioned above, most yoga teacher training provides you with a list of required or recommended reading. Whatever your learning style is, I suggest you do not postpone this and start reading well before you start your training. This way, your brain is stimulated with new vocabulary and terms you don’t speak about (yet) on a daily basis. If you have a hard time concentrating on words in a book, the solution could be ‘auditory’; check if there’s an audiobook version of the required reading for your training.

Here’s a list of books I recommend most of which are also available as audiobooks.

  • Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
  • Light on Yoga: The Definitive Guide To Yoga Practice – B.K.S. Iyengar
  • The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice – T. K. V. Desikachar
  • The Language of Yoga: Complete A-to-Y Guide to Asana Names, Sanskrit Terms, and Chants – Nicolai Bachman 
  • The Yamas & Niyamas: Exploring Yoga’s Ethical Practice – Deborah Adele
  • Teaching Yoga: Essential Foundations and Techniques – Mark Stephens
  • Yoga Anatomy Colouring Book –  K. Solloway

Documentaries & podcasts

If you’re a visual or auditory learner, documentaries and podcasts could come in handy! Documentaries, just like books, introduce you to the language of yoga; language you may not use every day or is simply completely new to you. For example yoga anatomy, Sanskrit terms, affirmations, expressions or sayings, hymns taken from the yoga sutras, Bhagavad Gita, etc. Books and podcasts don’t only offer a great introduction, they also expose you to conversational language and give examples of how to use these terms in real life.

Here’s a list of documentaries I recommend:

  • Breath of the Gods – Jan Schmidt-Garre
  • Iyengar: The Man, Yoga, and the Student’s Journey – Jake Clennell
  • My Dharma – Alessandro Sigismondi
  • Yoga Is – Suzanne Bryant
  • Awake: The Life of Yogananda – Paola di Florio, Lisa Leeman

Here’s a list of podcasts I recommend: 

  • The Lucas Rockwood Show
  • Triyoga Talks Podcast
  • Headspace Radio Podcast
  • Your Yoga in English Podcast (our own podcast)

Yoga Practice and Conversation Practice

Unite, connect and share your journey with other yogis. Even though each journey is unique and we all take slightly different steps, we’re all on very similar paths and sharing this with people that you feel connected with is very empowering. If you don’t know anyone close to you that you can share your experiences with, connect with others via international yoga Facebook groups, Instagram or other social platforms such as Twitter, Clubhouse or LinkedIn. Surrounded by others, you’ll experience growth and evolution in a way that’s even more inspiring than doing it all by yourself. 

Some yoga teacher Facebook groups I really like are:

  • Learn and Teach Yoga – Community for Yoga Practitioners
  • Yoga Teacher Resource Group
  • Yoga Teachers Support & Mentoring
  • Comunidad en ESPAÑOL de YogaHispana – Yoga y Meditación (Hispanohablantes)
  • Yoga in English // yoga en inglés – Enga’s group
  • Teach Yoga in English (this is the group we use for your 5-Day Challenge and it will reopen on the 9th of May 2021). 

 

Let me help you prepare for your YTT as a multilingual yoga teacher too! Have you seen the 10 tips for multilingual yoga teachers already?

Listen to our podcast episode: How to Prepare for Your English Yoga Teacher Training

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that have a vision and want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. We offer great ways to prepare for YTT, but also give you the opportunity to gain continuing education hours by joining our live teacher training sessions!

Have a look at all that’s included here.

How to Choose a Yoga Teacher Training

Listen to our podcast episode: How to Choose Your English Yoga Teacher Training or Continuing Education Course

When I was searching for a school to do my 200h teacher training at, I felt overwhelmed. The variety and options are countless and with the growth of the yoga industry in the past years, you really can need  help choosing a yoga teacher training that really suits you. With this blog I want to provide you with tips for choosing your yoga teacher training as a multilingual or even native English speaker. I will also give you the tools you need to analyse your needs and find your direction and future as a multilingual yoga teacher. 

Why do I believe it’s important to carefully choose your teacher training?

I finished my training with very little teaching practice and very little help from the school. I simply didn’t know where to go next and actually gave up on teaching yoga. For about 6 months I didn’t even practise it. 

I went back to teaching English because it felt comfortable, but also because I knew that it filled my heart with joy. The connection I had with the people in my class I loved the most; watching them grow and gaining confidence in their language abilities. Also, I felt that my purpose in life was to help other people who wanted to travel, live abroad or work, or study internationally. I wanted to help them with the skills they needed to communicate effectively.

Deep inside, I was yearning for the studies, practice and teaching of yoga. However unsupported, discouraged and unprepared I felt to teach, I knew that this could all have been avoided, with more thorough preparation and support. 

I knew I wasn’t alone and knew I had to do something about this feeling of uncertainty we feel after our teaching training. I wanted to fill up this gap: this void of insecurity and lack of practice, to help other teachers gain the confidence they need to succeed. 

And that’s what I do today. I combine my English teaching skills with my yoga teaching skills and help multilingual people, like you and me, prepare for teacher training, but also help you gain the confidence you need for teaching yoga in English effectively with actual teaching practice, before, during and after teacher training. 

So today, let’s dive into how you choose the ‘best’ yoga teacher training for you. 

The yoga industry is booming and growing faster than ever before. There’s a lot of yoga teacher training out there: online, in studios, retreats abroad and so on. They vary from 3 to 4 weeks, spread over a few months or even a year. Their focus can be put on anatomy and alignment, yogic philosophy and lifestyle, the energetic bodies (chakras and kosha system), or even personal development. 

For you, it’s important to brainstorm what you like most, what you would like to teach or your plans for the future. I know these are big questions  and your answers will change over time  as you gain experience. If you aren’t sure now, have a look at our How to Find Your Voice blog and answer the journal questions included there. Your answers to these questions could provide clarity as to what to look for in a training.

Let’s choose a yoga teacher training that really suits you.

Here is a list of questions and concepts to consider:

 

What style of yoga do you practise and would you like to teach?

If you have been practising Vinyasa for the past few years, you probably love it and the logical next step would be to pick a Vinyasa yoga teacher training. However, maybe you simply haven’t exposed yourself to other styles that you might like. I believe it’s worth practising different styles before you choose what style you’ll do your yoga teacher training in.

 

Do you know your training teacher?

Some of us have been practising with our training teacher for years. Some of us pick a training because it covers all the Yoga Alliance requirements, it looks and sounds interesting or, simply, because it is the most convenient. Please at least meet your teacher once before you start training and get a feel for them. If that’s impossible, ask for a phone call, video chat or practise with them online. I believe it’s extremely important that you ‘click’  with your teachers: that you feel comfortable with them quickly and naturally. It’s also important you can trust them and don’t feel intimidated by them. If one of these things seems off, continue looking! Don’t feel rushed and choose someone you truly feel comfortable with.

 

Would you like the training to be completely led by them or would you like a group of teachers?

Two know more than one. I believe a team of teachers is extremely beneficial, because it shows mutual commitment, teamwork and union. It also gives you different perspectives, ideas and explanations that could help you with understanding things in different ways. Try not to compare one with the other, because teams of teachers  don’t mean that one is better than the other; collaborations improve the work of everyone and as a result, improves your learning experience.

 

 

What’s your ideal time frame? Would you like to complete it in a few weeks or would you prefer to have your training spread over a few months?

How much time are you willing to spend on your teacher training? Would you like to go abroad and make it your only focus for a few weeks? Or would you like to complete it over a longer  period of time? There’s no right or wrong answer to this, because we’ve all got our own timetables and learning styles. Think of your past learning experiences and be honest with yourself. Fast isn’t always better, but slow could also be demotivating.

 

Would you rather be really good at one thing or have a little bit of knowledge of everything?

Knowing this will help you define your options, depending on the focus of each training. Below you’ll see that every training requires a certain amount of hours spent on very specific teachings. However, your teacher trainer(s) will naturally have a preference or give more importance to specific aspects. Again, there’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s something to bear in mind.
My training for example was very focussed on personal development and overcoming trauma, but I’ve seen other training with an extreme focus on anatomy. Choose what suits you and the people you want to teach!

 

One possibility that is increasing in popularity: have you considered doing it online? Why or why not?

Online training is becoming more and more popular. Especially during a pandemic, these provide you with everything you need from the comfort of your own home. Again, this type of training needs to comply with the requirements and normally involves a lot of Zoom meetings so that it  meets your contact hours (see next paragraph). But it’s understandable that, especially for your first training, you wish to do it in person. Consider your options and go with what suits your needs best. 

 

Do I need to be registered with Yoga Alliance?

No, but it’s highly recommended. You do need to be registered with YA before you teach in some studios or participate in certain events. There are studios and other opportunities that ask for your registration after graduation before you can teach with/for them. Students have also asked me if I was registered before joining my classes. However, it’s not obligatory and I do know of very well respected schools that aren’t registered with them, for example the Ekhart Yoga Academy.

According to Yoga Alliance, which is a professional organisation for yoga teachers, a certain amount of hours should be spent on certain concepts and therefore should always be included in your training before becoming  a qualified teacher. They have an extensive list of things they require which you can find here. Most teacher training does include them anyway and most are registered with Yoga Alliance as a school which, in return, allows you to register your training with Yoga Alliance too.

If you wish to register your certification with Yoga Alliance after your training, look for a sentence along these lines: ‘includes 200-hour Yoga Alliance certification’. If you want to double check, visit the Yoga Alliance website and go to ‘schools’ to see if they are registered with them. 

Yoga Alliance is a very supportive and communicative organisation, so if you are ever unsure, simply send them an email and they can give you more clarity on these requirements.  

 

I hope this blog helped you find some clarity on choosing your yoga teacher training! In this episode I’ll give further explanation! Also, have a look at how to prepare for yoga teacher training and how to find support after your yoga teacher training! 

In the meantime, become a member of our Teach Yoga in English Support Group to meet other yoga teachers in your position or see it as an opportunity to gain knowledge and experience in the key areas that many teachers in training need more support with before, during and after their training.

Listen to our podcast episode: How to Choose Your English Yoga Teacher Training or Continuing Education Course

Gain confidence as a multilingual yoga teacher

 

 

Listen to our podcast episode with Yely Staley and register for our video guide of 10 tips for becoming a more confident multilingual yoga teacher! 

As yoga teachers, it’s not uncommon to feel as if you’re being watched. You’re in front of the group, the class is looking at you and waits for you to tell them what to do. It can make you nervous and even sweat! But with time, practice, knowing yourself and the right mindset, this fear will turn into gratitude and fulfillment! In this blog, I hope to give you the inspiration to gain more confidence as a multilingual yoga teacher.

First things first: lack of confidence often comes from the underlying fear of not being good enough or comparing yourself to others. We tend to believe we need to be a certain way or certain type of person to do ‘it right’. 

It might not be a surprise to you, but this is a massive limiting belief that stops you from showing up for yourself, your students and it limits your growth as a teacher. 

So, stop comparing yourself to others and embrace your own qualities. If you need help with this, go to our earlier blog about finding your voice. 

You can’t know everything, neither do you need to know everything.

When you first start teaching, some of your students’ questions can be overwhelming. I definitely experienced the feeling of not knowing all the answers to all questions as intimidating. 

Teachers are often under a lot of pressure to be total experts on their subject who never make mistakes. However, the key to good teaching is not about communicating what you know or what you can do. It’s about creating a safe learning space in which you adjust your teaching to the participants. It’s about  guiding them and helping them understand challenging things. Or simply introducing them to new material. Your students are already in your class so you do not need to prove your worth to them. The key is knowing how to support your students on their learning journey. That requires effective communication: not making yourself heard, but making yourself understood, so that your students can use your input to take their own steps. 

What if I don’t know the answer to their question? 

If you don’t know the answer to a question, instead of making up an answer or telling them something you’re not entirely sure about, be honest!

Some ways to confidently explain you don’t know the answer but still offer something of value:

  • I can’t remember just now. I’ll get more information after class and send you an email or tell you next time.
  • I’m not trained in this specific area. But my [colleague/friend] knows more. I will contact them and send you an email or tell you next time.
  • I’m not familiar with that. Try listening to/reading [book/podcast…]

 

Don’t be afraid to repeat, repeat and repeat 

Gaining confidence as a multilingual yoga teacher through practice and experience: 

Many teachers in training are afraid of repeating the same thing over and over again. Maybe there’s pressure to be inventive or original. But, is this necessary for the quality of what you’re actually teaching? I personally do the same practices multiple times, or watch the same episodes or listen to the same podcasts again. There are always things that you missed before and that you only catch when you watch or listen again. It’s the same with your students – they don’t notice that you’re repeating things. 

Actually, the reinforcement of repetition is essential for learning a new language, yoga and anything new. It offers a sense of achievement when they stop needing to look at you to understand because they know what’s coming next. You’ve said and done it a hundred times.  If you repeat “lift your arms into a T shape and look past your front middle finger” day in day out, that’s absolutely fine!

Which famous singer doesn’t expect their fans to sing their lyrics back to them? Put all good things on repeat, including your instructions.

Do you want more tips on how to gain confidence as a multilingual yoga teacher?

Listen to our podcast episode with Yely Staley and register for our video guide of 10 tips for becoming a more confident multilingual yoga teacher! 

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that have a vision and want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. Have a look at all that’s included here.

Find your voice as a multilingual yoga teacher

Listen to our podcast episode: Finding Your Voice as a Multilingual Yoga Teacher with Thomas Thoroe

Teaching yoga can be very intimidating. There’s heaps to remember: the breath, verbs, asanas, variations of asanas, potential injuries, preventing injuries, sensitive language, inclusive language, and so on. As a teacher you want to share your enthusiasm for yoga. You possibly hope to share the sensations, feelings and insight you experienced and that have changed you for the better. By teaching yoga, it’s likely that you want to pass on your fascination to others. But, how do you find your voice as a multilingual yoga teacher?

Especially when you start teaching, it’s possible you feel the need to be able to teach everything and try all the different methods. We often have an image of The Teacher and that’s not always compatible with who you truly are. If you try to create that persona, you need to act on top of teaching. 

For example, I used to think I needed to teach very fast-paced vinyasa practices, but this is not what I personally like to practise, so I could not be consistent and as a result it stopped being effective. Once I accepted that, I could focus on how to use my personal characteristics and habits to work productively in the studio. So, setting your own boundaries and expectations could help you teach in a more reliable and consistent way. 

Yoga and teaching yoga are very personal. When combined, we must accommodate for this even more. Perhaps take time for some Svādhyāya (self-study and reflection) to define what your own teaching style is. Not what you want it to be, but what your natural style is at this point in your development. You want to teach from a place that connects with you. So for example, I don’t chant ‘Aum’ at the start of a class because it doesn’t connect with who I am or how I teach. Let’s have a think of how you can find your voice as a multilingual yoga teacher?

Journal question:

Think of a class or teachers you absolutely loved. Why did you love it so much? Think of
three key elements that stood out to you (e.g. asanas, voice, wording, music, etc.).

Remember who you are and what brought you here – your truth is your voice!

Every person is different. Every practitioner is different. So is every yoga school and all of their teachers. You don’t need to ‘play’, ‘copy your teacher’ or get into the ‘role of a yoga teacher’ or have years of experience to offer excellent classes. The best classes I have received were by teachers that were true to themselves, devoted to their practice and honest with their fellow yogis. I’ve also had inexperienced teachers who I trusted more than experienced ones, because their sense of responsibility and motivation to do better each time showed me they were engaged in my learning and teaching me in a careful way

You don’t need to have all the answers to be an effective teacher

You can’t know everything and you never will! Neither do you have to be an expert in every aspect of yoga. We all have our own talents and things we’re good at. Which is a beautiful thing that unites us and helps us grow together, alongside each other day after day. 

Focussing on what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at and staying open to development, especially these aspects, will help you stand out and find your own voice. As well as this, it’ll offer constant inspiration for your classes, your practices and your offerings.

 

For example: 

Let’s say you’ve never really been into history, but you always liked biology. You love children and you’re fascinated by the cycle of life. Chances are that you like teaching prenatal and postnatal classes or yoga for children. Instead of trying to understand each and every aspect of the history of yoga and desperately trying to teach the philosophy of yoga, because ‘you think you should’, try to focus your personal and professional development on teaching yoga for pregnancy and kids.
This way, you’ll not only develop faster, but you’ll also actually enjoy your learning journey; you’ll  improve your teachings in a way that suits you and your students, and teach from your ‘authentic Self’ as they say in yoga.

Journal questions – find your voice as a multilingual yoga teacher:

  1. What makes you you? Which of those characteristics do you like the most?
    (e.g. funny, caring, passionate, conventional)
  2. What aspects of practising or teaching yoga give you an adrenaline rush? Why?
    (e.g. My practice and classes aren’t complete without a moment of mindfulness focussed on self-study)
  3. What aspect of practising or teaching yoga do most like to study, watch or read? Why?
    (e.g. I love listening to podcasts in which they speak about anatomy)
  4. Highlight the adjectives and words to create a sentence that describes you as a yoga teacher.
    (e.g. I teach conventional yoga with a focus on self-study and integration of anatomical terminology.)

Do the work

Now that you’ve described yourself, you’ve got an excellent direction to go in. But, don’t get too attached to it, because in yoga, as well as in life, we develop our opinions and evolve. Be open to new ideas and different perspectives and don’t beat yourself up if you feel you’ve done something ‘the wrong way’. Your yoga journey is an endless path.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep doing the work. Doing the work means you keep practising yoga on and off the mat, live a healthy lifestyle, and feed your body and mind with healthy ingredients. 

In my opinion, ‘doing the work’ doesn’t have to be 1.5 hours of  asana practice every morning. I believe it can include self-study, self-care, mindfulness and breath work of any kind, but also journaling, reading, and surrounding yourself with things that inspire you. 

As a yoga teacher, you’re always a student. Treat yourself as one and remember you really don’t need to know everything, nor do you have to be an expert. 

 

Practical tips for finding your voice as a multilingual yoga teacher:

Svādhyāya – Self-study and self-practice

Having obtained your certificate is great, but your studies don’t stop there. The more you know, the more you realise what you don’t know, but also what aligns with you, suits your personality and your personal yoga practice.

Keep up your self-study through daily practice with tools such as:

Your personal asana practice 

  • Journaling
  • Reading books on topics you’re interested in. 
  • Watching documentaries about life and yoga 
  • Listening to podcasts about life and yoga 
  • Surrounding yourself with people that inspire you

A foreign accent is a sign of bravery. 

Anyone that’s learning or that wants to become fluent in a language might be fearful of speaking in public or speaking in general. This is because we don’t sound like the others or we just don’t sound like a ‘native’ speaker. I suggest we all change our perspective and ask ourselves this: what is not amazing about having a ‘different’ or ‘foreign’ accent? It shows you are strong and let yourself be vulnerable and that you worked hard. Above all, it proves that it was your own willpower and determination that brought you to where you are today. A foreign accent is a sign that you are able to show up for yourself or others, and practise. A foreign accent is a sign of bravery.

 

10 Tips for Multilingual Yoga Teachers: Video Series!

Do you want more help with finding your voice as a multilingual yoga teacher? Check our 10 Tips for Multilingual Yoga Teachers: Video Series!

In this video series I’ll help you with 10 daily tips to become a more confident and effective multilingual yoga teacher and give you tasks for self-study and professional evolution!

Listen to our podcast episode: Finding Your Voice as a Multilingual Yoga Teacher with Thomas Thoroe

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. Develop your communication and teaching skills while obtaining continuing education hours with our live and recorded classes and teacher training sessions!

Have a look at all that’s included here.

How to Teach Yoga Effectively

Listen to our podcast episode: Teaching Yoga In English Effectively with Annie.

The language of teaching yoga (asana) in English internationally is specific. It’s direct, physical and actionable. It could be anatomical, metaphorical or philosophical. Sometimes it’s seasonal, or just trendy. It changes and evolves every day, just like the asanas, styles of yoga and you as a teacher. The yoga industry is booming internationally and the way to reach people worldwide is teaching yoga in English. In this blog I’ll share a few tips that change everything! And will allow you, as an international or multilingual yoga teacher, teach yoga in English more effectively. 

***Apply what you learn in this blog straight away! Download this free worksheet!

Why is our language important?

The way you speak, in many ways, isn’t the same as when you have a friendly conversation or speak at a social occasion. It’s not the same language you read in the paper or learn in a general language class. 

If you’re here, you might be a multilingual yoga teacher. You may be living abroad and teaching people from a different background. Maybe your online community is international and you want to make yourself clear and understood by everyone. Or, this is where you want to be in the future.

Bringing attention to the language of yoga asana will help you teach with more confidence and accuracy. It’ll help you think less, and be more present in your classes. It’s a tool that will help you stop comparing yourself to other yogis and express your ideas and intentions clearly. And, tt helps you to teach yoga effectively.

What happens when communication goes wrong? 

Do you remember your first yoga class? How much of what the teacher said was new to you? Was there anything the teacher said intimidating? And how did this make you feel? 

My first classes were a disaster. I felt silly, insecure, stupid and misunderstood. I had a hard time understanding what was happening. We shouldn’t forget that there is a lot going on. You listen to cues, try to stay connected to your breath, stay present, move with ease and control, feel into the body, and sometimes more. If you know this feeling , you’re not alone: it’s a lot to process in a very short time. 

After years of practising, I did my first teacher training and thought that, after that, I would have all figured it out: ‘I would practise and teach yoga as well as my teachers, and would never have to worry about all this again.’

I couldn’t have been more wrong. After I got certified, I thought I wasn’t ready at all. I didn’t feel prepared to teach and actually gave up on yoga completely for a good six months. 

It’s normal to feel a little lost at the start of your teaching career. Or not to know where to start if you want to teach in another language. But, I don’t believe that you should feel that way! 

What if you could teach yoga in English in a way that your students understood you much faster and you wouldn’t have to worry about simple cues and inclusive language? And, what if you actually could teach yoga effectively?

What is effective communication?

Communication is about sending and receiving. It’s about engaging with your student and using material that your students can relate to. Yoga can be spiritual, personal, or ‘simply’ physical, but you can only teach what you know; guide your students along the path you walked and are familiar with. Teach what you have experienced, studied, felt in your body and know how to explain in simple ways.

Teaching and communication is not about showing off how spiritually connected you are or listing facts to prove your knowledge. It’s being able to understand your students and simplify the language, structures or cues in a way that even a child would understand it. 

‘’Effective communication is not about making yourself heard, it’s about making yourself understood.’’

3 Career-Changing Tips

Here are some techniques, tips and tricks that I really like to use myself as a yoga teacher but which have also helped my clients and other teachers that I know to teach more effectively and confidently.

1. Break-up with -ing  

‘You’re going to come to the front of your mat’
‘You’re wanting to lift your arms a little higher’
‘Keep gazing in front, while pressing through the corners of your feet and staying connected to your breath’. 

 

Many native speakers won’t believe you when you tell them that the second phrase is grammatically incorrect. State verbs like ‘want’ shouldn’t normally be used in the continuous form. So, you were right to be surprised when you saw McDonalds’ ‘I’m lovin’ it’.  Because, yes, that’s wrong.

That aside, a lot of structures using “-ing” forms also need extra words like auxiliary verbs or prepositions. There are a lot of words and very little time to perform all the actions. If this is you, consider how you could rephrase and use short, more direct language.

‘Come to the front of your mat’
‘Lift your arms higher’
‘Look to the front, press through the four corners of your feet, connect to your breath’

 

You’ve lost nothing! But you’ve gained clarity and time. Think of the best wording and structuring of your instructions before class. There’s no need to spend longer on the instruction than they will on the action. 

You can use this formula:

verb + pronoun + body part + direction = action.
lift +  your + right hand  + up

2. Be Mindful During Mindfulness Practices

In mindfulness practices, we often speak about hypothetical or conditional situations. An example which I heard recently was: “What would it be like if you were walking by the sea, your toes were touching the sand and you were feeling full of energy?”

This is a lovely idea but it is long and we need to remember that you do not want to spend time trying to prove your knowledge and turning the grammar of conditional structures into meaning. For example, in conditionals, we hear the past tense and have to decide if this is a past story or a present/future hypothesis. Whether you’re speaking or hearing it, this is another unnecessary barrier for you and your students. The more is said, the more we have to think. 

Our language choice could be creating mental blocks that cause you and your students  to focus on the language, not on the practice. So, be mindful of what’s being processed. To do this, you can stick to short and direct action verbs. Leave it open so people can use their own imaginations. For example:

“Imagine a beach. You sit down. What’s the temperature? Is there wind? You touch the sand. How does it feel?”

These are short sentences that are easier to remember, easy to digest and people understand sooner. Asking open questions limits our chances of causing confusion by saying something they don’t understand. And for you as a teacher, it stops you needing to write a full script or remember details.

Always opt for simplicity! 

Even fluent and proficient speakers in your class can benefit from simplicity. We receive so many images and pieces of information these days, particularly on social media. So much so that we leave less and less time for entertaining ourselves creatively by imagining and inventing things (e.g. knitting or painting). Or we get bored the second we lose wifi connection. We are not used to imagining things anymore, so many of us struggle to do this in our practices. By minimising the information we hand to our students, we can train their ability to visualise and to imagine independently. 

3. Pre-Teach Vocabulary

Pre-teaching is when a teacher starts the class by teaching concepts that they predict  students will find challenging or aren’t familiar with. Pre-teaching gives you an opportunity to evaluate your students’ needs, helps you to plan your classes and avoids confusion, misunderstandings and miscommunication. 

In most yoga teacher training, you learn to demonstrate and model new or more challenging asanas. You get the class in a circle around you or demonstrate from a place where everyone can see you. Taking the time to pre-teach vocabulary that you’re going to use and might repeat during the class is also useful for avoiding confusion and teaching effectively. 

They can also be fun, relaxed activities that you can improvise with a bit at the start of the class and use to engage with your students individually. For example if your students are at a lower level of English and they don’t know what the body parts are, just sit down with them and go through them one by one. Or, if your students are at a higher level, you can gear it up and introduce advanced anatomy or ask for synonyms. 

When planning what you’ll pre-teach, script your explanations or definitions. Sometimes we think we know what a word means because we understand it. But, when someone asks you for a definition, you can’t actually express it. There’s a difference between being familiar with a word and knowing exactly what it means. Choose the key words for each class to pre-teach and script all your definitions and examples.

Let’s summarise.

Yoga has become very international and so you want to be able to connect to people globally. That means that you have to be able to communicate with diverse groups and unique individuals where you can’t always rely on having the same language skills. We can achieve effective communication despite language barriers by being conscious and deliberate about which language we use.

Use short instructions with simple, one-word verbs and action verbs for cues. When it comes to hypothesising and stimulating imagination, avoid conditional structures like ‘if you could…’ and ‘what if you were…?’ Replace these with a clear context and simple, open questions like ‘You’re in a forest. What can you smell?’

Be mindful of where your students are coming from at all stages of teaching – when you’re planning, creating and delivering. We want to give them the opportunity to spiritually or internally connect. So, we distract them if we’re using new words, complex structures and wordy descriptions. Sometimes we keep speaking because we are trying to impose on others what we know or experience, but that’s not a teacher’s job. Create an experience. Say less but say it better. And, dare to be quiet.

Do you want to know more about how to teach yoga in English effectively?

  1. Register for our free video series of 10 tips to help you teach yoga more effectively as an international and, or multilingual yoga teacher.
  2. And, listen to our podcast episode: Teaching Yoga In English Effectively with Annie.

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. Develop your communication and teaching skills while obtaining continuing education hours with our live and recorded classes and teacher training sessions!

Have a look at all that’s included here.

Ayurvedic Lifestyle: Live according to your dosha constitution

Why would you want to live according to your dosha constitution?

As you now know, in ayurveda we study the individual and live and eat according to our dosha constitution to prevent ourselves from disease. In other words, an ayurvedic lifestyle is living according to your dosha constitution. In western medicine, to prevent illness we are encouraged to eat a balanced diet, work out and sleep enough following the recommendations for your age group or gender for example, not for each individual. 

Disease as you know it from western medicine has quite a different definition or treatment. In western medicine, disease gets treated when you go to the doctor and it’s tested and diagnosed. In ayurveda, disease starts with ’dis-ease’; a lack of ease; signs of feeling uneasy in your body. The little signs that we tend to ignore often before an illness gets serious. For example, inflammation, red eyes, a rash, tiredness, general discomfort, etc. 

 

Recognising disease

In ayurveda the disease process has 6 steps. The earlier you discover or treat dis-ease, the more likely it is you’ll prevent ‘proper diseases’. Things that can help to detect disease early on are: abnormal digestion, excretion and mucus, inflammation, breathing and organ function.

So, by living according to our dosha constitution, we can keep listening to our body and act straight away when we notice something abnormal.

In our Clean, Cleanse and Intro to Ayurveda course we will dive further into the disease process, sleep, seasons, activity and living according to your dosha. But in the rest of this blog, I’d like to introduce you to a daily routine and yoga, pranayama and mindfulness practice according to your dosha constitution. 

 

Daily routine – according to your dosha constitution

In ayurveda, a daily routine is called a Danyacharia. A danyacharia includes Raja Yoga. Raja yoga is a collection of teachings that includes Hatha Yoga and Kriya Yoga. Hatha Yoga focuses on the health of the physical body. Kriya Yoga focuses on breath control (pranayama) and is considered a separate path by many practitioners. 

The daily routine (danyacharia) can include tongue scraping, body cleansing, self-massage, physical movement (asana), mindfulness and pranayama. It’s designed according to your constitution and body’s needs and is therefore very personal. You might use herbs, oils and spices to help you balance. However, it’s recommended not to just pick what you like, instead go and see an Ayurvedic doctor that’s licensed to prescribe herbs for consumption.

 

Ayurveda and the seasons – according to the doshas

The following sections include journal prompts to reflect on your constitutions and personal experience. Go to the Clean, Cleanse and Intro to Ayurveda Course to download your worksheets.

The seasons also follow the doshas. Depending on where you live you might recognise the following qualities or changes in the weather. You might have noticed how they affect you. Do you feel more comfortable in a particular season?  

  • Kapha: cold, damp, airy, fluid – often late winter and early spring
  • Pitta: hot/warm, vibrant, transformative – often late spring and summer
  • Vata: cold, dry, calm, windy, clear – often autumn and winter

The dosha’s time of day 

  • Kapha: 6 – 10am | 6 – 10pm 
  • Pitta: 10am – 2pm | 10pm – 2am
  • Vata: 2pm – 6pm | 2am – 6pm

 

 Yoga, pranayama and mindfulness according to the doshas

Why do some asanas, breathing and mindfulness techniques seem so easy, yet are a challenge to others. Why does my teacher like Kapalbhati so much, and why can’t I stand it? 

There will be several reasons that can explain likes and dislikes but from my experience, a lot of this has to do with your constitution. For example if you’re vata dominant, you might have a smaller ribcage which makes breathing more challenging. If you’re pitta dominant, you may be competitive by nature. If you’re kapha dominant, you’re likely to be strong, but take a while to get into your flow.

No asanas, pranayamas or mindfulness practices should be neglected based on your constitution, but understanding the doshas in each of these practices, understanding your own or your students’ body will help you practise and/or teach with more compassion.

Asana (yoga poses and postures)

The benefits of asana are countless, but in general practising asana helps you to stay fit. Lubricating the joints and increasing circulation, mobility and flexibility while obtaining a sense of calm. 

  • Kapha: strong, patient and great endurance, but slow to start.
  • Pitta: ask for (more) focus on simultaneous control of movement, breathing, posture and relaxation.
  • Vata: moves (fast) naturally. Holding poses and stillness can be challenging.

 

Benefits of Sun Salutations

  • Kapha: movement doesn’t come naturally to kapha, that’s why they might feel a bit resistant at first. However, the blood circulation and prana increase will be motivating and bring an enjoyable tension release.
  • Pitta: the systematic and choreography-like movement stimulates pitta’s muscle strength. Taking deep breaths will allow the pitta body to safely expand and stretch.
  • Vata: gentle, flowing movements are natural to vata. Vata can benefit from breath control, and relaxation between asanas to prevent overexertion/the body from doing too much too quickly. 

Pranayama according to the doshas

Pranayama boosts your oxygen supply, reduces fatigue and allows energy to be stored and released to revitalise the body.

  • Kapha: the kapha’s respiratory system is sensitive, but easily balanced by breathing techniques. The bigger kapha body will enjoy the abdominal movement without any physical restrictions. They’re known for being patient and concentrated.
  • Pitta: pitta has excellent lung capacity and can hold its breath the longest which, in return, helps to balance out the heat, fire and passion of pitta’s sharp and overachieving nature. Longer exhalations promote relaxation and increase energy. 
  • Vata: generally, vata has a smaller ribcage and a sensitive nervous system. Both could benefit from the expansion in abdominal breathing. Deep inhalations and breath holding are beneficial for developing and expanding vata’s lung capacity.

Mindfulness & relaxation

When was the last time you did nothing? Even in savasana many of us still experience tension. Complete relaxation, when energy is only used to keep your metabolism going will help you to restore and find calm, clarity and balance. 

Observe: Separate the body from your mind 

  1. Scan your body for tension and breathe steady, long deep breaths.
  2. If your mind allows, try to visualise a space between your body and your thoughts.
  3. Watch your thoughts come and go, in and out, left and right without stopping: like a monkey jumping from one thought to another. 
  4. Observe the mind without feeling your thoughts. Literally see your thoughts pass by.
  5. Repeat to yourself, “I witness my thoughts, and therefore I am not my thoughts.”
  6. Notice what sensations this practice awakens/stimulates in the body.
  7. Write down a few of your recurring thoughts. Observe them and ask how much of them are really true! What is a fact? What have you allowed to become your reality?

 

Address negativity:

Do you ignore unwanted thoughts? Do you run, hide or hope that they’ll disappear? Those that aren’t willing to deal with negativity show signs of inner weakness. It’s okay to be negative sometimes, but don’t let it control you or become your reality.

Practise positive thinking: 

Could you turn negative ‘what if’ scenarios into positive ‘what if’ scenarios?
For example, turning: ‘what if I’ll never be a good teacher and no one will want to work with me’ into: ‘what if I’m a great teacher and have a lot of cool projects others want to work on with me’. Try to manipulate your insecurity. You manifest its thoughts!

 

Affirmations: often, the ones we dislike, we need the most. 

 

Redefine your values: write your own definition of the Yamas / Niyamas.

 

Practise mantras and chant: there are a lot of resources out there, but I can help you find some if you like!

 

When creating awareness and practising acceptance, everything becomes ‘easier’. In our modern society, it’s generally seen as normal to have a busy monkey mind, but I also believe that it makes us feel unbalanced. A busy mind can be very distracting and takes away from your yoga experience both on and off the mat. Become aware of the fluctuations of your mind and seek the willingness to work on it! It’s just a matter of putting things into action.

Clean, Cleanse and Intro to Ayurveda Course

Are you ready to adapt to an Ayurvedic lifestyle and live according to your dosha constitution? Go to the Clean, Cleanse and Intro to Ayurveda course to learn more about your own dosha constitution and how to take care of yourself and prevent disease according to internal and external circumstances.

Please note: In Indian medical school, Ayurvedic doctors study at least 8 years to become qualified. The information we cover in these blogs offer you a basic introduction to the science behind ayurveda. It’s a great tool to help you understand your own body and those of your loved ones and/or students better, but please not use our content to diagnose disease or prescribe medicine of any kind for yourself or others. We do not diagnose or prescribe anything to any individual, nor is it the purpose of our content.

More resources:
An Introduction to Ayurveda
https://www.ayurveda.com/pdf/intro_ayurveda.pdf
Institutions
https://artoflivingretreatcenter.org/
https://www.ayurveda.com/ 
https://sivananda.org/in
Beginner Book
Practical Ayurveda – Find Out Who You Are and What You Need to Bring Balance to Your Life – Sivananda Yoga, Vedanta Center

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. Develop your communication and teaching skills while obtaining continuing education hours with our live and recorded classes and teacher training sessions!

Have a look at all that’s included here.

Ayurvedic Diet – according to your dosha constitution

Food is prana. Prana is energy. The energies are rajas, tamas and sattva, which define your well-being. Consuming an ayurvedic diet according to your dosha constitution will help you to balance these energies.

Remember that all living beings, including foods, consist of elements. These elements together form the dosha. Eating according to your dosha constitution helps you to have regular and healthy bowel movements, feel energised and prevent discomfort and disease. 

When living an Ayurvedic lifestyle, you’d want to eat foods that are high in prana. These foods are fresh, bright, colourful, easy to digest, unprocessed and nutritious. Some people refer to a sattvic diet that is vegetarian, pure, essential, natural and rich in energy. Other people call this ‘the yogic diet’.

An Ayurvedic Diet – according to your dosha constitution

Depending on your dosha constitution, the foods that are right for you might differ from those that are right for your siblings, friends and fellow yogis. Let’s have a look at some guidelines that could help you improve digestion, according to your dosha constitution.

 

Effect on vata (ether and air): 

Avoid: Pungent, bitter, astringent

Do eat: Sweet, sour, salty tastes

Bear in mind: eating in a calm, quiet, space and state of mind.

 

Effect on pitta (fire and water):

Avoid: Pungent, salty, sour tastes

Do eat: Sweet, bitter, astringent.

Bear in mind: cooking all foods so that they are easy to digest.

 

Effect on kapha (earth and water):  

Avoid: sweet, sour, salty flavours.

Do eat: Pungent, bitter, astringent tastes 

Bear in mind: eating smaller, lighter meals that are easy to digest.

 

The 6 tastes of ayurveda: 

I hear you think. What is astringent? And what is pungent? What is considered salty or sweet? Some of the flavours go well with your dosha constitution, some will make your feel out of balance. Let’s have a look at the 6 flavours and download the ingredients list below to choose an ayurvedic diet according to your dosha constitution. 

Astringent (Kashaya): Dry, bitter, cooling

Unripe banana, pomegranate, chickpeas, green beans, okra, cranberries, raw vegetables, pear, legumes and tofu. According to Ayurveda, your main meal of the day should include legumes or tofu to be complete.

Bitter (Tikta): Light, cooling, and dry

Raw kale, leafy greens, Brussels sprouts, fenugreek, dill, turmeric, cacao, coffee, most teas, zucchini, eggplant, fenugreek and fresh herbs. Sprinkling chopped green herbs on a dish provides the bitter taste.

Pungent (Katu): Heating, dry, and light

Cayenne pepper, chilli, black pepper, mustard, ginger, cardamom and radishes. Even though they sometimes taste delicious, they can cause extreme imbalances in the bowel track for certain people, so be mindful!

Salty (Lavana): heating and oily

Sea salt, table salt, celery, olives, tamari, sea vegetables, soy sauce, and miso. You know the drill; always be mindful about the amount of salt you use as it’s known to raise blood pressure. 

Sour (Amla): Heating, oily, and light

Lemons, limes, grapefruit, sour apples, apple cider vinegar and dairy products like yogurt, sour cream,kefir, curd and buttermilk, but also tomatoes, and tamarind. 

Sweet (Madhura): Cooling, heavy, oily

Grains, ghee, wheat products such as pasta and bread, sugar, dairy products including milk and cheese, and potatoes, beets, carrots, squash, parsnips, cucumber, many fruits and sweeteners like honey.

 

Other common dietary terms used in ayurveda are:

Brittle: hard but easy to break

Crisp: hard, thin and easily crumbled 

Dry: very little moisture or liquid; not wet 

Grains: wheat or other cereal used as food

Light: small in quantity and easy to digest

Oily: covered, soaked or containing oil 

Soft: requires minimal amount of chewing

Spicy: things with a sharp, strong flavour that make your mouth feel hot

Warm: cooked, heated, prepared food

 

Ingredients lists per dosha:

Here’s a detailed list by The Ayurvedic Institute, a well-respected school recommended by my Ayurveda teachers at My Vinyasa Practice. This list makes it easy to see which foods help you stay balanced and which foods should be avoided according to your dosha constitution.

 

The ‘old wives’ tales’ are true: eating tips for all constitutions

  1. Eat in a calm, positive atmosphere without distractions.
  2. Eat & cook to digest; chew slowly, your digestion starts in the mouth.
  3. Food is medicine: don’t rush, don’t eat anything that’s too hot or cold.
  4. Don’t eat anything for the sake of eating – try and find the things you like and only eat when you’re hungry.
  5. Keep it simple, buy organic, unprocessed foods and don’t mix too many ingredients.
  6. Eat according to the season: it’s more natural, fresh and saves money.
  7. Try to avoid late meals; your biggest meal should be your lunch.

Please note: In Indian medical school, Ayurvedic doctors study at least 8 years to become qualified. The information we cover in these blogs offer you a basic introduction to the science behind ayurveda. It’s a great tool to help you understand your own body and those of your loved ones and/or students better, but please not use our content to diagnose disease or prescribe medicine of any kind for yourself or others. We do not diagnose or prescribe anything to any individual, nor is it the purpose of our content.

More resources:
An Introduction to Ayurveda
https://www.ayurveda.com/pdf/intro_ayurveda.pdf
Institutions
https://artoflivingretreatcenter.org/
https://www.ayurveda.com/ 
https://sivananda.org/in
Beginner Book
Practical Ayurveda – Find Out Who You Are and What You Need to Bring Balance to Your Life – Sivananda Yoga, Vedanta Center

Continuing Education Membership

In the meantime, check out our Continuing Education Membership for multilingual yoga teachers. This membership offers professional and personal development for yoga teachers that want to start teaching worldwide; online or abroad. Develop your communication and teaching skills while obtaining continuing education hours with our live and recorded classes and teacher training sessions!

Have a look at all that’s included here.