What Kind of Yoga Teacher Are You? (Find Your Voice & Confidence)

If you're a yoga teacher struggling with confidence, maybe it's not you. Maybe it's not a lack of self-esteem. Maybe it's not a lack of self-belief. Maybe it's more like you just don't know what kind of teacher you are. In this video, we're gonna talk about the different types of yoga teachers and discover which one you are. I'm Brie Johnson of Heartbone's Yoga, and here on Yoga Teacher Tips, this is your place to learn all about teaching yoga, whether it's the nitty-gritty details, but it's also things like this conversation today. So please, oh please, subscribe and comment, and let's build an amazing yoga teacher tips community together. The secret to feeling more confident as a yoga teacher isn't just being a good yoga teacher because what is that even? The secret to feeling more confident as a yoga teacher is all about knowing what kind of yoga teacher you are. Because once you do, you realize, "Oh, I get to celebrate my unique gifts and I can stop comparing myself to other teachers who are just different than me." But one of the most important and quickest ways to finding your own voice and having that confidence is truly knowing yourself. Because isn't that also the practice of yoga? The practice of yoga beyond Asana is this practice of knowing who we are, the self-awareness. And so the more we can have the self-awareness, hopefully what happens is that it builds self-compassion. And with self-compassion means that we are accept parts of ourselves that maybe we didn't always accept and maybe parts of ourselves that we've struggled against as if something was wrong with us. So we're gonna talk about reframing, identifying, and understanding these parts of ourselves and knowing that these parts are probably actually what makes us an amazing teacher. And then you can know what kind of teacher you are and go forth and teach your amazing, wonderful classes. Let's first start with how do you prepare your classes? This is gonna winnow down what kind of teacher are you? Are you somebody who wings it? Who goes, "Okay, I'm gonna teach a class about the hips today." That's enough of an outline for me. I know what I'm doing. We're gonna go to class and I'm gonna just teach a cool hip sequence, but I'm gonna just feel it out and respond to the people in my classes. And who shows up? For some of us, it's gonna be super clear something we may naturally do. For others, even just hearing that, you might get quite scared and go, "Oh, never, I could never." So maybe you're more of somebody who wants to plan, who feels more clear and confident with maybe a to-do list with a fully thought out written, even practiced sequence before you teach it to your classes. So I would say neither one of those ways of preparing for a class is right or wrong, better or worse. It's just knowing what your tendency is. Also, I have a feeling that many of us are gonna fall somewhere in the middle between these two points from the person who's totally winging it. And I would reframe even winging it to tuning into your intuition as well, right? So you're kind of, you know what you're doing. You're not just winging it as if you didn't know what you're doing, please. If you're a winging, winger, you're somebody who wings it. You're probably coming from a base of support and experience a knowledge base so that you can adapt on the fly. You're an intuitive, adaptable teacher. Let's reframe that. And then the planner, the planner is love somebody who loves to think things out, who loves to really just have it so clearly pre-planed that by the time you do come to your class, you've got that nervous system safety net as you go and approach your teaching. And again, most of us are going to probably fall somewhere in between. Take note which one you feel like you land a little bit more towards. Now let's talk about how you teach your classes. So here you are, you're at the front of the room. Are you somebody who loves to communicate a lot of details, a lot of precise cues? Or are you somebody who loves to communicate in a way that's a little bit more poetic, more storytelling, a little bit more painting a feeling of the experience rather than somebody who's more precise. I'm not saying the more poetic version can't have clear detailed cues, but maybe there's a little bit more of that. And I think poetic's the nice way of thinking and explaining that. And again, I'm placing these as binaries, like as here's one end of one spectrum, here's the end of the other spectrum. And again, most of us are going to fall somewhere in between. But is there one version of a teaching that you maybe lean towards more? Find out and feel out, which one is me, which one do I feel is a little bit more me. Now let's think about how we learn yoga. Now some of us are going to feel really comfortable following a very clear tradition and lineage, where again, you have a very clear lineage through the teachers, the teachings, the style, this tradition, and that feels really solid and safe in your nervous system. Somebody else is going to feel a lot more comfortable still honoring the tradition, still honoring where yoga came from, but might be more inclined to look at more modern techniques, bringing in more modern ways of movement, like biomechanics. And some of us might be able to find a really beautiful marriage in between the two. So as always, take a moment and see which one do you lean towards a little bit. Now let's think about the ways in which you teach. What kind of teaching do you enjoy doing? Are you somebody who loves one-on-one private sessions where you can go in and you can go so detailed and have that more intimate connection with somebody where you can really get detailed and dive deeper into somebody's individual practice? If so, you're probably a teacher who's going to be more comfortable teaching more private classes one-on-one. Are you a teacher who loves the mix and fun of a drop-in class at a studio where you don't always know who you're going to have in your classes? Yes, you're going to have some of your regulars, but there's always going to be new people and you really thrive on those new and different inputs. Maybe you're somebody who loves a pre-registered experience where you go and take people over a series of weeks or months and it's always the same group and you're taking them on a journey and you feel really solid and confident doing that because you can guide and create a longer term experience rather than that 60, 75 minute, 90 minute drop-in class. Or maybe you're a teacher who loves to just dive deep and focus on something for a couple hours like in a workshop. Keep in mind, most of us are going to be able to do and enjoy some of these versions of teaching. So it's not trying to put yourself into a new box and go, well, this is the only way that I ever want to teach. But as we give these different options, ask yourself which one am I more drawn to? If I had to teach and spend most of my time teaching, would I be happiest teaching those weekly classes? Would I be more happy teaching just workshops or that pre-registered and then refine that for yourself? So again, you could probably happily teach all of them but which ones would you enjoy teaching the most? Because that's going to be quite insightful for what kind of teacher you are. Another thing to think about as a teacher are you a teacher who loves going slow, who loves practices that are restorative or in where it's just, let's lie around, let's take our time. Maybe you're somebody who's wired and loves more vinyasa, strong, engaged, active style of teaching in classes and that makes you happy. That actually gives you more energy when you're teaching these faster, they pay stronger classes. So what kind of classes are you drawn to mostly? Pick one of these options or if there's something I haven't said, add that. Now, let's think about who you want to teach. Again, we know that we could do it all but we don't need to do it all and nor should we do it all and that includes who we teach. Are you somebody who loves teaching kids? And you're just like, yes, this is so much fun. Bring me into a school, maybe do an after school program, I just want to work with kids, they light me up and I'm so excited about that. Maybe you're somebody who's like, actually, I love working with seniors. I love how focused and engaged they are about wanting to move their bodies well so that they age well. So these are my people. We're going to do chair classes. I'm going to go to a seniors home. Maybe you don't actually overly care. You actually like, again, that drop in class model where it doesn't really matter who's in the class as long as they're suitable for this type and style of class that you're teaching. So see which one or two you gravitate the most to and again, if there's something I haven't said, add that to your list of who you would like to teach. And this one is such an important one that I don't think a lot of teachers spend a lot of time thinking about, which is how much do I want to teach, how much should I teach or how much do I have to teach also financial reasons and things like that. Some of us find or maybe have found the hard way that you get really excited, maybe come out of your teacher training and you're like, I'm ready. Let's do this. I'm going to try to get as many classes as I can and then all of a sudden within three months, six months, you're burnt out because you're teaching too much. So everybody's teaching too much is going to be different. Some of us might have kids and responsibilities and other full-time jobs that if you taught more than three classes a week, you're going to get burnt out. so maybe free. you, one to two classes a week is your sweet spot. If this is your full-time job, maybe teaching eight classes a week is too much, you gotta bring it down to six, but wait, my income, needs me to teach at least eight classes a week. So then figuring out going back to the other questions that we've looked at, and then figuring out, well, wait a second, are there different ways that I can make a little bit more money in the classes that I'm teaching? Maybe I love teaching workshops. Well, I can make a little bit more money teaching a workshop. So that will inform a little bit of your sweet spot of, how much do I wanna teach? How much can I teach? And are there ways, if it's not a lot of classes, is my sweet spot to teach? Are there ways that I can maximize the financial support and impact for myself in those classes that I am teaching? So asking yourself, what's my sweet spot? What's the amount of classes relative to the life that I'm in right now, because our lives change, priority shift, responsibility shift, so you right now, what's, how many classes is your sweet spot? How many classes a week do I need to find balance, both financial and nervous system and emotional balance? So we're going through these in a really sort of light and easy way. You can take your time. If you're feeling inspired, you can absolutely take your time and go through these questions in your own way and add more, add different questions that we haven't covered here. But the whole point of this exercise is to start to think about yourself, who you are, how you are wired as a teacher, regardless of what popularized yoga teaching should be or could be, and it doesn't matter. Who are you as a teacher, and how do you want to teach? Who do you want to teach, and what ways do you want to teach? And then that clarity goes so far, because then you're going to feel more confident. You're not going to feel swayed when you see somebody doing something totally different and you're going to go, oh no, should I be doing that? And then you come back to yourself and you go, no, I shouldn't, because I know who I am. I know what kind of teacher I want to be. And these are the type of questions that I love talking about and love exploring with people. So I have a fun little quiz for you to do that's going to help you further refine these questions for yourself. And when you do the quiz at the end of it, you're going to have a lovely little email series of insights and help for you to really continue this practice of who am I as a teacher? What's my voice? How do I feel more confident? And yes, you have to give your email, I know. And here we are on the internet, probably tired of that. But my friends, this is super helpful. I'm not going to inundate you with emails all the time. So do the quiz. It's in the link below in the description. And then please, oh please, oh please, come back and leave in the comments what kind of teacher you are from the quiz. Because I think this is-- I've sent this quiz out to thousands of teachers around the world. They've done it. And it's always a really interesting surprise when they see themselves reflected in this playful quiz. OK, so go do that quiz. But my friends, as always, most importantly, do this work for yourself because the more clear we are as a teacher, the less time we're spending in doubt, worry, and fear, and the more time we're spending crafting beautiful, fabulous classes that truly help people.