Feeling Stagnant Teaching Yoga Classes? Use These 6 Tips to Spice Things Up

No matter how long you’ve been teaching a yoga class, there comes a time when you start to feel uninspired. In fact, as a yoga teacher, this can happen numerous times – but, that’s okay! Our inspiration is seasonal, it waxes and wanes. With so many yoga teachers teaching for more than 10 years, burnout can certainly come into play.

What’s important is that we know how to come back after a period of low inspiration.

But, one thing that is important is to be aware of these cycles. Like in meditation, the goal is not to be rid of cycles of ebb and flow but rather to acknowledge them in a healthy way, without resistance. Then, you’ll be able to move through them as needed in order to become a better yoga teacher overall.

5 Things That Yoga Teachers Tend to Neglect (Don’t Let This Be You!)
 

Yoga Teachers, Use These 6 Tips to Reignite Your Teaching and Yoga Classes:

Below are six steps that can help elevate your teaching and attract inspiration and creativity back into your life while you’re teaching a yoga class.
 

1. Create a Haven of Calm

Whether you teach online or at a yoga studio, recreation center, gym, school, daycare, or office, there are ways to add touches of calm to any setting.

Working with light is one of the best ways to provide a calm space. By dimming the lights or turning them off completely and adding the soft glow of a lamp or battery-operated candles, the space instantly transforms to a cozy haven.

Whether you teach yoga classes at a yoga studio, recreation center, gym, school, daycare, or office, there are ways to add touches of calm to any setting.

Scent is another way to produce a calm environment. You can spray a light citrus or lavender scent before or after class. This helps students connect to their sense of smell and open up their minds to release stress and tension. Always make sure the studio and students are open to adding scents and don’t have allergies.

Offering an essential oil at the end of class is also a nice touch. A lot of teachers will offer mint oil to their students while they are in Savasana. Just gently rub it on the temples and the back of your students’ necks to aid them in surrendering. Keep mint away from eyes and face.

When offering something like this it is important to let your students know that it is optional and they can quietly opt out by raising a hand.
 

2. Refresh Your Playlists

Music is extremely important in creating an unforgettable setting.

When teaching a vigorous style such as Power Yoga, it’s important to have high energy songs that are encouraging and uplifting. However, when teaching a restful style such as Yin Yoga, it’s important to infuse your playlists with soft, slow, and calming songs.

Along these lines, there are many ways to update your playlists as even the most inspiring songs can get boring after too much repetition. Try adding new artists, combining popular music with kirtan, and bringing in a mixture of Vedic and Native American chanting, to easily refresh your playlists.

Looking for more yoga playlist inspo? Check out this yoga teacher’s advice on How to Create a Killer Yoga Class Playlist
 

3. Turn “Ouch” Into “Ommm”

More than ever before, yoga teachers are protecting themselves and their students from the unfortunate. With more than 5,000 yoga-related emergency room visits each year and possibly even more doctor’s visits, injuries happen more often than we are even aware of.

Lawsuits are stressful and expensive, and yoga liability insurance protects you against claims regarding unexpected yoga occurrences that come along with teaching.

No matter how long you’ve been teaching yoga classes, there comes a time when you start to feel uninspired.

But the good news is that beYogi has your back! beYogi offers yoga teachers and students access to affordable, all-inclusive yoga liability insurance.

Drawing on their experience and knowledge of teaching a yoga class and the yoga world as a whole, beYogi designed a yoga insurance program that covers 450+ styles of yoga so you can be sure that you’re taken care of no matter what style you’re teaching. Wherever you are, whenever you need it – including SUP Yoga and AcroYoga at no additional cost – beYogi will work for you!
 

4. Add Philosophy

One of the main things that draw many people to yoga classes is the mixture of philosophy, exercise, and meditation.

As a yoga teacher, adding yoga philosophy doesn’t have to be stressful or turn into a sermon. Your yoga classes can bring in elements of philosophy from all over the world and make it accessible to everyone.

One of the main things that draw many people to yoga classes is the holistic mixture of philosophy, exercise, and meditation.

Some days, your inspiration is a quote at the beginning of class. Other days, you can focus on one word – quiet, love, compassion, peace, for example – and ask the class to make a connection to that word so they can relate to it and draw from the energy surrounding it whenever they need.

If you’re feeling nervous or uninspired, take some time to think of what motivates you and pull from that. Think outside the box when it comes to sourcing your inspiration. It can be a quote from a book, a reaction you had to a song, painting, a poem, or a feeling you felt when driving to the store. More than likely, if you relate to it personally others can and will relate to it too.
 

5. Embrace Playfulness and Exploration

Sometimes feeling stuck in your teaching means that you need to create space for yourself and your students to explore poses on a deeper level.

That can mean working on more advanced poses such as Headstand or Crow Pose or holding various poses longer to go deeper into the body and work with what comes up in the mind.

If you and your students feel comfortable, you can also add partner poses or massage adjustments into your yoga classes. Partner poses allow for a deeper release by working together to go deeper into a backbend or offering a supportive hand in squats.

Encouraging adjustments while your students are in Child’s Pose or Pigeon Pose can help them to let go and release more tension in the posture. As with any adjustment, make sure you let your students know that it is optional and they can choose yes or no.

Eka Pada Kapotasana: How to Practice Pigeon Pose for All Levels of Mobility (Photo Tutorial)
 

6. Add Elements From Various Yoga Styles

Try incorporating different yoga styles next time you are teaching a yoga class.

By doing this, you can feel a reawakening of the connection between mind and body through the practice of moving in and out of poses. It can be especially impactful when you’ve moved through the postures in your own body so you know how it feels. Try practicing different yoga styles in addition to teaching them.
 
 

Become Even More Inspiring and Reignite Teaching Your Yoga Classes!

Remember, if you – as the yoga teacher – are starting to feel stuck and in a funk, your students will feel it too.

Creating a calm environment and bringing in new music, philosophy, a safe space to explore poses on a deeper level, and elements from various yoga styles will add a new energy to refresh your yoga classes. You’ll look forward to – and feel inspired – teaching yoga classes again!

These elements will also refresh both your students’ motivation and your own to keep coming back. Not only are your students coming to you for the yoga poses, they are coming to grow and connect to something bigger within them and the world.

This relationship is built over time between you and your students and is one of the most profound offerings of being a yoga teacher.

For a limited time, beYogi is offering $30 off your yoga insurance annual premium for YouAligned.com readers, dropping the annual cost to $149. Click here to learn more and get covered today!

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