How to teach a private Yoga lesson | Mark Whitwell
Mark Whitwell | Heart of Yoga
Yoga teaching is traditionally done on a one-to-one basis. In a quiet meeting between teacher and student much can be achieved. In fact, there is ancient text which says, “Whenever these things are spoken of, only four ears should be present.” And also, “When you speak to your teacher you are speaking to God.” This is not a statement to elevate the teacher to some ridiculous status called God. Rather, it is acknowledging the preciousness of such a meeting in the non-dual enactment of connection to all Life. It is an occasion to empower the student to their intrinsic intimacy with Reality.
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989), the ‘father of modern Yoga,’ rescued the principles of Yoga from the wisdom traditions that ensure that Yoga is an utterly personal practice; carefully adapted to individual needs by someone who cares for you. Yoga is participation ONLY in the given reality, power and wonder of your unique life. Not a seeking for future possibilities that create seeking and fear in mind and emotions. Clearly a one-to-one teaching setting is the the best circumstance to communicate the Yoga that is right for you.
What does this look like?
The First Four Lessons
We recommend that you meet your student at four times.
The first lesson is mainly getting to know the person: who they are, what their work is, what their emotions are, how they are doing in life, their hopes and dreams, what they want, any health issues, their religious or non-religious background; just as you would when you are getting to know anybody for the first time. Once you know your student well then you can give them a practice that is truly personal to them.
In the same lesson, you then carefully share the breath principles with your student and give them a short little practice to take home. You teach your student how to use the anatomy of the whole body to merge the inhale with the exhale. Send them on their way with a short practice and make another time to meet in a week’s time or so.
In the second lesson you review that practice and move it along a little bit. You will inevitably find that people will not do what you ask them to do. They either will not do the practice; or they will do it only once or twice instead of every day; or they will do something that is not in line with the principles that you have been trying to teach them. This is natural and to be expected in the learning of any new skill. We go back to Yoga 101 and show our student the basic principles and the practice again. Introduce a few new elements that move the practice towards its complete state.
Each time you write down with little stick figures what the practice is so they can take it away and stick it on their fridge. Inculcate in your student a sense of the preciousness of their Yoga practice. It is not a casual matter to begin a home Yoga practice and to turn around the ship that is otherwise contracted in social patterning. As a teacher, it is your job to communicate your own faith in practice to the student. If they can see that you are serious (not humourless!) about Yoga and that you really care for them then they will have no problem practicing every day.
When they come back the following week there will still be errors in the technology of their practice. Again, fix it up by carefully sharing relevant information with your student. Once more, move the practice to its conclusion. Remember, there are only backbends, forward bends, twists, laterals, and inversions.
In the fourth lesson, we review the practice and the student’s experience of Yoga as a whole. When they leave the student has a complete vinyasa that is truly personal to them: asana, pranayama, meditation and life as a seamless whole.
Be a friend to your student
The first four lessons establish a friendship between teacher and student that is mutual, negotiable, and non-hierarchical. Being a Yoga teacher is a very beautiful job because you make real friendships with people. Whether it is a class or a one-to-one lesson there is so much enjoyment in being with each other. You might say that this the bhav of the Yoga teaching situation — it is a lively enjoyable situation.
We want to affirm to all sincere Yoga teachers out there that what you are doing is badly needed in this suffering world. A Yoga teacher is there to help anybody who asks to actualize intimate connection to who and what they are which is life itself. Every ONE is priorly connected to life. Every ONE is intimately connected to the mystery of Mother Nature. A real Yoga teacher cares more about the wellbeing and freedom of their student than they do about any kind of social status as a teacher, or commercial interest, Yoga cult, or institutional recognition. The Yoga teacher is simply the force of Mother Nature’s nurturing operating in local community.
A good principle to follow is to teach Yoga as you have experienced it yourself. If you are practicing, then you are experiencing what Yoga is on a daily basis. You know what it is to be intimate with your body, breath, and with your body’s relatedness to all ordinary conditions. You can therefore deliver it to anybody as you have experienced it yourself. You are not necessarily giving them the same asana program that you do because you have a different body type, age, and health. But you know what the feeling of Yoga is and the basic principles of Hatha Yoga, Strength-Receiving.
“I will not teach Yoga that is right for me or others. I will only teach Yoga that is good for you” — Krishnamacharya.
If you are not practicing, then you cannot teach because Yoga is not in your experience. Your personal daily practice and your relationship with your teacher who gave you that practice needs to be there.
You learn to teach by teaching
If you feel fearful at the prospect of teaching, the advice is to feel the fear and teach anyway. The only way that you learn to teach is by teaching. We have got to take a step forward and just see what happens. We all have a little doubt when we are learning a new skill. The fact that you have a little doubt is actually a good thing because it makes you humble rather than arrogant. Our humility gives us the power to teach well because we want to do a good job for our students.
There is an ancient statement. How should a teacher approach teaching? The teacher says, “I have been asked to teach so I’m going to do my best, but I’m not really qualified to do it. I’ll probably make mistakes. But I’ve been asked to so I’m going to do it.”
With that humility you go forth.
Know that your personal relationship with your teacher, and your participation in the sangha, which is a sanskrit word that means ‘community of practitioners,’ is there as your support mechanism for whatever comes up in the teaching circumstance.
- For an in-depth immersion into the heart of Yoga and the principles of practices that came through the ‘teacher of the teachers’ Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888–1989) join the by-donation online immersion here.
Read More:
