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'I'm not an authentic yoga teacher'

Have you ever worried that your students will find out you aren’t the real deal and desert you? Have you wondered if they'd still come to your classes if they knew what you were really like behind the mask? If you’ve ever felt like this, you’re not alone.

A frightening number of yoga teachers live with 'imposter syndrome' every day. And I, my friend, am no stranger to it.

 When it comes to helping people heal with yoga, there are tonnes of effective techniques. You'll study them all in a yoga therapy training - asana, pranayama, mudra, meditation, Ayurveda and more. But what is the MOST important technique? Turns out, it might not be yoga at all.

I recently ran into Joanne, an old friend and an experienced yoga teacher. She wasn’t feeling very yogic.  “Why can’t yoga teachers just teach from what they know?” she said, exasperated. “If one more teacher quotes Rumi at me, I’ll scream!”

Now, Joanne wasn’t suggesting that we have nothing to learn from Rumi or that yoga teachers shouldn’t find inspiration in spiritual texts. That’s clearly not true. Her problem, as she explained, was the use of cookie-cutter scripts in yoga classes.

One of my early yoga teachers, Buddhist nun Anipema Chodron, gave me an important piece of advice about choosing a yoga teacher. Make sure you ask your prospective yoga teacher who THEIR teacher is. Then ask them who their teacher’s teacher is.

I’m about 20 minutes into a yoga class. The large male teacher appears from nowhere and puts his hands on me while I'm in three legged dog. He hasn't asked for consent. He hasn't asked about injuries. He hasn't even made eye contact during the class. I flinch involuntarily. He says "Whoa". I say " please don't adjust me" he says, "What?", still with his hands on me. "Don't adjust me please" I repeat more loudly.

So, yoga changed your life. It shook you down, cleared your head and turned your whole life around. Naturally, you want to share that with the world, so you decide to become a yoga teacher. Now you’re qualified help others experience the mind-blowing power of yoga that has given you so much. Excellent!

But is more yoga what the world needs?

How are your private yoga classes going? Are students breaking down your door to enjoy quality one-on-one time with you? Teaching private yoga lessons is a great way to offer extra value to your students and build a new source of income. But if your students aren’t returning for regular, ongoing private classes, you're probably doing it all wrong.

Teaching successful and ongoing private classes requires a very different skill set to teaching group yoga classes. So how do you serve your private students in a way that turns them into delighted, repeat customers? Take a look at the top 5 mistakes yoga teachers are making in private classes and see what you can change.

How many hours yoga teacher training have you done? 200hrs? 350hrs? 500hrs+? There is a seemingly endless array of post-graduate yoga teacher training options. How about a 40hr yin training? Perhaps a weekend course on how to teach kids yoga. What about prenatal, somatics, fascia, acro yoga, adjusting, alignment or a course to help you market your classes? With such a dazzling variety of trainings, there’s one question I’d like to ask. How much yoga teacher training is enough?

I’ll follow that question up with another one. How much of the training you’ve already undergone do you use in your everyday teaching? Actually, how much of it do you even remember?