Confidence in teaching is found in practice itself. By Anna Ashby

Teaching with confidence

I

n signing up for and embarking upon a yoga teacher

training, the depth and breadth of this kind of venture may

not be obvious; teacher trainings may only scratch the

surface provoking the realisation of how little is actually

known and what is actually involved. When you graduate,

that feeling of being overwhelmed and unworthy can put off

even the most aspiring of newly trained teachers. Self-doubt

can manifest as a crippling force that stops the wish to teach

in its tracks. Add to it images from social media and distorted

perceptions around the look and role of the yoga teacher, and the

altruistic impulse to share the essence of this profound and life-

changing practice is suppressed. For others, it may well be a lack

of rigour in training or access to direct knowledge that presents a

very real obstacle in teaching with confidence.

How do you develop the confidence to teach, especially as a

newly qualified yoga teacher? It’s a simple question that entails

a multi-faceted answer. Reflecting back over the past 20 years

of teaching, I can see a number of key aspects that contribute to

successful, confident teaching. If I had to boil it down to just three

things, it would be this: 1) stay engaged in a process of enquiry,

exploration and learning; 2) value your practice, experience and

offering; 3) hold a clear and purposeful intention for your teaching

ultimately wrapped in a deep and abiding sense of service.

All three require the ability to study, contemplate and apply

learning within the context of practice, and ultimately within the

day-to-day moments of life itself. To be able to articulate a clear

intention steeped in the essence of the yoga tradition demands

self-study, exegesis of the tradition’s scriptures, and steadiness

in practice. This type of self-enquiry as a practice forms the

foundation for skilful, confident teaching, a necessary attribute on

the yogic path; atma-vicara – enquiry into the (nature of the) Self -

fuels the creative force that naturally flows through the teacher. A

training programme should be based on this type of rigorous study

and enquiry, which forms the scaffolding for a lifetime of teaching.

For those who hear the call to teach yoga, it involves choosing

a path that challenges false concepts and separating tendencies,

initiating a life-long process of integration. Self-enquiry holds

up a mirror where we see, truly see, what is there. At first this

can be challenging. It asks us to see where we hold back and to

let go of the rigid beliefs that limit perception. When we start to

teach, we expose ourselves and this can be uncomfortable. Yet

this type of discomfort can be deeply liberating if we can stick

with self-enquiry, get to the root of the discomfort and trust

the fire of yoga to purify the lens of perception. Teaching yoga

itself becomes a means to experience its transformation as you

support others in their own unique journey back to wholeness.

As the modern free thinker Nora Bateson says, “...a good

teacher, and a real expert, knows that they are in a process of

learning themselves. They are not leaders. They are not making

seeds grow... They are fertiliser, tending to the soil.” So whether

or not you end up ‘teaching’ why not live in a way that tends the

soil and creates fertile ground upon which new ideas and ways of

being can grow and flourish?

Anna Ashby is an experienced senior teacher at triyoga in

London (annaashby.com)

...a good teacher, and a real expert,

knows that they are in a process of learning

themselves. They are not leaders. They are

not making seeds grow... They are fertiliser,

tending to the soil