How To Start Teaching Yoga: The Essential Guide For New Yoga Teachers
May 16, 2017 | 4 min readYou’ve made it through your 200-hour teacher training and are finally ready to head out into the world to share your newfound knowledge with anyone that will come to the mat. Congratulations! You have completed a pretty daunting task.However, once you have received your certification you may be at a loss for what to do next.
Getting onto a studio’s schedule and building a following take a lot of time and while you may have the best of intentions, it can be difficult to get your foot in the door. There are a few things every new yoga teacher should keep in mind when setting out on their initial teaching journey.
Keep Being A Student
Just because you have a shiny new certificate in your hand, doesn’t mean that you have learned all you need to know. Take classes from teachers you admire and maintain your personal home practice. This time that you spend as a student will help you to teach better classes. Studios are also more likely to hire teachers that are active within their community. Being visible as a student will help you make inroads at places you want to teach at.
Get Social
Build a simple website, set up an Instagram account and a facebook page. Follow studios and teachers you admire and share content when you can. Creating your own blog to follow your teaching journey or your practice path will help to build visibility and to grow a community in an organic way.
Teach As Much As Possible
Just because your name isn’t on a studio schedule doesn’t mean that you can’t teach. Family and friends are a great place to start searching for students. The more you teach the more comfortable you will become with various types of student scenarios. These people may also help you make inroads for corporate classes.
Craft Your Brand
Your yoga experience has likely shaped the way and things that you feel passionate about teaching. Be sure to reflect that in all of your social media, your resume and your interactions with students.
Find A Mentor
This is incredibly important as a new yoga teacher. Having a mentor to turn to when you have questions or need information is great. In return, you can seek the opportunity to assist their classes. This type of work may not always be paid, but it will give you invaluable knowledge and much-needed practice.
Approach Studios With Careful Consideration
Studios will rarely hire someone that hasn’t taken classes in their space. While it might seem like a good idea to approach as many studios as possible, it may not be very successful and could lead you to feel discouraged. Choose the studios you approach carefully depending on your experience as a student.
Don’t Be Afraid To Say No
Not every opportunity is going to be a good fit for you or your style. In those instances, don’t be afraid to say no. Turning down something that doesn’t feel right will allow the space you need to take on opportunities that are uniquely you!
Build Strong Relationships
Your students are the reason you get to show up every day and teach! Try your best to learn everyone’s name and a little fact about them. People love hearing their own name in class when doing a posture well and creating personal connections will encourage students to show up more often to your classes.
Being a new yoga teacher is incredibly exciting. You have the opportunity to learn and teach and to effect real change in people’s lives. While it may be a tough road to travel down. Do your best to not get discouraged. With some hard work, commitment, and love you will find your place to teach and hold space in no time!
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