Five Ways to Support Your Yoga Students

As a new yoga teacher, it is often easy to overlook the specific needs of individual students. It might initially feel as though your only job is actually teaching yoga….but you will soon discover this is not the case!

Your Yoga Students

Offering support to your yoga students, in a wide range of different ways, is so important to their continued progression. Much of this support will of course take place during your sessions, but it may also be the case that you communicate outside of this setting.

The following are five wonderful ways that you can support your yoga students!

1.Be Gentle

As a yoga teacher, you will be consistently giving instructions, offering guidance, correcting students, and adjusting their poses. When you are communicating these things to your students, it is important that you do so in a gentle way that encourages them. Avoid doing anything that might cause a student to feel as though they have done something wrong.

Yoga is a learning process for absolutely everyone, and it is natural to expect that students will get the poses wrong. Being able to correct them in a positive way is essential to their personal growth.

2.Build Community

One of the most magical aspects of teaching yoga is how you can build community through your classes. The people who come to your classes will of course come to see you and to learn yoga, but they will also come to enjoy the social aspect of the group.

Encouraging your students to build community, both inside and outside of your classes, is a wonderful way to support the group.

There are so many fun ways to do this. It can be a good idea to set up a WhatsApp group for your students so that people can communicate outside of your classes. It is also helpful to let your students know they can arrive early to class if they wish to. Allowing your students to gather in the studio before your lesson provides a relaxed environment for them to catch up with each other and for new friendships to blossom.

Organising optional casual events outside of your classes, such as coffee mornings or hikes, can also be a great way to bring people together.

3.Invite Feedback

Making it clear to your students that you are always open to their feedback and suggestions is essential. Only when people feel genuinely listened to and valued will they begin to feel totally supported.

There are several ways that you can receive this feedback and you should offer multiple options to your students. Some people will feel comfortable to give you this information to your face, whereas some will prefer to give anonymous feedback.

Ensure that everyone knows they can reach you online if that is best for them, but also that they can talk to you at the end of every session about any issues.

4.Acknowledge Emotions

Yoga is a challenge for both the body and the mind. The way that your students respond to these challenges will of course vary from person to person. Holding a certain pose might empower one of your students, but could leave someone else feeling vulnerable.

When you can see that a student is having a tough time, you should always make the extra effort to support this student. If a student is finding it hard to enter or hold a pose, then make sure they know they can rest in Child’s Pose until they are ready to rejoin the flow. This should be totally normalised so that nobody feels uncomfortable to take a break when they need one.

5.Be Sincere

It is simply not possible to know what your students might be dealing with outside of the yoga studio. Coming to your class might be the first moment they have taken to themselves to relax all day. It could be their only opportunity that day for some reflective self-care and exercise.

Asking your students how they are, expressing an interest in their lives, and being a friendly face, are all easy ways to support them.

Be sincere when you ask your students how they are doing, and encourage them to open up about their day if necessary. This should of course always be balanced with the needs of all students, and should not dominate the class. However, dedicating five to ten minutes at the beginning of a session to check in with everyone can be extremely beneficial to all.

Supporting Your Yoga Students

By embracing these five suggestions, you can help to ensure you are fully supporting your students. There are of course other ways that you can further do this and you will naturally find your own ways as you progress in your yoga career.

If you are completely new to teaching yoga, then I encourage you to check out my New Yoga Teacher Toolbox!