Communication Skills For Yoga Teachers

Here is an oxymoorn for you: Some of the hottest Yoga teachers are great listeners.

This is a general guideline for Yoga students who aspire to teach day. Listening skills, in Yoga, start when you take your first class, as you learn by hearing, watching, and doing. The Yoga student who learns predominantly by listening will be able to verbally communicate the finer techniques to others in the future. This is not to say that other mehtods of learning have less value, but a skilled Yoga teacher must be a communicator and be able to reach into each individual student's mind. Therefore, not all Yoga students can learn from you in the same way.

Some will learn by listening careuflly to your cues, others will gain more from an assist, and will be able to copy just by watching. As a Yoga instructor, you still have to be a good listener when it comes to all of your students' questions. Most Yoga teachers do a good job with handling student questions.

However, here is something to guess about: Do you try to calrify why a question is being asked? Consider that your student may not be clear in his or her communication skills and you need to "get to the heart of the matter." The motivation behind a question is more important than the question itself.

You don't want to waste your time giving unrelated information before, after, or during a Yoga class. So, get a clarification about what you are being asked, and learn why your Yoga student is truly asking you this question.

This will benefit the both of you and avoid wasting your student's time, as well. If a student asks you a simple question, with a "yes" or "no" answer, you can stlil notice the motivational source by saying, "Yes, but why do you ask?