Something my new Yoga students always tease me about is my obsession with the placements of their sticky mats.
In my classes the short end of each mat in each row must line up perfectly with its neighbors. No excuses. No exceptions.
When I have taught in rooms that have floorboards and the floorboards run the right direction I will tell people, ‘Line the short end of your mat up with this floorboard.’ In fact, I will make my students line their mats up again and again until everything is perfectly symmetrical. Then I’ll feel settled enough to start the class.
The placement (or ‘mis-placement’) of the mats doesn’t bother my students. They don’t notice. They arrive, plonk their mats down and prepare for class. But it really, really bothers me.
For the first couple of years of my teaching career I didn’t enforce this mat-alignment requirement. I would let people come in to the studio, people put their mats down wherever they wanted to, and I’d start the class.
But these uneven mats unsettled me. I’d be distracted by the messy lines. It was harder to monitor my student’s alignment when they weren’t evenly spaced.
Mostly, I just didn’t like it.
Yet even though it distracted and unsettled me and effected my teaching, I didn’t ask my students to move. In fact, I chastised myself about being picky, neurotic and high-maintenance.
I made myself wrong about it.
***
Four years after originally qualifying as a Yoga Teacher I was studying for my 300-hour YTT in Asia. One day we were having a discussion about class etiquette and what we required of our students. I decided it was the right forum to raise my issue about mat placement.
I explained to my teacher and friends how I never asked my students to line their mats up in any particular way and how it really bothered me. I felt a little silly and there was some sniggering from the group. But then my teacher gave me a face I will never forget.
He did not actually answer me with words, but there were six paragraphs in that one face.
The premise of the six paragraphs was, ‘It’s your class, Amy. Why are you buying what your students are selling?’
He was right. I was totally beholden to what my students wanted rather than being the teacher and holding my own space. I was anticipating them being annoyed or judgmental about my request to line their mats up in a certain way so I’d kept silent about it.
I wasn’t expressing my needs as the teacher.
I wasn’t clearly articulating the expectation I had of my students.
I’d even become resentful of the ‘scruffy’ studio I was teaching in (and had enabled!)
That day I decided I was done with making myself wrong.
Moreover, I realised that having this particular requirement in my class and expressing it clearly to my students was an important part of what it meant to actually be a Yoga teacher.
Getting this lesson was a four-year journey.
***
Telling people clearly what to do is essentially ‘the guts’ of being a Yoga teacher.
Think about it. Your students could stay at home and practice with Jason Crandell on their computer. They could hang with Adriene on YouTube. They could even play their old Rodney Yee DVDs if they wanted to.
They don’t. They are getting on ther bikes or in their cars and coming to you. Why? They are coming to you because they want to be in the room with someone who is going to tell them what to do and when to do it.
‘Step your feet wide, take your arms parallel to the floor, turn your right foot out, turn your left foot in slightly, reach to the right, put your right hand on your shin, take your left arm up, look at your left arm.’
Clear, precise instructions.
Do this.
Then do this.
Here’s the thing: it’s also about, ‘Arrive on time. Put your shoes over there. Turn your phone off. Wipe down your props before you put them away. Pay online in advance’.
And on.
And on.
***
Being a Yoga teacher involves — in a significant way — teaching people about boundaries. Yoga derives from a tradition that celebrates and recognises complimentary forces. Siva and Shakti. Ida and Pingala. Surya and Chandra. On the mat this shows up as inhalation and exhalation. Prone and supine. Left and right. Standing and Inverted. Pronated and supinated. These complimentary forces are at the heart of what we do. And, for the most part, when people have it wrong it’s our job to tell them clearly to do it the other way.
‘You’re ‘other’ left, Brian,’ we may mention to a student.
‘Turn your palm up, Wendy,’ we may suggest.
No angst. Just clear instructions. It’s this complimentary force, not it’s opposite.
Clarifying and reinforcing boundaries. Not that, this. Teaching.
And yet the angst that can come when this same, simple principle is applied to the business-side of being a teacher!
Imagine if it were as simple as instructing Trikonasana?
What if it was as easy as correcting a complimentary force in any pose?
· You’re registered or you’re not.
· You’re on time or you’re late.
· Your pass is active or it’s expired.
· You pay the concession or you pay the full rate.
***
If the word ‘Yoga’ derives from the root ‘Yuj’, to yoke, then surely for us to claim being Yogis we need to clearly commit to something. We need to connect, sign up for and attach to something and stick with it.
Horse to chariot. Ox to cart. Yoga teacher to boundaries.
Whether it is about pricing, whether it is about class etiquette, whether it is about negotiating the energy exchange where you teach: knowing what you require, clearly articulating it and sticking to it is an essential part of being a Yoga teacher.
In the studio AND at the office.
If you are saying yes when you mean to say no, if you are saying no when you want to actually say yes, if you are settling for less money than you know you desire, if you are shortening your classes or teaching longer than you know you are meant for, if you are changing your class plan because someone in class says, ‘I don’t wanna do inversions tonight,’ and you freak out and give them what they want…
Could it be time to remember these core teachings of Yoga?
What if asking for someone to arrive on time was as simple as asking them to bend their right knee?
What if you were so clear on your pricing and committed to it, that a student request for a discount didn’t feel uncomfortable, it just felt like a clear ‘no’?
***
Where are you bailing out? Being flakey?
Do you have your equivalent of ‘Oh okay, you can have your mats wherever you want and I’ll just sit here and feel twitchy for the next 90 minutes because I don’t want to be teacher who gets out the spirit level.’?
What is it that is important for you? What requirements do you actually have?
Is it time to tell that growing family that they need to pay for more than one membership?
Is it time to cancel your Sunday night class and reclaim your weekend, even though everyone loves it?
Is it time to let your students know that you no longer accept cheques?
Whatever it is, it’s time to own the changes you want to make in your Yoga business. Get clear on what they are and then take a stand for them. Yoke yourself to them.
Being a good Yoga teacher is not just about planning amazing flows. It’s about modelling right behaviour. Commitment. Dedication. And clarity.
For more tips on attracting Yoga students to your classes, workshops and events, check out my free 7-part video training here: http://eepurl.com/U_HDr
Or join the conversation on ‘The Abundant Yoga Teacher Podcast’ on Apple, Spotify, Google or here: https://www.amymcdonald.com.au/abundantyogateacherpodcasts