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Yoga Teaching & Learning Newsletter
August 2024

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Hello Reader

Welcome to this month's newsletter for yoga teachers. Here you'll find news and offerings to inspire and support your yoga teaching.

I've been thinking this month about small habits and how they affect us, and the power of the repetition of small actions - in life and in yoga practice. Below you can read my reflections on how it's the small actions that make yoga classes so special.
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"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."​
Mother Teresa

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I hope you are enjoying the summer, and I look forward to seeing some of you at the end of the month. 😊

love and light,

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Keep scrolling for:

• Dates for your diary
• Article: The power of small actions
• Community news​
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Dates for your diary -

• The next Q&A Zoom session for yoga teachers is on ​
  Friday 30th August at 1pm. 🤗 (CPD)​
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• Get free community membership for 3 months (select the quarterly subscription) and receive invitations to 3 community Q&A meetings. Use coupon code: communitytaster24 at the checkout before the end of August​
  ​Find out more about the community here​
  ​
• Back pain workshop​
  Saturday 26th October at 10am-12 (CPD)
  ​A practical and exploratory workshop on Zoom.
  £45 or free of charge to community members.
  ​Find out more and enrol here​
  ​Community members' free enrolment here​
  ​
• Do you have a student who wants to become a yoga teacher?
  ​We're interviewing NOW for our online
  ​BWY Foundation Course which is a
  preparation for yoga teacher training.
  Tutors: Andrea Newman and Tracy Harris​
  ​Course information here​

The power of small actions

When we teach yoga, it's helpful to keep in mind how much the little things matter.

In planning our yoga classes we frequently think about how we are going to structure the session, choosing themes and practices that we think will engage our students.

While variety and interest are of course important, the true impact of yoga teaching often lies in the small changes that we help our students make.
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The little things

Have you noticed how a simple deep breath can sometimes shift your mood? Or how just a few moments of mindful movement can change your energy?

Teaching a range of simple practices can have profound knock-on effects.
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“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” ​
​Vincent Van Gogh

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Helping students to learn how to slow down, or to become more aware of the body and breath, can have a significant impact in their lives.
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The butterfly effect

I remember reading the short story "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury - a story about time traveller tourists who go back to the prehistoric era and are told to take care not to change anything.

Despite the warning, one of the travellers accidentally steps on a butterfly and brings it back home with him. On returning to their own timeline, they find that details in the world had changed.

This has come to be known as the ‘butterfly effect’, a term now used by chaos theory mathematicians to mean that one small thing done now can have unknown and unexpected ripple effects going forward.

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We can all track back to small events and choices in the past that have had life-changing consequences in our lives.

Not every breath or yoga pose will change the world of course, but we can never know how a simple shift in awareness might lead to something significant down the line.
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Repetition

We know from our own yoga experience that the cumulative impact of consistent, mindful yoga practice takes us on a journey of learning and growth.

"A dripping tap will fill a bath."

When we repeat yoga practices consistently, with a small amount of effort we can build new habits and new foundations.
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Goals

I remember a yoga student years ago who was determined to learn how to get her foot behind her head. After months of dedicated home practice, she achieved her goal!

When I asked her how it felt, she shrugged and was visibly underwhelmed. She enjoyed the process and had been very enthused by her pursuit of the goal, but she found the final achievement disappointingly anticlimactic. The new ability didn’t help her in her life in any way and she didn’t continue with that practice.

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A goal can give us a direction, and can be a useful motivator. But not all goals in yoga practice, even when achieved, fulfil the deeper desires or needs that we have.

Yoga can offer many and varied benefits, but the most transformative and life-changing aspects of yoga often come from learning through regular, simple practices that may not have great visual impact, or that may become necessary during illness or injury.

We can lead students towards the more subtle aspects of learning in yoga by offering new ways of looking at themselves and approaching their practice.
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Svadhyaya

One of the most rewarding aspects of teaching yoga is witnessing those moments when a student has a small realisation that sparks deeper self-enquiry, or svadhyaya.

Maybe it’s a subtle verbal adjustment in a pose, or a brief moment of stillness that might spark reflections that impact career changes, or major life decisions, or lifestyle choices.

These small insights can snowball, creating substantial improvements in health and well-being.

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Aparigraha

As yoga teachers, we often put our heart and soul into our classes, hoping to make a difference in our students’ lives. But we can’t of course control the outcomes of our actions.

The principles of karma yoga remind us to focus on the sincerity and intention of our efforts, rather than the results, and then letting go of any desire for a particular outcome. Aparigraha is the concept of 'non-grasping' or 'non-attachment'.
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Teaching with humility and simplicity, remembering that the outcomes of our actions are not predictable and are out of our control, can have profound ripple effects, often in ways we might not immediately (or ever) realise.
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Teaching from the heart

Our role in yoga teaching is to hold a clear and supportive space where students can find what they need. It's not about being clever or saying the perfect thing, but more about guiding our students with love and wisdom.

In offering simple, consistent teachings, we can trust that all the small actions will collectively create an environment that offers potential benefits to all our students.

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When we hold the space in a yoga class, our students can find what they need. Through regular practice they receive emotional sustenance and possibilities for life-changing and health-giving insights.

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So the next time you step onto your mat to teach, remember that it’s the little things - the small actions, the mindful breaths, the gentle guidance and wisdom - that really make a difference. 🦋

In each of those moments, you could be planting seeds that may one day grow into something profound.

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Any thoughts? Do share at a community Q&A meeting, or in a chat space in the community hub.

Community news

Talking points

New community members are very welcome at our Q&A meetings. We talk about all sorts of topics relating to yoga teaching, including class management issues, students with particular needs, thoughts around different types of venues, setting fees, marketing, aspects of anatomy. It's also fine simply to come along and listen in to the conversations.

Special guest

As an experiment, in September I'm hoping to have a special guest join us for the second half of the Q&A session. To be confirmed! I'll let you know more in the next newsletter.
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The next three Zoom Q&A meetings are:

Friday 30th Aug 1-2pm

Saturday 21st Sept 10-11am

Friday 18th October 2.30-3.30pm

Log in to the community hub for further dates, to say you're coming, to get email reminders, and to access the Zoom links - link from your Dashboard at yogauk.com.
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Back pain workshop

This workshop on Saturday 26th October is free of charge to community members - log in to the community hub and look in the 'Events' space to say you're coming and access the Zoom link.

Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to any yoga teacher friends or colleagues who might be interested in any of the content. They can sign up to receive newsletters to their own inbox at www.yogauk.com

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