5 Tips to Become a Better Yoga Teacher

There are tricks to every trade, including yoga. Here are some tips to help you improve your teaching:

1)  Learn your students' names.  By saying hello and goodbye using the student's name, you create a personal connection and make the student feel special.  If you have a lot of students in your class, jot down a couple names on a piece of paper and say them aloud.  This will help you remember them.

2)  Give lots of adjustments.  Get off your mat and circulate through the room, looking for ways to help students correct their alignment and go deeper into each pose.  For the most part, students love to be touched and adjusted, and it makes them feel more connected to their teacher.

3)  At the beginning of class, ask if anyone would not like to receive adjustments and encourage your students to communicate with you if you place too little or too much pressure when giving adjustments.  While giving an adjustment, you can ask, "Is this good pressure?"  This is critical, and will save you from negative feedback and potential lawsuits.

4)  Teach with authenticity and humbleness.  Before class remind yourself why you love yoga and what you gain from practicing, and then try to convey these things through your teaching.

5)   Recognize and stop negative thoughts that don't serve you.  Have positive thoughts, and this will make you a more confident teacher and a stronger, happier person in general.

I always appreciate comments!  Do you have any tips for becoming a better yoga teacher?  What do you admire about your favorite yoga teacher?

How to Get a Job Teaching Yoga

Once you’ve completed a yoga teacher training course that is nationally accredited by the Yoga Alliance, you’re ready to begin teaching just about anywhere – yoga studios, fitness clubs, community centers, and offices.  There are just a few things you need to do to guarantee that you find a teaching gig.

1)   Write a brief yoga resume listing where and when you received your training, your teaching experience, and maybe a few sentences about you as a teacher and why you love yoga.  If you don’t have much teaching experience, include all of the practice teaching you’ve done with your friends.  You can say you’ve taught private yoga sessions!

2)   Buy insurance.  It costs about $150.  Most places don’t require it, but some do, so it’s a good idea to buy insurance to cover your bases.  You can also state that you have insurance on your resume and in your cover letter.

3)   Decide how far you want to travel to teach and conduct a Google map search to pull up a list of all of the yoga studios and gyms within a travelable distance.  If you live in a small, medium, or large city, you’ll be shocked by how many places there are where you could potentially teach.

4)   Email a resume and a brief cover letter to every place where you might want to teach.  In your cover letter, state where and when you received your training, what styles of yoga you can teach, and where you have taught in the past or where you are currently teaching.  Emailing is a very effective way to find yoga jobs and it saves you time!

Teaching yoga is an incredibly rewarding job to have, and fortunately it is in high demand in most places, so you should have very little trouble finding a teaching job within a short amount of time.  Good luck!

The Book of Five Rings

"In order for a warrior to follow the path of Heiho, it is necessary to keep in mind that the essence of Heiho is to build an indomitable spirit and an iron will; to believe that you cannot fail in doing anything."

There are many paths to the truth, which can create confusion as to which is the best path. As a teacher, teach with confidence, with an indomitable spirit, and do not ask for reassurance. Be assured.

A New Painting in Process: Earth

4 ft x 4 ft

Post-it note sketches

RINO Art Safari

It was a beautiful day for the semi-annual RINO art safari. RINO is the new up-and-coming art district in Denver, and there is a lot going on is this neighborhood! Galleries and artist studios are springing up everywhere, retrofitting old factory warehouses in a post-industrial landscape. It's no wonder these massive, old buildings sprawled neath the dramatic-denver skies are attracting artists from all over; however, as an artist, I have yet to hear of affordable studio spaces, an indication of how popular this area has become.

I embarked on the art safari with three friends at around 1:20 p.m. to explore this undercover portion of Denver, known as RINO, where many galleries and artist studios are not regularly open to the public.  Orange balloons floated over the galleries and studios that had opened that day, and we saw quite a number of spaces.  It was pretty cool to walk through the private studios where artists configure their ideas and execute their works.

After the safari, we had a glorious bike ride home.  The atmosphere felt damp from a light rain earlier, sunlight streamed through bright blue patches of sky, and the air smelled of smoke, pot, and fresh spring flowers.

Dustin O'Halloran

I'm always on the lookout for great music to play in my yoga classes, music that is soft and melodic and peaceful.  Dustin O'Halloran's piano pieces seem to embody all of these qualities, and he has some very artistic videos to accompany the music.  Check out this one!

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