Yoga Teaching Tips: Being Relatable and Seen (Part 1) with Byron de Marsé

0:00 Welcome back to the going pro. Yoga podcast, Michael here with Byron. Hey Byron. How are you? Hey, Michael. Thanks for having me on today. So today's episode, we're going to talk about a few things that we believe new yoga teachers face. / need to know / things that would be helpful when you graduate from a 200 our training to just understand.

0:25 So maybe learn some of the senior 200 our training maybe you don't. Either way, I'm sure you're going to pick. Up a few nuggets left, right and Center. So, you know how to be seen as a yoga teacher, how to, like make yourself enjoyable relatable, someone who people want to come back to, you know, there's a few things here as well, you know, having practiced yoga for the last. I don't know.

0:48 Five six years buyer and spend, what 20-some years something like that? You know, haven't been exposed to a lot of different teachers. Yeah. So I'm just thinking having certain things that I I have preferences for on what I think is why I would come back to a yoga class. You know, we can talk about techniques and all that stuff but there's just certain elements of how a person is how they hold themselves, how they hold the room things that they say the way they things the way

1:16 they say things and how that can have an impact on the students in the room or the people in the room, Welcome to the going pro yoga podcast. If you love yoga as much as I do, then this podcast is for you. We talk all things yoga related for teachers in order to supplement and complement and even support after a 200 our yoga teacher training. Or if you've never done a training before this podcast is all about just learning more about yoga in an authentic way together with Paul t0 do in

1:48 Byron de Marseille, we put together this podcast to provide you with a free resource to learn more about yoga, whether you want to share yoga, or teach yoga or just practice yoga. This podcast is Talking all things yoga related and we try to talk from the teachers perspective and also the students perspective, to make sure we get a full 360 degree, angle on what yoga is all about and how its evolved in the modern world, Welcome to our podcast by annecy writing a

2:12 bunch of stuff down there. Do you want me to just start talking or do you want me to? Well you have been talking. Yeah. But do you want me to pass the mic to? And oh, I'm just curious what you're writing. That's why I'm writing down.

2:21 Different thoughts that I wish I just thought about when I was a new yoga teacher. Okay. Yeah. Do you want to share? Want me to ask you. Well, I was just thinking first, the last one I wrote down was sequence for time. So like you start you two. Just, let's say, 90 minute yoga class which is more rare these days.

2:43 Well, let's say 60 Minutes, that'll make it easier. And you know that your son saiutations are going to be at the 18-minute Mark, for example, so you don't really have to look at the clock, kind of know the pacing of the class.

2:56 So yeah, just ideally setting up your setting your sequence up for Success. So that, you know, where you're at TimeWise and spend unnecessary energy thinking about time, right? Yeah, it would opens you up to flow more to be more creative. Not have to worry about the time. So if you teach sorry to cut you off on that but if you teach several times a week you get to practice that a lot. So there's really no excuse not to get good at it. I think what keeps people from

3:24 getting Good at it, is their lack of understanding sequencing, right? Yeah, so there's the first one. Okay, so let's unpack that a little bit more. I feel like the like it Sue is just a taste, so understanding sequencing. So what are the important elements of sequencing that? Let's just say most teachers don't necessarily get to understand as it relates to let's say good quality class or class that people would want to come back to and I can start. Yeah, one of the first things

3:54 that I emphasize and I talked about is that the body needs to be prepared to do things. Your head is, as simple as that sounds. Like there is an arc or a rise of a yoga class. I guess it's an arc, that kind of slowly starts to build the beginning, and you hit a point and then you come down, you know, if it's a 60-minute class or shorter hopefully, not then it's obviously harder to do that. But regardless, the body certain bodies, modern bodies require Certain joint certain muscles to

4:23 be activated stimulated in, you know, increase circulation to that area in order for them to be able to do other things. And those areas of the body, I mean, you know, we could break down through all of them. But I would say the very minimum, you know, the wrists, the hips, the core, and the shoulders is what I would probably say.

4:43 You know, those those major joints their hands obviously, because of the wrist, obviously because you put your hands down in yoga quite a bit and we're not going to go into specifics of how to actually do all that. That's not really the point of this episode. But, you know, the beginning of a class the first 15 minutes and you're sequencing since we're talking about sequencing, it's like you need to consider whether it be the Poses that you choose or the language that you

5:03 use. So the way that you talk is going to emphasize helping people prepare their bodies for what you're going to offer 20 minutes into class, 30 minutes into class is 40 minutes of the class right related to the risk. The shoulders the hips. Yeah, the core.

5:19 Yeah, I'm a why I think this is like sequencing is such a long, do 100, our training on sequencing alone? In fact, we do some of those but I think the important thing To really remember to build off of preparing the body.

5:35 The opening you're preparing more than the body to your preparing the psychology, you know, whatever you want to invest in here, the mind, the body, the emotions, the spirit. Your it is much as you can, so you're priming that too.

5:51 But to then go back to more of a simplified way. You have your usually most templates are going to have an opening. Now, we're talking about like a, let's say, a Vinyasa class or maybe Hatha been Yassuh some towards sort of hybrid. You have the opening, you have some sort of warm up, all right? You're going to have a flow at some point, maybe even two flows, maybe three flows.

6:15 And if you don't have three flows, you're going to have a standing section of holding postures, you're probably going to do a variety of things, like back, bends, and twists, and standing poses, and some seated, poses. Usually, those are in the beginning, the seeded ones, or the end, or both, and then you cool the body down.

6:31 And then yeah, then you take savasana where you have a meditation and that's going to be like the template. And as long as you abide by that alone and you segments each one and for a time frame, then then, yeah, you'll probably set yourself up and your students well to be professional.

6:51 Okay, we have another one here, cool, personal development, right? I think it's so important for the person in the role of the teacher, to continue to stay curious about themselves. I think what happens in the yoga space, the arena of yoga people will have these transformational in a moment's and they've changed, they want to teach yoga maybe because of it and then they're like the up.

7:19 That's it. Like I did it. That's, that's all I got to do. And then often times, they enter the career of yoga teaching and they find out like, wow, I'm gonna there's a lot of things here that I'm gonna have to work on just to be say emotionally and energetically balanced to be able to sustain this career. So you got to keep working on yourself. So partly.

7:42 So the you yourself can keep doing it at a high level but also so that you can yeah, you can do it for other people. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if this Blends into the same conversation but you face a lot of challenges in life, of course, obstacles with anything that you do.

8:00 But when you graduate from a teacher Raining, or you want to teach yoga or you're going to face obstacles. And I think the best way to face some of those obstacles is to do your own personal work to do your yoga, right? And I don't know if we want to unpack those obstacles, how do you feel about that? Well, depends how many of these you want to cover because I got more.

8:21 Okay, cool. So then let's I mean, we. So what was the last one that we just talked about original developer small development? So is there anything more? We want to add on to that like just To me, it's doing your like, practicing yoga yourself, like going to other peoples classes and, you know, meditating, if that's important to you, if that works for you or just working on yourself, trying to be better yourself, I think it's staying open to new things,

8:47 you know that does. So if you have a regular yoga practice, great stick with something for a while, if you have that kind of personality that needs repetition and discipline but then one day, wake up and try something new right, right? So that you can go into To the unknown. You can blend the creative forces of the universe with the, you know, the structured more masculine way of, you know, just putting your head down and doing your practice. Because I think there's a lot to

9:16 be learned. There's so much intelligence out here in the form of other people. Right? And also, you know, other intelligences as well for, let's say, spiritual, if you want to go into that realm, but I'm just talking about learning You know, just learning and staying open. Maybe you need to go into the scientific background, the neuro space.

9:37 I know that's a field that you're pretty deep into, maybe it's more. And let's say that energetic space, the healing space. That's a different language, it eventually, you know, you start to really equip yourself with all the tools so that when you are teaching yoga like you're prepared to really take these people as far as they can go.

9:59 Yeah, I mean, it's boats true to say, you know, 200 our teacher training is only 2:00. So being open to continuously learning and continuously growing personal growth, whatever? Yeah, it's like absolutely necessary, right? It doesn't stop at 270, definitely not. And even if you do your 500, it doesn't, you know. all the hours in which you put in to be with other people, whether it be in a yoga class or not is all part of that learning process and And expanding and being open to, I

10:31 like what you said, which is learning continuously, learning being a student of yoga forever and just, you know, not getting too complacent. And I think that's something that we're all guilty of is, you know, being complacent and doing the same thing and not expanding, and, and changing things up and adding new things. And even for myself as like to someone who teaches Anatomy, you know, I don't just teach Anatomy, but I teach them a lot of anatomy and to me it's like I

10:56 want to keep expanding on that and teach it in different ways and throw an energetic. For example and you know, try to blend the world together in such a way that it's not just Anatomy. It's you know it's growing as you know us as humans grow and develop and evolve, I think everything needs to continue to grow and expand, so that learning aspect and I think that's true for a new teachers, right? You're not, you're not done.

11:21 Yeah, none of us are done, really? Yeah, one last point on that, I wanted to make before, going on to the next one. Is that I don't want people to be confused that they need to go break the bank, and spend their money doing training after training after training.

11:36 Sure, that's one way. But there's also very inexpensive if not free ways called nature reading books just kind of following a bit of your intuition as to what's next applying that last thing you read about into your life.

11:51 That's free. You know, I think that's a major component that is missed out on his podcast is for you too. Yeah, that's it. Very true. And that's why we're not being timely with this, but I am going to switch to the next one. Hmm.

12:05 Slow down speech, slow down the speech. The language cash, you know, the transmission of experience that you are responsible for. This is your job, all right, how do you do that through sound and tone and language? Music, sure. So essentially the yoga component you could separate that away from your knowing and then they're what they already know and then there's this whole thing in between. So in order to get that, you know, point to be heard that q and are, you really take some

12:46 paying attention and I'll just bring up my other one too, because it's what I'm about to talk about. Learn how to read the room. Watch the room, slow down your speech. Notice if things land, if you get really excited and you just can't contain yourself, that's okay. Just notice that that happens for you. Hopefully, there's somebody in your life that will share it with you.

13:09 Don't take it personally and realize that it's really for the betterment of everything, some of the self-development, their Whole Yoga practice, depends on it. So, yeah, I could, I could go on and on, it's a big pet peeve.

13:23 Hmm, it just takes some space between your words. Yeah, allowing things to land is so underrated and its value. Even, like, when we talk right now, right? If we just talk really fast in, to set a whole bunch of stuff like sequencing blah blah, I'm just like, I'm just trying to tell you to, like move your foot and wiggle your toes and like extend through the crown of your head and pull your belly in and pull your shoulder blades, back and down.

13:46 And it's like, how do you even keep up with that or how does anything even land or how does anything even register? Well but will bro, like a Jump in right now and I talk really fast to like, actually, this is okay to talk added a podcast Pace, some people need this kind of stimulation, it actually like kind of keeps them interested. But when you're practicing yoga, this is a natural thing. It's not to entertain your brain. So, it's more for, let's call it

14:15 the nervous system. Let's call it your connection to Source. Let's call it, your body, you know, and inability to strengthen it and increase flexibility, Mobility, focus and balance, and all these things. So in that regard we just, we need to slow it down.

14:29 Yeah, you know, and I think it's, it's hard to do that when you're a newer teacher because you want to be good. And sometimes you think if you're pausing, you're not saying anything. A thing that you're like, oh shit, they're going to think that, I don't know what I'm doing or they're going to I'm going to be exposed if you will.

14:49 Yeah. But it's like it's actually okay to just have that space because then people can follow you, right? As opposed to just trying to impress and like say too much you know, you don't need to do that. You just need to remember I guess like we had talked about before this episode that is not necessarily about you. It's about the people in the room which goes back to what you said a few.

15:12 It's ago which is like reading the room. What is the room need? And it also goes all the way to the first one sequence for time because I think people feel pressure and so hmm, they're like hmm, I got a class. I'm so excited to teach. I've got to teach the 60-minute class, but I have all of this, gosh, this wisdom.

15:30 And this these life experiences and knowledge. And I really want to share that. But in 60 minutes, poof, if I structure is not, let's say pristine, I'm not going to get to share my wisdom, right? Ciao. I mean, you're lucky, if you get, if you'd, if you prioritize Your wisdom over the sequence, you're going to end late, you're not going to be able to come back to the studio and teach much or you'll develop that reputation.

15:54 Would you probably can't afford to do when you're a new teacher? So yeah, it all comes back down. I love that to the sequencing for time, right? So you feel permission NASA. We were spoiled, man, like, Paul, and I we taught 90-minute classes and I I kept doing it. I still do it today.

16:12 I won't teach a shorter class. Now, I'd also taught 60 Minutes. I did. I had a long period of time where I even taught a 45-minute class. Really? Yeah, on a regular basis. A regular basis twice a week at 7:37 a.m. And then I thought the class after two, which was an hour that was at Wonder lust Hollywood.

16:33 But I just remember these quicker classes, like I had a great structure but then in those 90s, it was like, Wow, permission to be myself permission to, like just kind of feel into the the room or what do they need? Gosh, it's just, I really think that if you're a teacher out there listening and this comes across your path and you have the opportunity to choose a 90-minute class, go.

16:57 Or it even if it's financially the same pay. Like it's gonna definitely teach you some different tools. Yeah. I'd say a lot of classes are not 90 minutes, right? It's mostly 60. That's that's why I'm saying, that is because a lot of people are taking our trainings and they're like, 90 minutes.

17:13 I'm not used to this. I only go to 60 Minute classes, right? So 75 is it's unheard of you. I mean, right? 75 is like a wow. We can class, maybe that's the only time they hear of it, right? So then we do, they did take 90 and they love it. They like like this is the best joke I've ever had. And like, yeah, you're in Bali and people aren't in a huge rush.

17:34 Iraq everywhere. So Ray they show up the ogre they want to stay as long as possible. Right? So I have a question yeah, related to this sequencing with time or sequencing. What did you call it? Well, I called it sequence, four times sequence for time. So you talked a little bit about it. I'm kind of curious to expand on it a bit more, so because I'm thinking most Or who are teaching yoga or going to start teaching yoga, they're going to be the 60 Minute window and sequencing for time.

18:02 Like, how do we like, what does it really mean? Like, how do I do, what do I just choose? So many poses are choose less poses, or I try not to do as much. I try not to be as complicated because it's only 60 minutes and I need to read leave room for some of the wisdom. Some of the breath moments for things to land moments for people to just like be still.

18:24 You know or do I want to try to make a class super fun and flowy and in like transitioning and all this stuff which is going to lead to possibly you know not having room for some of this wisdom or some of these drops or some of this stuff to land.

18:38 Like what does it mean to you to sequence for time? Well that's all I can speak from is my experience. So the way we're talking about this is in a bit more of a Vinyasa way. So if you're needing to let's say deliver a Class that really is consistent physically, right?

19:00 It gives them like, wow, they can really expect like a really smart safe, sequence for the body, then yeah. You just need to be really consistent across the board. Like, the opening might be five minutes, then you go through a warm-up. You can choose to do the super slow, warm up if you want, but that's going to eat into the rest of the class but let's say you dedicate the next 10 minutes to a warm-up, right? Maybe it's a flow, maybe it's a hold, you can start to create your own structure, then you can

19:29 go into a flow section after that, for like four minutes and you just build off of that. So that you really know where you're at. When when you teach the class, you don't have to look up now, if you don't have the pressure of a Vinyasa class, okay? And it's like let's say hot, the or gentle or something like this.

19:47 Now you're you get to develop your space holding skills. You can take your time, just make sure, you know, they just they're not expecting a big physical thing. So they're going to be happy, they just came to class. If you'd if they feel pushed, you're probably not gonna like it. I mean, it depends on the hottest style, you have, I guess.

20:10 But yeah, I think it is an art to teach a Vinyasa class. I think it's very rare to find really really good even yasi. Yoga teachers for me it has been. That's why that's why I say it, right? So you could sing for time. Okay.

20:25 Cool. And don't get too complicated. Like you said, I think that's huge. Yeah, you mean with like the sequences? Yes. Keep it simple. Like yeah, Woody general rule. Try not to piece together more than 133 or for standing poses in a row and try not to go to dance choreography. Yeah.

20:43 You're not ready for it? At least like wait until you're crushing a simple sequence. Yeah, because if it's hard for you to remember and follow it's probably going to be even harder for the students to follow. Yeah, it's hard.

20:55 Hard hard. Yeah. And why not. Make it easier, you know. Totally yeah, less is more less is more. I feel especially the beginning, right? You don't need to impress. Anyone just just, you know, basic poses are impressive enough for some people.

21:10 Definitely, you know, that the cat Cow tabletop Sunbird or what is one of the colored bird dog or something on those Cobra like little coal as everybody jump in so quickly into up dog. That I take yeah, low lunge like all those poses that's like you know, 10 minutes right there. So simple but you can just be methodical Uncle and teaching them and breath and doesn't need to be, you know, triangle twisting triangle to fall in Triangle to Wild Thing to like and it's gone dostana to flowing

21:41 all over the place. It's like that looks all cool and stuff but it's not necessarily doesn't feel good unless your body's really ready for that which means you probably need a lot more time. Probably not 60 Minutes for some of that stuff. Sounds like some people need to just they need the tools. They needed to go to go to going pro.com probably going Yoga.com. Yeah.

22:01 Yeah no. I mean just to learn these things does that mean we're just taking for granted, you know, I'm sitting next to a PT, you know, kind of physical therapist and I've been teaching for a long time and very body than interested in the alignment. So maybe somebody out there doesn't really know where to go. What to do red?

22:21 They can listen to the end of this, right? Great. Do you have any more written down? That's all I wrote down with. You just like called me out as I was writing down guy will hike up going. All right, well that's that's kind of what I have written over here as well.

22:37 Just basically, that it's not about you. We're to kind of mention that, you know, teaching yoga is not about the teacher, it's about the rest of the identity. Yeah, that's I like the way you said it just now much better.

22:46 Yeah, it's not about you. Yeah. And any time you get nervous, you're probably thinking. About you. Yeah, that's huge. If you can put the focus off of you and onto your students, my gosh, yeah. Get out of your head and into your body, slow down your speech.

23:03 All these things will happen. Probably naturally. Mmm. Yeah, talking too much you kind of mentioned that for the landing but I'd just like to reiterate that because I very much feel that way because it's just hard to follow. You know, if the sequence is too complicated and it's hard to queue it because it's complicated, means you might talk a lot, which means it might be hard to follow, which were also make it stressful and confusing. And, you know, then you get

23:32 tripped up and all of a sudden, you forget, wait, was it this way? Or was it left? You know, it's like simple. Simple, simple sequence, simple language. You know. Yeah it doesn't you know using fancy words using fancy sequences doesn't make you a good teacher if you can teach a very simple class with simple language that is going to be popular. Awesome.

23:51 I feel I do too. Yeah. Okay, cool. Well, that's all I have written down. Plus, you know, I'm sure we can talk about this. And actually, as I was hearing you talk, I was like, I feel like we could just do segments of this, you know, how they have on like Instagram or it'll be like if we worked how we trained part 1 right and stuff like that. Or 2 part 3 part of me is just like a motive. We just talked about like you know things that new teachers you know obstacles or challenges

24:19 that new teachers face part 1. Yeah, I think we've done that before and shorter episodes, right? Well this is about 20 20. Three minutes so. Okay so that's pretty good. Cool! So then we'll wrap it up and then if more things come up later than will add a part 23. That's a good idea.

24:32 Part 3, part 4 All right, any final words? Nope. Sweet. All right, much love to you guys. Thanks for listening. As always if you have any questions reach out to us at podcasts are going pro yoga.com otherwise We'll talk to you next week.

24:47 All right, before you go, let me just tell you about the going pro, yoga.com platform. So right now you can go to going pro yoga.com and check it out for free for seven days where you can actually learn more about yoga in the ways of alignment queuing sequencing yoga Anatomy.

25:03 So that if you've done a 200, our teacher training, and you want to continue to learn practice and grow. This platform is definitely for you, so I definitely suggest checking it out going pro yoga.com right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.

24:46 We'll talk to you next week. All right, before you go, let me just tell you about the going pro, yoga.com platform. So right now you can go to going pro yoga.com and check it out for free for seven days where you can actually learn more about yoga in the ways of alignment queuing sequencing yoga Anatomy. So that if you've done a 200, our teacher training, and you want to continue to learn practice and grow. This platform is definitely for you, so I definitely suggest checking it out going pro

25:11 yoga.com right now. You can try it out for free for seven days.