All of your favorite teachers have done you one significant disservice: they’ve made teaching yoga look easier than it is! Teaching yoga—or any subject for that matter—is a wonderfully fulfilling experience, but it also requires a major learning curve. Here are a few tips for navigating the unfamiliar—and sometimes rocky—waters of being a new teacher.

• You will feel very raw and exposed

Teaching yoga requires you to be transparent. It requires you to speak to a group of students and orchestrate sequencing, verbal cues, manual adjustments and—perhaps—a playlist. It requires you to give direct commands about the position of the body while encouraging your students to notice the sensations, feelings and thoughts that arise. No, your class is not about you; but, in fact, you are the medium for the teachings and if you feel deeply enough about them you will feel raw and exposed. This is not always easy, but it’s an intrinsic part of your job. Allow yourself to notice these feelings if they arise and go with them—learn about yourself from them. And, get used to them, they aren’t going to go away if you continue to teach from your heart.

• Practice being clear, simple and straightforward

Clear, simple, straightforward teaching is timeless. New teachers often feel compelled to be tricky, edgy and complicated in order to validate themselves and show “authenticity.” But, remember, teaching is an actual skill that takes a ton of practice. Even more, bypassing the fundamental skill of being clear, cohesive and cogent with your teaching will lead to a confused hodgepodge of offerings. The feedback that I give 95% of new teachers is this: “edit yourself, simplify your sequence, and trust that the practice is strong enough that you don’t need to force it.”

• Repetition is a good thing

You will say and teach the same thing many, many more times than any given student will hear it. So, you are going to feel like you’re repeating yourself all the time, but it’s not going to sound this way to your students. You may have said the same thing 10 times this week, but any given student probably only came to 1 or 2 classes so they’ve only heard what you said once or twice (if they were even paying attention). Even more, most students love repetition—and, aren’t there some things in your life that you need to hear time and time again?

• Teaching skillfully requires you to make many, many mistakes

Teaching requires several specific skills and developing these skills comes from making mistakes. New teachers are often afraid to make mistakes because they are insecure, and they worried that their mistakes may lead to injuries for their students. If you are a sane, reasonable, semi-adjusted person your mistakes are probably not going to lead to injuries. If it’s an issue of your insecurity—or perfectionism—well, you just have to put mistake making in it’s proper context: remember that mistakes are normal, natural things and you will learn more from them than anything else. Relax and be accommodating with yourself.

• You need to practice more, not less (it’s your research and education)

If you get so overwhelmed that you are practicing less and less you’re headed in the wrong direction. Sometimes we get a little lost and this is okay. In fact, many of our best changes come from realizing that we’re off our path and we need to correct our course. The problem is that teaching yoga without practicing yoga is unsustainable. If possible (and, it probably is), stay committed to at least one weekly class with your teacher and find make time to do your home practice several days of the week.

Jason Crandell was recently named one of the next generation of teachers shaping yoga’s future by Yoga Journal for his skillful, unique approach to vinyasa yoga. Jason’s steady pace, creative sequencing, and attention to detail encourage students to move slowly, deeply, and mindfully into their bodies. Jason credits his primary teacher, Rodney Yee, teachers in the Iyengar Yoga tradition such as Ramanand Patel, and ongoing studies in Eastern and Western philosophy for inspiring to him bring greater alignment and mindfulness to Vinyasa Yoga.

Jason is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal and has written over 13 articles for the magazine and website – many of which have been translated internationally (including Japan, China, Italy and Brazil). His integrative and accessible teachings support students of every background and lineage, helping them to find greater depth, awareness, and well-being in their practice – and in their lives. Follow Jason on Facebook and Twitter.

As in life, the greatest rewards in our practice come from doing the simplest things. With the awe-inspiring grace of complex postures and the promise of a sculpted, balanced body it’s easy to overlook the benefits that come from a simple, sane, satisfying yoga practice.

Teaching has a similar pitfall: teachers often exert more pressure on themselves to come up with new sequences, posture combinations, and themes than to develop a consistent point of view and repeat the most essential teachings of yoga.

I spend the majority of my classes returning to the same, essential themes. After all, most of us can’t be reminded of what is most important often enough. These themes help my students connect to what’s most important inside their mind, body, and heart. These teachings will never become dated.

• Integrity of Movement is more important than range of movement

It goes without saying that a consistent yoga practice will increase your range of motion. It also goes without saying that this is a good thing since so many of us need greater space, comfort, and freedom in our body. Yet, too much focus on range of motion can easily steer us in the wrong direction. Yoga emphasizes even, sustainable, and integrated movements that facilitate our breath and stabilize the nervous system. Of course, we stretch our body in the practice but we’re looking to cultivate something much more subtle and harmonious in our body than simply pulling on various tissues. We’re looking to cultivate an even, balanced tone throughout our entire body. We’re looking to experience a unified field of sensation so that we can feel our totality, not just create more degrees of pelvic rotation.

• Postures can be practiced differently on different days for different reasons

Should triangle pose or warrior 1 include a backbend? Well, it depends. Should you go bring your bottom hand as low as it can go in ardha chandrasana or should you put it on a block so that you can rotate your spine more? Well, it depends. In these scenarios—and many, many more—the nuances of the posture depend on the experience you are looking to cultivate.

There is wide-range of options within each posture and you can emphasize different aspects of postures on different days. Using triangle pose as an example, you could focus on engaging the bottom tips of the scapula, extending the thoracic spine and extending the top arm much more if you were focused on backbends. If you were focused on twists, you could elevate your bottom hand on a block, fire your obliques more intensely, and firm the bottom scapula against the back ribs.

It’s important that we remember these postures are simply templates and that we’re encouraged to explore within their parameters.

• Distribute your actions, distribute your awareness

Practicing yoga awakens the sensations of your body. When beginners awaken the sensations of their body, they are likely to pay all of their attention to the part of the body that is most intense. For example, a new student will tend to focus their attention on their hamstrings in a forward bend because this is where the most intense sensation is present.

As students mature in their practice—and teachers mature in their teaching—this equation should shift to include the entire body. Instead of focusing all of the attention and action in local areas—such as the hamstrings—practitioners should draw their attention into their entire body in every asana. This cultivates a unified field of awareness and sensation throughout your body. While the hamstrings may be the initial draw of a forward bend, we want to observe our feet, hips, torso, neck, facial muscles, breath, mind-state and so on. A pose is never just about one area of the body—it is about one area of the body in relationship to the other parts of the body, the breath, and the mind.

• Exploring your comfort zone and playing your edge

Your edge is the threshold in a pose—or moment in seated meditation—where physical, mental, and emotional resistance comes rushing to the foreground. Reaching your edge is like applying an enzyme that ignites a reaction and magnifies your physical, mental and emotional patterns. This magnification—while challenging—allows you to see yourself (and your conditioning) with greater clarity. In short, you become conscious of previously unconscious patterns.

Most instructions focus on trying to get students to go even further in a posture—even when they’ve already hit their end range of motion. It may be more beneficial to focus on helping students nurture greater ease and relaxation when they’re at their edge instead of trying to get them to go further. Instructions like “lengthen your exhalation, acknowledge the resistance that’s present, and soften your face,” are some of the most powerful, transformative instructions that you can provide your students.

Jason Crandell was recently named one of the next generation of teachers shaping yoga’s future by Yoga Journal for his skillful, unique approach to vinyasa yoga. Jason’s steady pace, creative sequencing, and attention to detail encourage students to move slowly, deeply, and mindfully into their bodies. Jason credits his primary teacher, Rodney Yee, teachers in the Iyengar Yoga tradition such as Ramanand Patel, and ongoing studies in Eastern and Western philosophy for inspiring to him bring greater alignment and mindfulness to Vinyasa Yoga.

Jason is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal and has written over 13 articles for the magazine and website – many of which have been translated internationally (including Japan, China, Italy and Brazil). His integrative and accessible teachings support students of every background and lineage, helping them to find greater depth, awareness, and well-being in their practice – and in their lives. Follow Jason on Facebook and Twitter.

Forward bends are the introverts of the asana spectrum. While backbends have a spacious, majestic quality, forward bends turn us inward and create the conditions for greater calmness and ease. These postures even have a grounding effect for students whose hips, hamstrings, and spine present resistance. As teachers and students, it’s important to return to the foundational actions of these postures in an organized, clear way in order to ensure that we are getting the most from our practice. Here’s a primer for some and a reminder for others:

• Ground your thighs

Grounding your thighs provides you with a deeper, more focused stretch in the hamstrings. Even more, this action helps you lift and lengthen your spine in postures. In order to do this, bring your awareness to the top of your thigh-bones and pull back toward your hamstrings. If you’re in a seated forward bend, this means that you’ll be rooting down into the floor near your sitting bones.

• Spiral your thighs—internally, externally or both

Internally rotating your thighs helps tilt your pelvis forward. Externally rotating your thighs helps lengthen and your spine. Of course, different forward bends focus on one or more of these actions. For example, paschimottanasana emphasizes internally rotating your thighs while baddhakonasana focuses on externally rotating your thighs. Practice becoming aware of the primary rotation of your thighs in each of your forward bends and use these actions to deepen your posture.

• Rock your pelvis forward and fold from your hip creases and groins

Tilting your pelvis forward toward your thighs is the most essential action in forward bends—in fact, it’s this action that defines forward bending. By focusing on this action you will be less likely to round your lower back too much. When emphasize folding from your hip creases and groins, you create a hinge-like movement and increase the depth of the posture. Emphasizing this fold also spreads your awareness more thoroughly in the posture. Rather than focusing exclusively on the stretch of your back-body, folding from your hip-creases and groins will help bring attention to the front of your body. To emphasize this movement, you can press your thumbs or a belt into this crease while you do your forward bends.

• Lift your lumbar

Lifting your lumbar spine creates a greater feeling of space in your entire spine and lessens the tendency to round your lower back. Lengthening your lower back also intensifies the stretch in your legs and hips. To do this, focus on lengthening your back, bottom ribs away from the top of your pelvis.

• Gently arc your spine

Don’t confuse lengthening your spine with trying to make it straight or becoming rigid. If you are managing lumbar or sacral issues you may have to maintain the natural curve of your lower back. However, most spines will benefit from moderate, balanced rounding. After-all, spinal flexion is one of the normal, natural ranges of spinal movement. Allowing your back to gently round once you’ve engaged all of the previous actions will provide your spine with a nice stretch. More importantly, this action is calming to your mind, body, and nervous system. To do this, allow your back to round forward in your forward bends with the same degree of intensity as you allow your spine to round in child’s pose.

• Soften your sensory organs

Relaxing your muscles and softening your sense organs are both subtle actions. Relaxation and softening comes from letting go of tension. In fact, you may not be aware of how much tension you have until you let it go—just like you may not notice how annoying the hum of your refrigerator is until it turns off. Since forward bends turn you inward and decrease the amount of stimulation your senses perceive, they are the perfect poses to release accumulated tension in these areas. To do this, focus on relaxing your forehead and temples, releasing your inner ears, letting go of your jaw, and bringing a steady, relaxed focus to your eyes.

Jason Crandell was recently named one of the next generation of teachers shaping yoga’s future by Yoga Journal for his skillful, unique approach to vinyasa yoga. Jason’s steady pace, creative sequencing, and attention to detail encourage students to move slowly, deeply, and mindfully into their bodies. Jason credits his primary teacher, Rodney Yee, teachers in the Iyengar Yoga tradition such as Ramanand Patel, and ongoing studies in Eastern and Western philosophy for inspiring to him bring greater alignment and mindfulness to Vinyasa Yoga.

Jason is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal and has written over 13 articles for the magazine and website – many of which have been translated internationally (including Japan, China, Italy and Brazil). His integrative and accessible teachings support students of every background and lineage, helping them to find greater depth, awareness, and well-being in their practice – and in their lives. Follow Jason on Facebook and Twitter.

Pratyahara is the fifth limb of yoga, and it’s usually translated as “withdrawal of the senses.” The limbs from here on out are starting to feel a little less familiar, and maybe a little more intense (read: intimidating?). But the beautiful thing is that they’re actually pretty accessible, even if you’re just “going there” for the first time. As many yogis and scholars have pointed out along the way, there really is a very natural and scientific progression across the limbs, moving from body (asana) to breath (pranayama) to senses (pratyahara) to mind (the last three limbs). And you may not realize it, but pratyahara is actually something that you’ve probably already practiced somewhere along the way.

Here’s where: Most yoga classes end with savasana, or corpse pose, and for this period of time, you’ve likely experienced some form of sensory withdrawal. Many teachers dim the lights and ask students to relax deeply, and just sort of…exist. When you’re lying in savasana, with your eyes closed and your breath slow, it’s very easy to bring attention inward and be less attuned to what’s going on around you – and this, in essence, is pratyahara. If you’ve been in this state, you might feel as if there’s a layer of distance between your senses and your surroundings: You might still register sounds in the studio, the temperature of your skin, your position on the mat, but you respond to them less. It’s as if you’re a little removed from your senses, not flush up against them – and for a true meditative state, this is a key element.

Because my experience with pratyahara had been mostly unintentional up till now, I spoke again to Patton Sarley, former head of Omega Institute and Kripalu Center for Yoga and Life to understand more about what it actually is. True pratyahara, he says, requires deep relaxation, not only physically, but neurologically. The physical relaxation comes first, so that the mental state can follow. This is why savasana is done at the end of class: After 90 minutes of asana, and hopefully a little pranayama, the body is usually very ready to go into this state. “Once you’ve relaxed deeply, and are in an open, alert state,” says Sarley. “You’re in a position to be alert to your inner energy. What we’re essentially doing by relaxing into pratyahara is reducing activity in the sympathetic nervous system and allowing the parasympathetic nervous system to take over.”

In other words, we’re turning the stress response off and allowing the relaxation response to kick in. Bringing the senses inward follows naturally: Just think how when you’re stressed, you’re in a state of hyper-vigilance, and your senses hyper-attuned to your surroundings. On the flipside, relaxing completely allows your senses to take a break, and withdraw themselves, as it were.

To be sure, this isn’t a practice that we can do walking down the street or riding the subway – it wouldn’t be very safe to do so. Sarley recommends that pratyahara be done intentionally as part of your practice at home, in nature, or in class. In fact, he makes the excellent point that pratyahara almost can’t be understood without the following two limbs, which are dharana (concentration), and dhyana (meditation). These three limbs together make up a trilogy of sorts, which is tightly and logically connected: Once we withdraw the senses, then we can focus our attention in concentration, and ultimately allow the mind to meditate.

A couple of points of caution about what pratyahara isn’t. Most people have probably had the experience of being so caught up in your own thoughts that you miss what’s going on around you. The other day, waiting for the train, I so completely wrapped up in my own contemplations that I missed a train announcement and probably a whole lot of other things that happened around me. Needless to say, this kind of withdrawal of the senses is not pratyahara.

A related point, also worth mentioning, is that pratyahara is not a way to intentionally cut yourself off from the world or to use as a form of escapism. It definitely shouldn’t involve self-centrism. Sarley points out that “Yoga and narcissism can, unfortunately, go hand-in-hand. The self-referential processes can become pathological. And this is not at all what pratyahara, or any part of yoga, is about.”

In contrast, yoga should do the opposite, and it’s generally extremely good at this – at quieting down those “self” centers of the brain. But sometimes in practices where we’re focusing intently on ourselves, even in the name of self-improvement and peace, we can a little get self-centered at first. Pratyahara is just about quieting down and being less distracted by our senses, so that we can be more open to the good stuff that’s inside. “The senses are like a mirror,” Satchidananda writes in his Sutras book. “Turned outward, they reflect the outside; turned inward, they reflect pure light…. when allowed to turn outside they attract everything and transfer those messages to the mind, making it restless. Turned inward, they find peace by taking the form of the mind itself.”

Have you experienced pratyahara in your own practice? How would you describe what it feels like? And does it help you prepare for meditation? 

Alice G. Walton, PhD is a health and science writer, and began practicing (and falling in love with) yoga last year. She is the Associate Editor at TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com and a Contributor at Forbes.com. Alice will be exploring yoga’s different styles, history, and philosophy, and sharing what she learns here on the YogaGlo blog. You can follow Alice on Twitter @AliceWalton and Facebook at Facebook.com/alicegwalton.

Teaching yoga is a great gig. It can also be complicated. If you asked me 15 years ago what I thought would be the most challenging aspect of this job, I would have pointed to the subject matter of yoga and said, “understanding this body of knowledge well enough to communicate it to others.” Now, I’ll tell you that it’s continuing to know myself well enough to manage the psychological, emotional, and interpersonal dynamics that arise over time. Babies cry, teachers face some attachments. Here are a few of them:

• Attachment to class size:

It’s reasonable to enjoy well-attended classes. Unfortunately, it’s easy to become consumed by the question, “how many people did you have in class?” With compensation often tied to commission, the question “how many people did you have” quickly becomes “how much money did you make.” I’m not averse to either—I’m happy to have plenty of people in my class and thankful to earn a decent living. But this isn’t the reason that most of us became teachers. We became teachers because we love the subject, we love how the practice has helped awaken and guide us, and we want to share it. But, like in so many other environments, we can get seduced by quantity instead of quality and be drawn away from what matters most. My recommendation is to acknowledge that these issues will probably arise for you (especially if you’re financially dependent on the income you earn teaching) and to always practice looking people in the eyes and register who is in the class with you. That is why you’re there.

• Attachment to students’ abilities:

I was receiving an aggressive adjustment a few years after I began practicing and I thought to myself, “what’s really going on here,” “what’s playing out in my teacher’s psyche that makes him think that this is reasonable?” I contemplated whether I was the beneficiary of the posture of the teacher’s ego was the true recipient. There’s nothing wrong with cultivating our students’ abilities—that’s part of our job. But, teachers can become overly driven to get their students to do hard postures. Worse, they can become overly prideful of their students’ ability. Yes, there’s a fine line here, but if you find yourself beaming because someone did scorpion for the first time in your class, don’t hold on to it for too long. Remember, there’s a bigger picture.

• Attachment to adoration:

Being appreciated and acknowledged is essential for happiness. And, to a large extent, everyone deserves recognition for who they are and the role they play in their family or community—or, at very least, for their shared humanity. Yet, the amount of attention and adoration that teachers receive can sometimes create unanticipated internal challenges.  Not everyone will agree, but in my personal experience observing myself and many, many other teachers, being told you’re wonderful too many times comes at a price: you start to lose your ability to live without it. Some lose their ability to keep any part of themselves private because everything needs to be witnessed and “liked” in some capacity. In fact, if you’re insecure to begin with, being told how wonderful you are creates greater volatility. You go up with praise, but when a day goes by without being recognized for your brilliance, open heart or whatever, you wonder what you did wrong. Yes, you should savor being acknowledged and appreciated for your skill and the role you play in the wellbeing of your students. Just remember that more attention is not always better, easier, or less complicated.

• Attachment to fixing things:

Students will tell you that your class helped them feel better. They may get specific and say things like “my back was killing me before your class and now it feels great.” It’s a good thing when students feel better after your class—and, it feels good to be told about it. Unfortunately, there are only so many times some teachers can hear this type of feedback before they start to develop an inflated sense of their ability to fix all situations. This can lead to eager, inappropriate advice at times. Even more, it can also lead to what I think of as the yoga teacher’s version of the savior complex: the healer complex. It’s important to step back and recognize the actual mechanism of any healing that is at work in the scenario above. The mechanism of healing is the practice, not the teacher. Teachers can provide insight, guidance, and knowledge that is instrumental to your wellbeing. And, by doing so they’re providing you with care—which is another key to wellness. But, teachers can’t mistake themselves for the medicine even if they’re the one who helped deliver the medicine. Remind yourself that you’re simply facilitating your students’ ability to practice—and the practice is the healer.

Jason Crandell was recently named one of the next generation of teachers shaping yoga’s future by Yoga Journal for his skillful, unique approach to vinyasa yoga. Jason’s steady pace, creative sequencing, and attention to detail encourage students to move slowly, deeply, and mindfully into their bodies. Jason credits his primary teacher, Rodney Yee, teachers in the Iyengar Yoga tradition such as Ramanand Patel, and ongoing studies in Eastern and Western philosophy for inspiring to him bring greater alignment and mindfulness to Vinyasa Yoga.

Jason is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal and has written over 13 articles for the magazine and website – many of which have been translated internationally (including Japan, China, Italy and Brazil). His integrative and accessible teachings support students of every background and lineage, helping them to find greater depth, awareness, and well-being in their practice – and in their lives. Follow Jason on Facebook and Twitter.

The goal of the fourth limb of yoga, pranayama, is to gain control of the breath. The Sanskrit term “prana” actually refers not only to the breath, but also to the life force, or to energy in a larger, more cosmic sense – gain control of the breath, and you gain access to a sort of cosmic energy. But the practice of pranayama doesn’t have to be thought of as a way to connect to a larger energy (although it certainly can be, if that’s helpful to the individual, and it is for many). At a much more literal level, pranayama is just an incredibly effective way to become more aware of your own bodily reactions to the things that trigger you into stress, negative thoughts, even despair. Learning how to change your breath actually allows you to halt (and redirect) that stress reaction, which is “turned on” all too often for many of us.

For a long time, I actually thought breathing exercises sounded kind of hokey. Breathing itself seemed like an arbitrary bodily process to pay attention to (I mean, why not pay attention to eye-blinking, or any other sort of physical pattern?). But I’ve since learned what any yogi or scientist will tell you: Breathing is truly unique in that it’s the only bodily process that lets us gain access to – and control of – our brains. And importantly, for some of us more than others, this lets us have some element of control over our stress responses and our reactions to the world around us.

Rolf Sovik, PsyD, the president and spiritual director of the Himalayan Institute, agrees that “the importance of breath work in yoga and in human life can hardly be over-estimated. Normal, automatic breathing is governed by cells in the brain stem. These cells propel breathing by adjusting its style, pace, and volume. Breathing is also affected by emotion, pain and stress. And, of great significance, breathing is the only autonomic system that permits conscious access. That means that through breath training, a practitioner can gradually gain the ability to restore nervous system balance during times of stress, and use the breath as a focus for attention.” Controlling the breath allows us to take matters into our own hands, dialing down the sympathetic nervous system (the one charged with the “fight or flight”/stress response) and activating the parasympathetic nervous system (which calms us down after a stressful encounter).

Another way of thinking about it is that breathing helps strengthen the connection between the body and mind: In this case, it’s through the one we have access to the other. That’s a lot of what yoga is all about, reconciling the “divide” between gross and subtle – and doing physical things (like breathing and asana) is often the easiest way to gain access to the mental ones. Sri Swami Satchidananda even asks, “which is subtler, mind or breath? Which is easier to handle, a subtle thing or a gross one? Always the gross thing.” As we become more experienced in our practice over time, we can rely less on the physical methods, and more on the mental ones. But for people just getting into the limbs of yoga (like me), it’s a little easier to work on the physical methods.

There are a lot of different practices in pranayama, from observing the breath, to training it, to retaining it for some length of time. For most of us, the simpler ones are probably the most powerful and the safest. To start out, Sovik recommends relying on the natural patterns: “Breathing practices are most helpful when they arise from the spontaneous flow of normal, relaxed breathing,” he says. “It is a process that evolves over time and emphasizes smooth, deep, diaphragmatic breathing.” He recommends beginning breath training in one of two reclining poses: corpse pose or crocodile pose. (Here’s a more in-depth description by Sovik of how these poses can help with deep, diaphragmatic breathing. Also see YogaGlo’s collection of classes on pranayama.) Having a teacher who can help you with more advanced forms is generally a good idea.

Sovik stresses that pranayama should really be about getting in touch with something visceral and learning how to work with it – it’s not about teaching the body something new or unnatural. “Frequently, breathing techniques lead to over-control and a sense that the life force can be governed mechanically. Ultimately,” he adds, “the effort to control the breath is not robotic but a natural stage in the meditative process.”

So here’s to breaking misconceptions. Pranayama isn’t hokey, mysterious, or mechanical. It’s actually quite simple and natural, and it may be the single best physical tool we have to gain some access to our minds. Offering some perspective on how the limbs of yoga relate to one another, Satchidananda sums up the transition across the eight limbs in this way: “first we learn to control the physical body, then the movement of the breath, then the senses, and finally the mind. It is very scientific, gradual and easy.”

Does your yoga practice include pranayama? Do your teachers integrate it into their classes?

Alice G. Walton, PhD is a health and science writer, and began practicing (and falling in love with) yoga last year. She is the Associate Editor at TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com and a Contributor at Forbes.com. Alice will be exploring yoga’s different styles, history, and philosophy, and sharing what she learns here on the YogaGlo blog. You can follow Alice on Twitter @AliceWalton and Facebook at Facebook.com/alicegwalton.

Let’s play a little word association game. When I write, “teacher-student relationship,” what comes to mind? Does it trigger thoughts about your deepest motivations to teach yoga or your need to be witnessed by others? Of course not—you think about sex, right? That is, whether teachers and students should be having it with each other.

Perhaps, I’m not doing the topic justice, but I’d like to shorten the conversation about sex so that we can move on to the more nuanced, day-to-day issues that teachers face. Let me simply say that teachers and students should avoid shagging each other at all cost. Yet, if life, love and Shakespeare have taught you nothing, I’ll remind you that matters of this kind are not always easy to escape. So if you find yourself in this boat, step back, talk to your loved ones and put your therapist on speed-dial. You’ll need some help navigating these waters.

In order to dig into the heart of the teacher-student relationship, we need to unpack it—just like good sequencing deconstructs complex postures into their basic parts. We’ll start by looking at the inner-landscape of being a teacher and the fundamental questions that you need to explore if you want to understand who you are in this role. I’ll address other aspects of this relationship—and the internal challenges of being a yoga teacher—in my next few posts.

• What is the scope and role of a yoga teacher?

It’s important to have clear boundaries in your relationships. It’s easier to do this if you’re clear about your role as a teacher. I see myself as having 2 primary responsibilities: to educate students about yoga; and, to provide a safe, neutral space for students to experience what is happening in the mind, body, and emotions. I don’t give medical advice, I don’t give relationship advice, I don’t give financial advice, and I don’t make time for tea or coffee. Becoming clear with yourself about your role will help you manage your personal and professional boundaries.

• What are your motivations for teaching yoga?

I don’t say this with pride but I don’t teach yoga as an act of service to anyone other than myself. My motivations are very self-centered: I love the practice, I love the subject matter of yoga, and I love the process of educating students and developing content. I like that teaching yoga brings out the best in me by reminding me to be kind, helpful, and encouraging to others. Yet, I’d be lying about my motivations through omission if I didn’t tell you that I’m attached to people liking, that I enjoy having the occasional soap box to stand on, and I like earning enough to pay a mortgage (with the help of my wife). So, spend some time and be honest with the scope of your motivations. Contemplate them—yes, all of them.

• What are the strengths of your personality with regards to teaching yoga?

Yoga is not all about you or your personality—the teachings are much bigger than that. But, the teachings will come through your personality like light goes through a prism. Your personality will add color and nuance to the teachings. Understanding the strengths of your personality will help you understand some of the reasons certain students are drawn to your class and others aren’t. You have to develop a clear sense of you are in order to be an authentic teacher—and to develop a student-base that gets you and your worldview.

• What are the challenges that your personality presents to teaching yoga?

For better and worse, personality plays a big role in teacher/student relationships. Understanding the challenges that your personality may present will help you work with them. For example, I’m an introvert which means that I need a lot of quiet time when I’m not teaching in order to be happy (and sane) when I am teaching. Knowing this has helped me maintain personal boundaries and take care of myself without getting burned out by the process of engaging with groups all the time. Spend some time reflecting on the nature of your personality and you will learn to accommodate it more skillfully.

• What triggers your issues in class?

Most yoga teachers are pretty sensitive creatures and sensitive people tend to be opinionated. So, if certain student behaviors get under your skin, you wouldn’t be the first teacher to feel this way. If you get a little chapped when students arrive late or leave early—or, when students decide to do their own sequence instead of the one you’re instructing—notice how you feel inside. Ask yourself is this a legitimate concern or if it is just a pet peeve of yours that you’re taking too personally.

For most of us today, the third limb of yoga, asana – the poses or postures – is the essence of the practice. Asana is borne of down dogs, alignments, up dogs, chaturangas, warriors, twists, and trikonasanas. To most practitioners over the centuries, though, it’s not. And this is where the discussion really gets interesting. Instead of debating the benefits of kundalini vs. yin yoga, or trying to figure out where our heels should be for perfect warrior II, a better question might be, “Why do we do asana at all?” And even better, “Why do we think this is yoga?”

In the last series, some very clever people weighed in about the evolution of yoga, and how it had to morph itself into somewhat of a different beast, to assimilate, as it were, into the Western world. If you read Patanjali’s Sutras, though, there’ s not much discussion of asana, and certainly not much about specific poses. DevarshiSteven Hartman, who’s Dean of the Pranotthan School of Yoga and the former head of Kripalu’s School of Yoga, points out, “in the Bhagavad Gita and the Sutras, it says there are as many poses as there are manifestations of god. It sort of makes you go ‘Hmm. What’s yoga then?’ These texts don’t talk about poses or alignments. But there’s an awful lot about how to BE in a pose. And this is more to the heart of yoga.”

So why do we hang on the idea that yoga is physical, or that asana is yoga? Glenn Black, who’s taught for over 30 years at Omega Institute, was featured in the much debated New York Times article “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” and has seen, in decades-worth of students, how yoga can, actually, wreck your body. Part of the problem, he says, is that Westerners are simply not prepared – in body or in mind – for practicing yoga, and certainly not for the rigors of the physical practice that today we call yoga. He points out that the practice we think of as yoga is really quite young, and it’s certainly not part of the millennia-old tradition that originated in India. But, physical risks of yoga aside, he still questions seriously, as hopefully more and more burgeoning yogis are beginning to, the value of a purely physical practice.

“Basically, the asana that’s taught here now is Indian gymnastics,” he says. “Americans who get into yoga are going to have a difficult time, because our bodies were never prepared to do intricate movement. I find that in most Western cultures, we’re so enamored of anything physical. And maybe it’s because of this that we tend to negate the subtler aspects of own bodies and minds. I don’t know why in the West we got so fond of the asanas. I don’t think they allow us to go into regions of ourselves that we really need to explore.”

For him, Hartman, and most of the yogis who have commented along the way, getting in touch with our awareness – some would call it mindfulness – is a step in the right direction. Black also recommends learning from a teacher how to experience yoga nidra, which is a kind of in-between consciousness – a state of deep relaxation, literally translated at yogic sleep. This, for him, is leaps and bounds more useful than asana alone.

Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, Black also recommends that people get away from yoga classes a bit. “Go to nature – a stream or a mountain – and just practice. Find two or three things, and go into them deeply. Otherwise it’s just talk. You have to attain the condition yoga nidra, so that the stress you’ve accumulated will be alleviated, and, more important, new stresses won’t gather back up.” He says one of the big challenges of yoga today is that we may feel great when we practice and shortly afterwards, but the benefits of yoga too often wear off when we find ourselves back in the real world, amongst our everyday stressors, cell phones, and other attachments. Redistributing our time, so that more is spent regularly in yoga nidra or meditation, might make a big difference to our overall mental health.

Hartman agrees that we often make strange assumptions about asana, or ask the wrong questions of it. “The real issue is, what really makes something yoga, if it’s not the asana? And the answer might be, it’s who we’re being in the asana. The physical practice is just one method, just like pranayama, or any of the yamas or niyamas. Many great yogis don’t even do asana; and they’ll be enlightened way before people who do great backbends.”

If this sounds discouraging, it shouldn’t. Like sex or pizza, even a bad yoga class is still pretty good. “Luckily,” says Hartman, “even when done poorly, when the yoga teacher doesn’t do anything but walk around barking commands, students can still gain awareness from the practice. This is the great thing about asana – it still opens the door.

“True alignment is not where toes are,” he continues. “It’s when the consciousness, the body and mind, and awareness are in alignment. That’s what it’s all about. To me, the real yoga is when you create awareness, authenticity. Asana is prayer in motion. That’s where we should be moving.”

None of this is meant to say there isn’t value in asana, but just to remind us that asana is not the centerpiece of yoga – it’s just one piece. Hartman sums it up well: “Awareness is really what makes the difference in yoga. If you’re doing a handstand with no awareness, you’re just an athlete. But the person washing the dishes with awareness – that’s a yogi.”

What are your feelings about asana? Is it the center of your practice, or do other aspects/limbs play a more principal role?

Alice G. Walton, PhD is a health and science writer, and began practicing (and falling in love with) yoga last year. She is the Associate Editor at TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com and a Contributor at Forbes.com. Alice will be exploring yoga’s different styles, history, and philosophy, and sharing what she learns here on the YogaGlo blog. You can follow Alice on Twitter @AliceWalton and Facebook at Facebook.com/alicegwalton.

It’s hard to argue with the benefits of (re)igniting your home-practice. After all, who doesn’t agree with the upsides of self-care, refining your practice, focusing on your body’s specific areas of need, and spending more time with the poses you love? If you need further convincing, check out my recent post. Yet, inspiration doesn’t always lead to execution. And, most of us can crank out reason after reason to keep ourselves from making changes in our daily lives—even when the changes are in our best interest.

So, let’s take an honest look at some of the challenges teachers and practitioners face when it comes to make their best intentions of practicing at home a reality.

• My home practice has to be 90 minutes for it to be valuable:

I love a nice, long 90 to 120 minute practice, but this is not the only increment of time that pays dividends. Yes, teachers should commit to a robust, consistent dedicated practice. After all, if you’re not able to lead yourself for a longer practice, how can you expect yourself to lead others through something similar? Unfortunately, when the expectation of a longer practice is held up as the notion of the only valuable increment of time, many teachers give up entirely. This inhibits them from embracing the time that they do have—even if it’s only 30 minutes. I’m not advocating that you should downsize the duration of your practice if you’re already spending longer, but if you’re not practicing at all because you think that 45 minutes isn’t enough you’re creating a problem for yourself that doesn’t exist. 30 minutes practicing is time very well spent.

• My home practice has to be at the crack of dawn:

It’s hard to beat practicing first thing in the morning if your lifestyle and constitution allow it. But, if you’re sitting on the sidelines of a home practice because you don’t want to cut into your much needed sleep, it’s time to think again. Rarely, have I ever practiced first thing in the morning. Honestly, I prefer to work first thing in the morning and save practice for afternoon or evening. So, consider practicing first thing when you get home from work or before going to be bed if morning doesn’t work for you. Yes, the time of day will affect your intensity level, but it’s important to be pragmatic with your schedule.

• My home practice has to feel like a class:

Do you need to prepare a Michelin-star worthy dinner at home in order for it to be a healthy, grounding, nutritious meal? No, and you don’t need to replicate the experience of a classroom at home in order to soothe your soul, calm your nerves and take care of your body. The expectation of a big, strong, perfectly sequenced class that contains all the dynamics of a public class is another set-up for failure. Your home practice is different—just like cooking at home is different than going to a restaurant. Keep your practice at home simple, grounded and enjoyable. Make it something that you look forward to returning to let yourself save the classroom feeling for the classroom.

• I need a yoga room, altar, bamboo floors and radiant heat:

Nope, definitely not. You need a space the size of your sticky mat. A little more is certainly nice, but you don’t need the world’s most outfitted personal studio to get down to business. That said, there are two tips that will help you immensely when it comes to space: find a space where you feel comfortable and, even more importantly, keep your mat and any props you want to use together in a dedicated, accessible space. Can you imagine if your cooking utensils were strewn about your home in random locations—pots in the garage, knives in the closet, pans under the bed? You’d never cook! Perhaps you never do, but this is beside the point. I practice in my living room, near the couch and television because this the warmest, most soothing room in my home. It’s where I want to spend my time. I keep all of my practice gear together in a big basket in the same room so that everything is there when I’m ready to practice.

• My practice needs to be separate from the rest of my life:

I’m a shameless advocate for integrating day-to-day life and practice. I’ve been on record as watching the San Francisco Giants win not one but two World Series’ while practicing. Yes, there is something to be said for the quietness and depth of an unplugged practice—and, there’s great value in solitude. This is how I spend most of my time practicing. But, practicing while listening to music, news—or even baseball—can be a treat. Lately, I’ve been practicing while my daughter who is 7 months scrambles around the living room and pulls on everything in sight. If this is what your life looks like don’t be afraid to go ahead and get into down-dog—you might enjoy yourself and feel better.

Jason Crandell was recently named one of the next generation of teachers shaping yoga’s future by Yoga Journal for his skillful, unique approach to vinyasa yoga. Jason’s steady pace, creative sequencing, and attention to detail encourage students to move slowly, deeply, and mindfully into their bodies. Jason credits his primary teacher, Rodney Yee, teachers in the Iyengar Yoga tradition such as Ramanand Patel, and ongoing studies in Eastern and Western philosophy for inspiring to him bring greater alignment and mindfulness to Vinyasa Yoga.

Jason is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal and has written over 13 articles for the magazine and website – many of which have been translated internationally (including Japan, China, Italy and Brazil). His integrative and accessible teachings support students of every background and lineage, helping them to find greater depth, awareness, and well-being in their practice – and in their lives. Follow Jason on Facebook and Twitter.

5 Reasons for Teachers to (re)Commit to your Home Practice

Every training I teach includes a module about home practice and personal studies. And, invariably, it includes a slow dirge-like conversation that reveals the students’ personal practices are not—how can I say this in yoga-speak—thriving. While my teachers were not so forgiving about a lackluster home-practice, I get it. Practicing at home is not always as easy as taking a class and, the truth is, there are a lot of good classes out there (and, some lousy ones). But, developing your home practice is essential for the development of your self-awareness and the cultivation of your voice as a teacher. So, whether you’re practicing a YogaGlo class or doing an old-school, offline home-practice, the following reasons should remind you of the value of your personal practice.

•  Practicing at home helps you develop the skill of self-care:

Actively participating in the wellbeing of your body, mind and breath is essential for your health. No, it’s not always easy. And, yes, it is always important. It’s incredibly easy for our wellness to take a backseat to our countless daily responsibilities. Yet, when we take care of ourselves with our practice everything else falls into place with a little bit more ease—and, if not, at least we’re in a little better shape.

• To focus on specific needs such as shoulder opening, core strength, or deep relaxation:

Most of you know what your body needs in order to experience greater balance. Your home practice provides you with the opportunity to target specific areas of need—like shoulder opening and so on.

• To focus on specific postures such as backbends or inversions:

A friend of mine began practicing at home for the sole purpose of working on handstand. The one class a week that she went to didn’t provide enough repetition for her to develop the posture. As such, the posture went nowhere for months until she took matters into her own hands and started a daily practice focused around learning this inversion. Not only did she learn the posture by focusing on it more regularly, she fell in love with her home-practice and has been committed to it ever since.

• To do the poses you love:

Uggghhh and Arghhh. Those are the sounds I make when someone says they have to spend more time practicing poses that they loathe. I make the same sounds exponentially louder when someone says this is the advice that their teacher gave them. Why, the sounds? Simple: The advice is only partially logical and nearly impossible to enact. You will only white-knuckle yourself through things that you have an aversion to for so long—especially when those things are optional. And, since doing poses you don’t like is optional, very few people do actually do this. This is why people always say they should practice the poses they butt heads with instead of say do practice these postures. Instead, treat yourself! There are plenty of reasons you love the poses you love—one is that they are probably very good for you. So, dear ones, do some postures that you like and fall in love with them over and over.

• To deepen your experience of yoga:

Honing your skills in any subject matter requires repetition. Taking 1 or 2 classes per week probably wouldn’t be enough to learn a new language—not without doing some homework each day. Deepening your yoga practice also requires an immersive experience. At very least, it requires consistent repetition. Sure, 1 or 2 classes per week is absolutely reasonable for a more casual student—and, it may be all that someone can muster at various phases of their life. But, in order for teachers to feel honest, authentic and inspired you need to dive in to your personal practice with much greater frequency.

Jason Crandell was recently named one of the next generation of teachers shaping yoga’s future by Yoga Journal for his skillful, unique approach to vinyasa yoga. Jason’s steady pace, creative sequencing, and attention to detail encourage students to move slowly, deeply, and mindfully into their bodies. Jason credits his primary teacher, Rodney Yee, teachers in the Iyengar Yoga tradition such as Ramanand Patel, and ongoing studies in Eastern and Western philosophy for inspiring to him bring greater alignment and mindfulness to Vinyasa Yoga.

Jason is a contributing editor for Yoga Journal and has written over 13 articles for the magazine and website – many of which have been translated internationally (including Japan, China, Italy and Brazil). His integrative and accessible teachings support students of every background and lineage, helping them to find greater depth, awareness, and well-being in their practice – and in their lives. Follow Jason on Facebook and Twitter.