The first few times I taught yoga to someone, I was amazed at how their face and body softened as they deepened their breath and began to step more into their body and less into their mind.

I had felt this in my own body but never seen it. I realized then what a privilege it is to teach yoga. Each of these quotes remind me of the responsibility that accompanies that privilege.

~

“A yoga teacher’s role isn’t to fix what’s gone wrong in someone’s body. Instead focus on what’s still going right.” ~ Leslie Kaminoff, Founder of The Breathing Project

“We don’t empower our students. The direct experience of success is what empowers our students. Our job is to create an atmosphere where the most amount of success is the most likely to happen. The education and the knowledge and experience become the agents of empowerment, and the students get to claim that for themselves.”

~ Christina Sell, Founder of The San Marcos School of Yoga

“What I’ve found over 20 years of teaching is that there’s really a feedback loop between your practice and your teaching. It’s in your yoga practice that you get inspired, that you have insights, that you try out new sequences, that you get to work with the playlist you’re creating and see how it feels in your body, so that you know the experience your students are going to have. Practicing yoga is really important if you want to teach.”

~ Julian Walker, Author of Awakened Heart, Embodied Mind

“The kind of teaching that transforms people does not happen if the student’s inward teacher is ignored… we can speak to the teacher within our students only when we are on speaking terms with the teacher within ourselves.”

~ Parker J. Palmer, Author of The Courage to Teach

“If you teach yoga or hold space for others in any way, it is vital that you have a space that someone else is holding for you – a space where you get vulnerable and are seen; a space where you are held accountable and get nurtured in a compassionate way; a space where you can shed the teacher role and receive.”

~ Hala Khouri, Founder of Off the Mat and Into the World

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Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: E. C. Johnson/Flickr