16 Mar teaching yoga: 10 awkward things that can happen

as a senior yoga teacher, I have taught over 8,000 hours of yoga classes. You may assume that yoga class would be a straight forward event after so many times but it isn’t always the case. you never know what might happen and you can’t always stick to your script. You can’t always rely on your class plan. Sometimes farts happen! How you deal with awkward, embarrassing and uncomfortable scenarios are all part of the job as a yoga teacher.

this is why Real Flow Yoga works from the ethos of being in flow. Real flow is all about tapping into the room, resting in your instinct, intellect and intuition. Meaning, whatever happens, you can flow with the energy of the room.

here are 10 of the most awkward moments that I have personally encountered over my 10 years of teaching yoga in London…some of which, are fairly difficult to admit to but through doing so, I hope to reveal the human element to a yoga class and that as a yoga teacher you are not infallible.

1. class interruption: a yoga student noisily walks into class late or a yoga student leaves early. Or a student’s phone going off in final relaxation. or worse, my phone going off in class

2. tripping up- standing on and nearly breaking a yoga students glasses that they’d left by their mat or knocking over their water bottle. Or me demonstrating a pose, and not quite nailing it.

3. loud noises at quiet times: a fire alarm going off outside the building or one time, an earth shatteringly LOUD low-flying aircraft during Yoga relaxation which startled half the class almost to death(giving the term ‘savasana’ (corpse pose) a whole new meaning)

4. farts. yoga student farting either loudly or stinkily during class. Or a yoga student quiffing upon exiting shoulderstand

5. me crying

6. the inappropriately dressed student. a student’s leggings having a huge tear in the crotch or are totally see-through

7. assisting students – when assisting a student accidentally taking hold of a student’s boob rather than their shoulder. Or when assisting a student in a balance, my mere presence causing them to fall over rather than facilitate their balance

8. animals– a random dog wandering into class, a random cat wandering into class and even a student bringing their pet dog to class

9. providing a ‘pregnant’ yoga student with additional guidelines then mid-way through class she retorts, “I’m not pregnant, I’m just fat”

10. injuries: when you ask, “does anyone have any injuries” and one guy says, “I have a dislocated leg”. another time, a yoga student arriving to class with one arm in a plaster cast and a sandwich in the other hand

Real Flow Yoga is all about keeping things real and adapting to the situation. An important part of being a yoga teacher involves learning how to be with the flow of the moment and react accordingly.  Our teacher training program always keeps it real so that our trainees feel confident as a new teacher and are unfazed by whatever comes their way!

Come and meet us at our next teacher training taster event here