Yoga Teacher Struggles

Becoming A Yoga Nidra Teacher And The Struggles That Block Your Path

After teaching Yoga Nidra for a decade and leading The Portal Yoga Nidra Teacher Training for 5 of those years, I’ve heard a lot of struggles that yoga teachers have and what makes them feel stuck. It can be an overwhelming method to teach with a system that can seem complicated to an outside view. 

The truth is, you can make it complicated. And, you can also make it simple. 

Here’s what I have to say about common struggles I’ve worked through and helped other teachers overcome them in their teaching. 

Failure To Launch

You are passionate and beyond excited to take the training. You’ve thought about it thoroughly and every time you do, your heart screams yes. After the training, you leave overwhelmed by so much information and feel like you’ll never be enough. This is totally and completely natural. Yes, there are those people who have brave ignorance on their side and jump right in (me), but there are also those who never use their voice as the tool that it was intended for because they are terrified. This usually results in giving up practicing nidra at the same time.

The solution is simple. Remember that you are practicing. You are not perfecting. Practice, practice, practice until you sound the way you want to sound, feel the way you want to feel and don’t give up on yourself until you do. Keep trying. The longer you bind your lips, the heavier the burden becomes to return. Your ego is afraid to be put on display because this is so close to your heart. You used to love it, now you avoid it. If you came back to your practice as a student, kept trying and using your voice, you will become who you feel inside you are. Give this version a chance to sprout. Don’t restrict yourself to perfection. Play. 

Yoga Police

There is nothing worse than sharing a practice that has meant a lot to you and being pulled over by the yoga police. The yoga police exist online and behind gossipy hands. They aren’t often popping up in real life and that can make things even more confusing. It can feel like, no matter what you share, there is someone there in the wings, waiting to tell you you’re wrong - publicly.

Most often, these people are not acting in the interest of yoga, they are pursuing their own false reality where they are perfect and look for others' downfalls to reinforce how good they are doing. You will meet people who share genuinely in collaborative and productive ways, listen to those people. Disregard people who spend their lives living in the fantasy of perfection, they are the most insecure. Trust yourself enough to share, and then trust yourself enough to receive questions. It’s ok to say “I don’t know or I didn’t know that”. When that happens, that’s amazing. I love learning and try not to become rigid around a certain way of thinking.

I remember early on in my teaching, there was a teacher (I presume) that would go around online correcting anyone who called Yoga Nidra an “ancient” practice. Many of us learned that way and understood it’s roots as being part of the tantric practice Nyasa - which is considered an ancient practice. Don’t get caught in the weeds with these people. Good information is crucial but let there be nuance in place of anxiety. Be open to changing, don’t get stuck in knowing it all, from that place the world will become less frightening and you’ll be able to give yourself the grace to show up in human form. Try not to become the yoga police either, no matter how much you know. Judgment leads to separation. Separation creates competition and comparison. Have conversations in place of lectures. Try to leave people feeling better than you found them. 

Teaching Off-Script Does Not Make You A Better Teacher

Some teachers market their yoga nidra training on teaching their students how to guide Yoga Nidra without a script - shaming students and teachers who deliver a practice with notes or support. What if that strips hopeful teachers of their magic as writers and readers? It does. Not everyone is meant to teach yoga nidra (or yoga in general) free from scripts and paper. Don’t feel like you have to. If you want to, I support you. If you don’t, that’s cool, too. There is no such thing as better or worse. You showing up as you, that’s who the world needs. We don’t want more carbon copies of other people and other teachers. We want you. Reading and not reading, are neutral to each other. Not one better than the other. If someone tells you that you need to change how you do things, you can likely guess how they teach. Discernment is key. Listen to what serves you and release a world filled with opinions, not all of them are meant to be heard. 

Feeling Overwhelmed

Guiding a Yoga Nidra can feel daunting, especially if you are not a writer. When you’re first starting out, whether you plan to guide with a script or not, you will likely end up writing a few scripts out. It takes some getting used to while remembering the structure of a nidra, and writing is an amazing way to program the format into your body. You don’t have to rewrite the wheel every time. Students do not need to be thrilled or entertained by you, they are signing up for their own inner journey. Keep your ego tucked close to you and leave room for their own inner world to transpire behind closed eyes. You can let yourself off the hook from finding creative ways to do something different to stand out. That will all come naturally as you find your feet in teaching.

Don’t force yourself to be just like your favorite teacher. Remember that there are students for every teacher, find yours with your own magic. Take parts from other scripts and Frankenstein them together to make a new script. You’ll be amazed at how people experience them differently each time. If you have heard another teacher say something that resonated with you, don’t feel like you have to reword it and deconstruct it. You can lose its powerful delivery and what it meant to you. Almost everything you hear, has been said before. Delivering it in your voice and style is the originality needed. Keep it simple to start, and let yourself grow as you become more and more confident. Keep the steps small and moving forward when you feel overwhelmed. 

I’ll leave this here for now, but know that every teacher I have ever talked to has experienced one or all of these struggles. Yoga teachers everywhere struggle with feeling successful when beginning or returning to something out of their comfort zone. Practice your yoga off the mat and witness the thoughts and feelings and then consciously choose what to do with them. 

Don’t dim your existence to conform to someone else’s standard (including the outdated version of yourself that rules your inner world). You, your imperfections and perfections, are all part of who you are as a teacher. Let it feel like love when you teach and your students will feel that too.