After you taught the worst class of your life
Four things to know to avoid spiraling
If you haven’t yet been in this situation, if you keep teaching, you will; it’s the dreaded day when you taught the worst yoga class in all of the world. For eternity. There was no yoga class worse than this. The students hated you, the studio/gym owner is gonna fire yoga, and you will likely pass away soon from the shame and embarrassment you brought upon the world. RIP.
It’s important to remember that the worst critic of your classes is you. Yes, let yourself reflect (for a short time) on the ways you can do better next time. But then, it’s time to move on. Here are some considerations to help you get out of the downward spiral of self criticism.
It wasn’t that bad.
I promise you that it wasn’t. Students are coming to class for themselves first. I find that now sometimes I’m so deep in my own experience that my awareness of the teacher’s cues goes in and out. I know that’s always been the case, and I think the case for a lot of us. It’s one of the reasons why movement in all forms is so powerfully transformative.
That is to say that your experience as the teacher in the room is different than the students’ experience as a participant in the class. You may feel like that was the worst class ever, but the students won’t necessarily perceive it that way. And they probably aren’t thinking about it that hard.
No one is judging the class like you think they are.
If you step into your yoga student mind, you can remember classes you attended that maybe you didn’t like or teachers that weren’t your speed. Most likely, you didn’t give it much more thought than that. Even while in YTT, you might have started to think about what you do and don’t enjoy from classes, but it isn’t an overly involved deep dive, tearing the teacher down.
But in my experience, these are the thoughts in my head when I taught a class where I tripped up a thousand times, the playlist went sideways, the sequence was erratic and my cues weren’t clear. I used to think about all the ways that I could have done better, how I fell short and if I’m ever gonna see these students in the room again. I thought about what a disappointment the class must have been for everyone.
The most a student is ever going to say to you afterward is how good it felt to do yoga, their own physical and mental struggles, questions about technique and whether they enjoyed the class themselves. It is the rare weirdo that offers “constructive criticism.” And if they do, lol, ignore it. I guarantee that is not most students.
You’re not there yet. You’re just getting started.
If you’ve been in this situation recently, most likely there’s a gap between who you are as a teacher, and who you know you can become.
It’s true that even now classes don’t go the way I hoped, or something was just weird and off about what I said, but the difference is that now I don’t get involved in the thought. I have a whole history of classes that I’m proud of and skills I’ve developed over the years. If I feel like one class flopped according to my standards, it’s just not that important when I look at the history of what I’ve become.
No matter where you are in terms of experience as a teacher, you have so many more chances to get better.
The only conclusion: keep at it.
There are so many times, especially that first year or two, that I was pretty sure teaching yoga was just not possible for me—that I was not good, would never be good and would never find the right teaching opportunity. Someone said or did something that really struck a nerve with me, I suffered through teaching classes which I just “knew” were bad, or I overall did not feel confident in my offering.
If I let these thoughts drive my actions, I would have given up a long, long time ago. I hope you don’t.