72. You Get Who You Get: Teaching Yoga to Unpredictable Audiences

I was teaching a free yoga class at an outdoor gear store in Edmonton when a woman walked in with a toddler and an infant. Not a sleeping infant in a carrier: these children were alert, wandering, making noise. And if you've ever taught yoga, you know exactly what happens to your nervous system in that moment.

In this episode, I'm sharing what I've learned about staying composed—and student-centered—when you truly don't know who's going to show up. From the student who took my breath cues so literally she thought she wasn't allowed to exhale, to people showing up in jeans because they wandered in from the hiking boot section, teaching in unpredictable environments tests everything you think you know about holding space.

Here's what saved me in Edmonton: I teach in chunks. When you structure your classes with clear segments-warmup, standing, floor, finishing—you create natural transition points that give you flexibility to redirect, check in, or offer someone a graceful exit.

You'll learn why structure is actually what gives you freedom, how to stay student-centered when everything goes sideways, and when to be more explicit with your cues than you think you need to be.

Listen now!

Want to become (almost) everyone's favorite yoga teacher? Get in the Zone at Comfort Zone Yoga, my virtual studio focused on teacher development. I have a ton of Sage advice in there for you—let's chat there!

For more insights, subscribe to Yoga Teacher Confidential, check out my YouTube channel, and follow me on socials:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• Threads
• Bluesky
• Pinterest

And come explore my mentorship program, my Yoga Class Prep Station membership, continuing education workshops and 300/500-hour teacher training programs, and my many books for yoga teachers. It's all at sagerou...

Transcript

0:00

Can I tell you something? I was in Edmonton teaching a free yoga class at an outdoor gear store when a woman walked in with a toddler and an infant, not a sleeping infant in a carrier, not a toddler, quietly coloring in the corner. These children were alert, they were making noise. The toddler was wandering around the room while I was trying to lead a class. And if you've ever taught yoga, you know what happens in your nervous system when something like this unfolds, you go into high arousal mode, your brain is working overtime. How do I handle this? How do I not embarrass this woman who clearly wanted to get something free? Yoga? How do I give everyone else in the room a good experience? This is the reality of teaching to unpredictable audiences. And today I want to share what I have learned about staying composed and staying student centered when you truly don't know who's going to show up. I'm Sage Rountree, and this is Yoga Teacher Confidential. As I covered in episode 69, for several years, I toured the country as an ambassador for prana teaching Yoga at REI and MEC stores. These stores have community rooms and they would offer free yoga to whoever happened to be around and I mean whoever. Sometimes people had signed up in advance. Sometimes they were just shopping for hiking boots and noticed there was a free yoga class happening. This is how I came to teach yoga to a lot of people wearing jeans. When you don't know your students, their experience level, their expectations, their relationship to their own bodies, you're flying a little blind, and that uncertainty can surface in surprising ways. On one of these stops, I cued something like, inhale, lift your knee, and then I guess I moved on without cueing the exhale. Maybe I was demonstrating, maybe I got distracted. Suddenly someone gasped. Are we allowed to exhale now? It was a shock to me. I had no idea anyone would take my breath, cueing that literally like they thought they weren't supposed to breathe unless I explicitly gave them permission. That moment stayed with me. It was a reminder that when you're teaching people who are brand new to yoga, people who don't know the conventions, they might interpret your words in ways you never anticipated. But the moment I think about most is Edmonton. This woman brought a toddler and an infant to a free group yoga class, and it became clear very quickly that the children's father was not about to come and pick them up. They were just there. In the room making noise, the toddler exploring. I didn't want to be rude to her. Everyone in Canada is notoriously polite and I wanted to honor that and I wanted to share yoga with the mother, but I also knew this wasn't giving the other students a good experience. They had come for some stillness, some focus, and that was becoming impossible. Here's what saved me. I teach in chunks. If you followed my work on sequencing, you know, I break classes into segments, warmup, standing floor, and finishing. Each chunk has a natural beginning and a natural end, so I taught the first chunk. Then at the natural transition, I turned to her and said, this would be a great time for you to bow out, because we're about to get a lot more still and quiet, and it will help everyone relax if the children aren't here. She left gracefully. The class continued. Everyone got what they came for. When you're teaching in unpredictable environments or really any environment where you don't fully control who shows up, you're going to encounter situations that test your composure. The student who takes your cues hyper literally the person who brings children, the one who shows up in street clothes because they didn't know what to expect. In those moments, your nervous system wants to panic. You feel the arousal rising, and the temptation is typically either to freeze up or to react harshly. But here's what I've learned. The structure you bring is what gives you the space to respond to these unknown, unexpected situations with grace. In Edmonton, I wasn't scrambling to figure out what to do because I had a clear framework for my class. I knew we were about to transition between the standing and floor chunks. That gave me a natural dignified exit ramp for both of us. Without that structure, I would've been stuck either letting the disruption continue or interrupting mid flow to address it, neither of which serves the majority of students in the room. So what do you do with all of this? First, expect the unexpected. Especially if you're teaching in community settings or corporate environments or any situation where you don't control the enrollment, you will encounter students who do not know the etiquette, who do not know the conventions, typically, they are not trying to be difficult. They just don't know what they don't know. Approach them with curiosity and friendliness, not frustration. Second structure is your friend. When you teach in chunks or segments, you create natural transition points. These transitions become opportunities to check in, to redirect, to offer someone an exit, or simply to recalibrate the energy in the room. The framework isn't rigid. It's what gives you flexibility, and when you follow my advice and repeat your sequence by iterating it over the course of four weeks, a month, or even longer, you will have the presence to handle any unexpected situations because you know what comes next in the sequence. Third stay student centered in the Edmonton situation. My job wasn't to protect my own ego or avoid awkwardness. It was to give the majority of students the experience they had come for. That meant making a kind, but clear request. The structure gave me the how and the student centered mindset gave me the why. Fourth, be explicit when you need to be. The are we allowed to? Exhale moment was a wake up call for me. Don't assume people know what you mean. If you're teaching beginners or even just people you've never met, err on the side of being more explicit. Inhale here. Exhale when you're ready. Your breath is always yours. Teaching is unpredictable. That's part of what makes it alive, exciting, exhilarating, but you don't have to be at the mercy of whatever walks through the door. A clear structure and a student-centered mindset will carry you through almost anything, even a toddler wandering through your Shavasana. If you've got a story like this, a moment where everything went sideways and you had to figure it out on the fly. I really want to hear it. Come join us in the Zone, comfort zone, yoga's free community, where teachers come together to swap war stories, share what's working, and support each other through the inevitable chaos of this work. You can find the zone and join for free@comfortzoneyoga.com. I'll put a link in the show notes for now. Thanks for listening to Yoga Teacher Confidential. I'm Sage Rountree, and I'll see you next time.