How to Offer More Depth in Your Yoga Classes with One Small Shift

This week on Yoga Insider Podcast, I'm sharing one small shift you can make to begin offering more depth in your yoga classes.

If you feel like you've been stuck taking students through the motions when you teach, this episode provides actionable steps that you can implement right away in order to make a greater impact for your students - one that will stay with them for a long time. 

July 17th Yoga Retreat with Alexandria Waycott: Ryder Lake, B.C. 

Instagram: @alexandria.waycott

YouTube: @yogainsiderpodcast

Website: www.alexandriawaycottyoga.com

Send me an email! alexandriawaycottyoga@gmail.com

Music & Production by Kyler Pierce

Photography featured in cover art by Colton Muma

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome back to Yoga Insider Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Wake. If you're new here, I've been a yoga teacher for over 14 years, and today I run a completely independent yoga business that doesn't rely on studio classes. I offer pre-registered yoga series for folks in my community, as well as continuing education for yoga teachers who want to refine their skills. Over the years, I've learned a lot about what it takes to build a yoga business that's actually sustainable. And part of my mission is to share real conversations with yoga teachers around the world about what it's actually like to work in the modern yoga industry. That is exactly what Yoga Insider Podcast is here for. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and let's dive into today's episode. Alright, hello, my friends. Hello to everyone listening wherever you are tuning in from today. It is finally July. I'm recording this in like real time. And I feel like June was a very expansive month. Like there was just so much that happened in June. I feel like I lived like many lives. Yeah, and now we're here. And you know, I'm just kind of thinking ahead to like what's coming up for myself and my community during the month of July. And I was thinking that before we really get into today's episode, I actually wanted to make sure I took a moment to invite you to an upcoming day-long yoga retreat that I am offering. So if you're local to Vancouver, BC, or the Fraser Valley area, I am offering some day-long yoga retreats in Rider Lake this month. So July 2026. It is absolutely stunning there. Like it's close to the city, but it's far enough removed that you are just completely immersed in nature, surrounded by the mountains, absolutely gorgeous. And I'm running these retreats at a local like wellness centerslash lavender farm. It's called Soil Wellness. And the retreat that I'm offering on Sunday, July 12th is completely full. I don't have any more space in that retreat. But I would love to invite you to the Friday, July 17th day retreat because I still have a little bit of space for you to join if it's something that you've been thinking about, or if it just sounds nice to you if you're hearing about it for the first time. So I'll tell you just like a little bit about what to expect, and then we'll get into the bulk of today's episode. But basically, you arrive at like this gorgeous, serene property, just like tucked away in the mountains, nobody else around, just the sounds of nature. And uh we'll start the day with a nice long Hatta yoga practice that is most likely gonna be on this like raised platform that's built out in the lavender fields. So you go out there, there's just like the scent of lavender in the air. It's stunning. Um, and as long as the weather cooperates, we'll do like a beautiful open-air yoga practice. If the weather doesn't cooperate um and it's not sunny or it's too hot, there's a really lovely covered space and even an indoor space as well that we can use. Um, but that's the plan is like we'll start out the day, we'll move our bodies, and then you'll have the opportunity to go change your clothes, change into your swimwear and like a really comfortable robe. And then one of the features of this property is that they offer Nordic hot and cold therapy. So they have this big cedar sauna, they have cold plunge tubs, they have outdoor showers, um, they have like an outdoor fireplace, a lounge area, and you can basically cycle through that hot and cold therapy in any way that you like to. Um, if you've ever been to the Skatinav Spa in Whistler, it's kind of like the same idea, just on like a little mini scale. Um, and so we'll leave a big portion kind of in the middle of the day for you to do that to relax, to socialize, kind of however you want to spend that time. And during that time as well, um, I'm serving food, so we'll make sure that you're fed and watered and feeling good. And then after that, you'll have the chance to change back into your comfy clothes, and we will finish up the day with a guided Yoga Nidra practice. Um, so that's like a guided meditation where you're lying down, you're super comfortable and supported. And we'll actually do that one indoors. There is like a big A-frame cabin, and so we'll go inside the cabin and we'll get all set up and cozy, and that way there are no distractions for your meditation, just because I feel like something like Yoga Nidra um is it's better if you can do it in a little bit more of a controlled environment versus outside. Um, so that's like the general plan for the day. It is truly just a nice and simple yoga retreat. Um, if you've never been on a retreat before, it's a great way to just kind of like dip your toes into it and see if it's something that you like, if it's something that you enjoy. Um, and the stakes are, you know, pretty low because it's just one day. Um, and obviously the cost is a lot lower as well than a retreat where you go and stay overnight. Um, I also just want to say it's one of those things where like you could totally come on your own. You don't need to bring a friend or a guest with you or anything like that. I feel like you could have a really nice time just enjoying the day, kind of like as a solo like treat to yourself. Um, or of course, you could always invite a friend as well. But either way, um, I feel like it will be really enjoyable. And the way that I run retreats is just really casual, really relaxing. Um, I don't do any kind of like forced sharing circles or anything like that. Um, I'm not gonna make you do anything weird or uncomfortable. We're literally just there to like enjoy nature, do some yoga, enjoy the sauna and the cold tubs and the beautiful surroundings. And that is it. So if you are available on Friday, July 17th, I will link the registration for that day retreat um in the show notes um and on YouTube as well. And yeah, I would love to have you, even if you're like a local listener to the podcast and maybe we haven't met before. That would be such a cool opportunity for us to meet. Um, so yeah, let me know if you're interested and if you want one of the final spots. Um, all right. So today on the podcast, I am inspired to share one small shift. So, like one little tiny thing that you can do that can have a really massive impact on your teaching and how you feel as a teacher and also how your students feel in class. Um, and if you've been feeling like you're kind of just taking people through the motions when you teach and you're almost like a little bit checked out when you're teaching. Um, and I feel like we all go through phases like that. Or if you were feeling like maybe there's just some more depth that you could offer your students, then I think that what I'm gonna offer today is something that could really help. And what I'm gonna share isn't about coming up with like a more creative or unique or unusual kind of sequence or anything like that. Like we're not reinventing the wheel. It's gonna be a way where you can build depth for your students, like based on what you already know and what you already do with them in class. Something that I feel like I often say is that it's one thing to take people through the motions and kind of guide them through a class, and then it's another thing to like really teach. And I want to acknowledge, first of all, how much effort it takes to take people through through the motions effectively, like especially when you are a new yoga teacher. Um, it takes a lot of effort to create a sequence that makes sense, it is a lot of energy to hold space for your students, it's a lot of effort and skill just to find a way to communicate effectively with your students, whether that's with your words or with your body, or just like a little bit of both. Um, but if you've been teaching for a while and you feel like you're ready to add an extra layer and you're not doing this already, then my challenge for you today is this. Can you pick an aspect of your class and really break it down? You don't need to teach a full workshop, but can you pick one post or one principle or technique or pranayam or action, like one specific thing, and can you break down with a little bit more detail what's behind it? So, this is an invitation to go a little bit deeper with your students, and something that I can say with confidence is that your students want to learn and your students want to be taught. This is something that has come up so many times, and I'm sure that some of you have experienced this when you were teaching as well, where a student will come up to you after class and they'll say something like, I've been practicing yoga for 10 years, and that's the first time that anybody has stopped to explain X, Y, Z. Or that's the first time I was able to feel like such and such action in my body because of the way that you explained it. And so, this is one of those things that we can do to kind of help our students have those aha moments or create those moments for our students where like everything connects and it makes sense. And so, this is just a chance to go a little bit deeper with them, and it is something that you can do and integrate like into a regular class. So, another thing that I'm gonna say is like maybe a little bit of a hot take. Um, but life is boring if we don't have hot takes. But I think that there are probably more teachers out there taking people through the motions than there are teachers out there like really teaching. And neither of these things are like good or bad, but there is a bit of a distinction to be made here as well as an opportunity. So the distinction to me is that like really teaching and being able to explain things and break them down is an advanced skill. It's it's a skill that comes usually after we learn how to take people through the motions effectively. So usually like that comes first, and then once we're confident with that, then we learn how to explain the why and the how behind what we're communicating. So I would say that it's one of those things that gets a little bit easier with time, or maybe it starts to come a little bit more naturally with time. And when we're in our first couple years of teaching, a lot of times, like I've said before, we're just trying to get our words out. We're just getting used to like being in front of people and figuring out how a class works. And once we feel like we've got that rhythm down, it's like then there's space to go a little bit deeper. And this is kind of what I'm speaking to today. Now, the distinction, or you know, the invitation rather. Um, and this is almost like a little bit of a challenge for my listeners, or an opportunity for my listeners, is to pick one aspect of your class and break it down for your students and teach the actions and the why behind the pose. So, this is a really powerful way to take your teaching to the next level. And when you're doing this and you're kind of like in the planning process, you might consider things like teaching your students the primary purpose of the pose. So, what is the pose for and why do we practice it? There is often an opportunity here to even like debunk some misconceptions that your students might have, and they might actually be pleasantly surprised to hear what you have to say. So, for example, let's take downward-facing dog. A lot of students think that downward-facing dog is about stretching their hamstrings. And a lot of people have tight hamstrings. If you've taught yoga, you you know this, you've seen this. Um, and so down dog can feel like a little bit frustrating and a little bit unsatisfying for some people. But often, and there are always exceptions to the rule, but most of the time, the primary action and purpose of downward-facing dog is to lengthen and decompress the spine, especially when we look at like how it's used within a full yoga sequence. So I'm curious about how it might feel for your students to have that kind of information. So instead of just like straining to get their heels down, what if they knew that lengthening the spine should be their priority in the pose? And that actually by lifting their heels and bending their knees a little bit, which is probably the opposite of what they're usually trying to do, they can typically access even more length in their spine by doing that. So it's these kinds of little things where, you know, if we share this knowledge with our students, knowledge then becomes empowering to them. You might also consider like what actions are happening in the pose. So what's being engaged in the body? What's lengthening? How much should your students engage? What does that feel like? What does it feel like to, you know, engage your muscles to 30% of your capacity or just 20% of your capacity? How can your students tell if they're engaging too much or working too hard? Like what are the signals that they might look out for? Those kinds of things can be really interesting. And again, that's an opportunity to go a little bit deeper with your students. And rather than saying, you know, engage your quadriceps and listen to your body, you might say, Well, what does it feel like to engage your quadriceps to 30 cap 30% of your capacity? And, you know, if you start to notice things like you're feeling a lot of strain or suddenly you're not breathing deep anymore, like look for those kinds of signals because those signals can be messages that maybe you need to back off a little bit. Maybe you are working a little bit too hard in the pose. Like, see if there's space for you to offer just a little bit more detail, and you can deliver this kind of detail in like under a minute. So it doesn't have to be a big speech or a big presentation or a workshop style class. Um, I would just look out for like these little kind of teaching moments where you can slide things in that might actually make a really big difference for your students. You might also consider, um, you know, maybe there are specific elements or actions in the pose that relate to your theme or your focus or your peak pose. And can you identify those actions and find a way to carry them through the class so that your students can experience specific principles in their body and really feel them and learn skills that can be applied to many different poses. Now, teaching in this way is probably gonna require a little bit of preparation. You're probably gonna have to plan ahead a little bit, but I can promise you that it becomes so much easier and more natural with time. It does get easier, and eventually you do get to a point where like you don't have to plan these things out and and you just you know what needs to be set. Um, so see if you can pick like just one pose or one technique from your sequence and write down what specific actions or aspects of the pose you want to speak to. So try to get really specific. Like, is there a specific action that you want to emphasize? Maybe there is a common challenge that you want to address. And whatever it is, take some time to like pre-plan what you want to communicate and how you're gonna communicate that and break it down for your students in a short amount of time, you know, within most likely like a 60-minute class. So let's go through just one example together. And again, there's like a plethora of different things that you could speak to. There are so many like endless options here. But let's say I want to find a way to address a common issue or common challenge that a lot of students and us as teachers encounter during class. And this might be just for example, today, um, discomfort in the wrists. So I might choose to insert my teaching moment near the beginning of class, and I could actually break this down while my students are doing their first cat cows. So, like right as they're setting up in their first tabletop shape. And I could take one minute and just say to everyone, have a look at me, and I'm gonna show you a little trick that might help you find like a bit more ease in your wrists when you're doing your yoga practice. And I would say something like, you know, take a look at my hand and imagine that your hand has four corners, or like you're able to draw a little square on your hands, and and you could connect the dots from the base of your index finger to the base of your pinky finger, to the outer heel of your hand, to the base of your thumb, and then back up again and like kind of give them that visual. And then I might say something along the lines of when we press down equally through all four corners of our hands, and we grip our finger pads into the mat, we distribute our weight more evenly, we make our forearms work a little bit more, and we actually work with our hands rather than dumping into our wrists and compressing that median nerve that often is what um kind of the culprit is of like that shooting pain or a discomfort that sometimes people get up their arms or in their wrists when they're practicing poses where they're on all fours. So we could give like a really Quick explanation of like the why and the how, and then we put it into practice. So we try that out on all fours. Press down through all four corners of your hands, spread your fingers wide, grip your finger pads into the mat, engage your forearms a little bit. Notice how that takes some of the pressure off your wrists. And then as we go through the practice, we can practice applying that principle progressively to other poses, like downward-facing dog, like plank pose, and maybe even eventually side plank or a hand balance. So this is how you can begin to integrate some real, like little teaching moments into your classes. And this is a really great baby step to start to break down your teaching a little bit and get more present with your students by breaking things down in order to help your students understand not just what they're doing, but also why they're doing it and how to experience it more effectively in their own bodies. I feel like those little teaching moments, again, where you just take like a minute or two to break down one thing, can really help build your confidence as a yoga teacher. And they're also gonna help your students develop a deeper understanding of their practice. So this is such a good way to turn like poses into learning experiences basically and integrate a little bit more education into your classes, and you can do this even if you only have an hour. Um, I feel like every time you help someone understand something that they haven't understood before, or you are able to address like a common question or a common challenge through your teaching, you have most likely created a moment that at least some of your students are gonna remember for a long time. Like when things click and people have that little light bulb moment or that aha moment, that stays with them. And like I can think, you know, way, way back through many of my own um yoga experiences as a student, where I've had those aha moments, and it's so funny because like I still think of things that teachers have said to me or shown to me while I'm doing the poses, like 15, 20 years later, like after I, you know, encountered those specific cues or that information. So, like this kind of stuff, it seems so small and I think sometimes so obvious to us, but it can make such a big difference for your students. So let me know if you decide to try this out this week and tell me what pose you decided to break down or what technique you decided to break down and how you did it. I hope you feel inspired to bring a little bit more education, a little bit more of those like teaching moments into your classes if you're not doing so already. Um, and as always, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode. If you have been enjoying Yoga Insider Podcast, please take two seconds to leave a five-star rating wherever you're listening, just to kind of signal to the algorithm that people like this podcast and you know to tell the algorithm to show more yoga teachers like you that they should be listening to Yoga Insider as well. So thanks for being here, and I'll see you next time.