What Should You Teach First as a Mindfulness Teacher?

One of the biggest questions new mindfulness teachers face is simple but daunting: Where do I even begin?This episode comes straight from a live Zoom call with Sean Fargo and his students, Sean Fargo responds to a heartfelt question: “When you’re just starting out, how do you know what to teach first?”

Sean shares his own journey of finding direction as a new teacher, including moments of fear, uncertainty, and surprising inspiration — from teaching mindfulness in prisons, to healthcare, to corporate boardrooms. Rather than following a rigid curriculum, he emphasizes starting with who your heart feels called to help.

Whether you’re just starting to guide mindfulness or refining your teaching path, this conversation offers heartfelt encouragement: you don’t need to have it all figured out before you begin.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro

01:37 – Sean’s First Advice

03:05 – Teaching from Shared Struggles

04:17 – Early Teaching Story

05:59 – Following Opportunities

07:17 – Letting Your Practice Lead

09:14 – Finding Your Niche

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome friends. I'm Sean Fargo. In this episode, we're going to dive into a question I get asked a lot, which is, how do you know what to teach first as a mindfulness teacher? One of our students in our mindfulness teacher certification program asked this during a live QA call recently, and I shared some reflections on why the real question isn't always just what practice should I start with, but rather, who do I feel most called to serve? You'll hear us explore topics like how to follow your heart, reflecting on your own lived experiences, and even how acknowledging your fears can point you towards the people and the teachings that will resonate most deeply. I'll also share a story about one of the first places that I taught mindfulness at, which may surprise you. Let's listen in.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Just in the process of kind of developing my own curriculum. And I just had a question. Because I love the Brahmaviharas, you know, the foundations of mindfulness are great. And there's a lot of other things, you know, like the 10 Paramis and all that. And I've been also involved with a Sangha group led by my mentor Nico Haas. I feel like I'm just kind of like spinning in circles with this. So I wondered if you had any, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

That's a great question. And again, congratulations on completing their program. I think it can be helpful to kind of journal about this from a few different angles in terms of your teaching. First, that I would recommend is sensing into who you want to help rather than like what to teach per se. You mentioned the parami, like the Brahmaviharas, mindfulness, the foundations of mindfulness. There's all these different teachings of the heart, of the perfections, of you know what we can be mindful of. To me, a lot of it boils down to who does my heart connect with deeply? You know, I think it may be fair to say that most of us connect in a heart level to most people, if not everybody. And so it's not about excluding certain people, but rather sensing into who our heart really kind of cries out for or feels alive by. So, you know, it could be people struggling with a certain challenge that we've struggled with ourselves, which is usually what most people actually they follow that thread because there's a personal, yeah, historical, deep connection with.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

And we can share our story, our journey, and our lived experience with those we want to help. And people often appreciate that they've gone that you've gone through something that they're going through. Um, there's a sense of trust that's built through that shared experience. That oh, this person gets it. You know, it could be something physical, emotional, spiritual, you know, some challenge that we've gone through. It could be something that we're rather scared by. Is there a population or demographic that we're kind of scared of connecting with in some way? And what that what might that mean? Maybe there's a shadow, maybe there's a journey that we kind of need to embark on to integrate loving awareness. You know, you can choose a teaching or set of teachings that you feel would be incredibly profound to deepen yourself and kind of focus on personally, and then kind of ride that wave of exploration by sharing, you know, your journey and your newfound wisdom of you going deeper into a set of teachings like the paramis or loving-kindness or any facet of you know, these mindfulness practices. And I've just kind of answer your question when I first started out teaching, I saw a flyer one day. I was at Spirit Rock Meditation Center with Jack, and I saw a flyer that someone posted in the main meditation hall of these two massive muscular African-American inmates in prison, you know, like on death row. And, you know, they looked rather intimidating, really muscular, and they were meditating. And I was like, wow, like it's such a striking image because you you rarely see that, right? Rarely seen that. And I thought, wouldn't that be something to connect with men who have been convicted of serious crimes, kind of in a heart level, emotional level, like to get a sense for what their experience might be like? And I signed up for mindfulness teacher training to go into maximum security prisons to be with, you know, death row inmates to share mindfulness and meditation with them. And there's something in me that felt very scared by that, but also very intriguing. And I just kind of followed that thread when I learned how to do that. And I went in and it it was very scary, but also very inspirational to me. And I felt like I learned way more than anything that I shared. And then I just kind of sensed into opportunities. Like, what are people asking for? And follow different tracks based on what I heard people asking for. Like, what opportunities were there? What could I expand my skill sets with? How can I talk to different kinds of people? And so I may not be the best person to ask because I didn't follow one track this whole time. I've dabbled. You know, I was in healthcare for two years teaching doctors how to prescribe mindfulness to their patients struggling with chronic pain and trauma and depression, and teaching Fortune 500s and teaching like executives and leaders and teams. By kind of dabbling, it kind of also taught me a little bit about what resonates with me energetically being with different kinds of people who want different kinds of things, you know, and different populations resonate with me very differently, depending on the context. And so over time I got to sense into you know my personality as someone who helps others being present. And for me, one of the things that really resonates is helping guide retreats. That's kind of like my sweet spot personally. It's like, okay, I I like sitting with people for days on end. Personally, there's something around endurance and dedication and going deep, and there's just so much transformation that happens in a in a dedicated space like that, that that really just resonates with me. But sometimes we don't know unless we try different contexts. But I I noticed notice that my that the teaching content that I focus on often mirrors what I'm playing with internally in my own practice. And so, you know, there's phases of months or years where there may be a strong heart focus or a strong body focus or a strong energy focus or integrated practice of walking and eating and communicating and moving. And I, you know, I think another exercise too is to sense into who your favorite teachers are. Like, well, why do I like them? And like, what do they focus on that I love that really resonates with me? And is there a demographic that could use that style of teaching, you know, connecting those dots? But in general, I'd say most people find their footing by sensing into who their heart really like reaches out to, usually through a struggle that we've had ourselves. But, you know, that's not for everybody. What's coming up for you if you if you care to share?

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Well, I've I've had a lot of experience in like corporate world in the past and creative venues and arts and actors and and artists and things like that. And I've tended to some of my stuff that I've done in small groups has kind of focused on uh, you know, sort of being mindful of the creative zeitgeist and in terms of like some of my actor friends just getting mindful like before an audition to kind of be into that. And and there was a certain aspect of mindfulness in terms of like training that I had in theater and improv. So it kind of you know, kind of fits into that sort of milieu, so to speak, but I haven't gone full force and just ripped the curtains wide open on that, and um, you know, because I'm just kind of like peeking my head out and seeing there's an audience. I love the metaphor.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Yeah. Oftentimes when we drill down into a a niche like that, oftentimes we can be pleasantly surprised that there is an audience, so to speak, if you language it in their language, you know, so not necessarily to use the Torah Brock Jack Cornfield language, but rather like adapt it to that world's language and really hit home on the pain points and like the thought, the thoughts that are common to that, those challenges. Rick Rubin is one of the wonderful meditation teachers, surprisingly, of our time now with his book, The Creative Act. And there's no shortage of books on creativity and presence these days, but but I have a sense that if if you went all in on that, or if you tiptoed your way towards it, languaging it in their language, I imagine you would probably find an audience for it. Thank you for listening to this conversation. These live QA calls are such a powerful space to bring real questions, real struggles, and real possibilities for teaching mindfulness. If you'd like to join these calls with us and receive the full training and resources and support to help you to teach mindfulness with authenticity, care, and confidence, I invite you to explore our mindfulness meditation teacher certification at mindfulness exercises.com slash certify. This program is designed to help you to deepen your practice, discover your authentic voice as a mindfulness teacher, to guide a variety of meditations, and connect with a global community of people who are on the same journey. I would be honored to support you. Thank you for listening.