What to Look for in a Yoga Teacher
What to Look for in a Yoga Teacher || Mark Whitwell
~ Rosalind Atkinson
What should we look for in a Yoga teacher? Looking online recently at articles on this subject, I found the advice dodgy at best, and downright misleading at worst. The problem is, a vast industry has blossomed offering a modern form of exercise called “yoga,” which bears little to no resemblance to the traditional practice.
This proliferation means there as many things calling themselves yoga as there are forms of exercise. There is nothing wrong per se with any of them, but if you are actually looking for the peace, freedom, expansion and love promised in the tradition, then you’ll need some yoga that is actually, well… yoga.
So perhaps the title of this piece should be, “What to look for in a Yoga teacher if you’re actually looking for a Yoga teacher”!
They are not a show-off. If a teacher is doing poses at the front of the room that most people can’t do, or seem more interested in demonstrating than instructing, walk away.
They’re not a reincarnated army colonel. If there’s any barking of orders or shouted demands for straight lines, get out of there. Angela Farmer is a wonderful teacher for intelligent fluidity as opposed to rigid army-like training.
They are kind. A Yoga teacher is not a therapist, nor a physio. It’s not their job to fix all your physical ailments, or to read your mind what you might need. But they do need to be essentially kind to people and to our bodies. Some teachers are more focused on your physical body and will ask about any issues; more traditional teachers will focus on sharing the means to experience your own breath and energy, and leave the body details to you. Neither is right or wrong. But being mean? Definitely not ok, and a sign something is not right in their own practice. Why would you want to do a practice that hasn’t helped them resolve such behavior? Mark Whitwell is the person who showed me the power of kindness in a yoga teacher.
They don’t talk about themselves all the time. One meaning of the word yoga is union, and in the context of the tradition of physical practice, it more specifically means the union of small sense of self with the greater reality that we are all a part of. In other words, dissolving the illusion that I’m a separate person and everyone else is a different separate person. If a person is a real-deal teacher, they are in a process of dissolving their false enculturated sense of being a separate person. A person who feels separate feels threatened (it even says so in the Upanishads). And a person who feels threatened is a person who can’t help but make themselves the center of focus. So a teacher who is always talking about their own practice, their own life, and their own spiritual experiences obviously doesn’t have a process going on that is worth learning anything from.
They share a full spectrum of practices. Real yoga is about much more than twisting the body into shapes. A good teacher will also share pranayama (breathing practices), periods of stillness (meditative state), visualisations, chanting, yoga history, some dietary and general health information, and/or ancient texts. These should be woven into a seamless experience, not sold as separate products. Just like a good menu should never list every ingredient, but deliver something above and beyond what you expected.
Their teaching varies with the time of day. A good teacher won’t give you an upbeat, stimulating practice right before you go to sleep, unless it’s a class full of nurses getting ready for nightshift. It could be a Namaskar practice, such as Shiva Rea teaches, or a Yin Yoga, such as Paul Grilley teaches, but it should vary to suit the situation.
They honour their own teachers. Some people may have had abusive teachers who they don’t want to honour, such as Pattabhi Jois, creator of ‘Ashtanga Yoga.’ Fair enough, but the yoga a person teaches is deeply bound up with who they are as a person, so if someone is abusive, then their yoga is no good. Of course, we have to be careful to discern between gossip, rumours, and genuine abuse in this age of social media and ‘guru-hunting’ by anti-spiritual people or those who have been hurt. For someone like Pattabhi Jois there is abundant photo evidence of his malpractice. Therefore if someone has studied with an abusive teacher, they must find someone else whom they can trust and learn with, someone who can share a yoga that undoes that kind of conditioning that would lead to a person using others. So everyone should always have a teacher (or teachers) they can honour. If a person has done “a little bit of this, a little bit of that” with many many teachers, that is not a good sign. The traditional mode of teaching in yoga is going deep with one teacher, because only in that relationship do you have a chance to truly see yourself and transform. If a teacher has been collecting certifications with many schools or teachers, it can be a sign of a highly active ego as a teacher, which is not good news for students. It’s ok to recognize a few teachers, such as how Mark Whitwell acknowledges both Desikachar and UG Krishnamurti, but if there is no ongoing relationship with any of them, it starts sounding more like a consumer relationship collecting qualifications.
They pay homage in some form to the Indian tradition. Perhaps a chant; perhaps recognizing the many thousands of years of yoga as an indigenous tradition; perhaps paying respects to their lineage; perhaps talking about some of the understanding of Yoga, the view with which we approach practice. It does not have to be Hindu religious: yoga is not Hinduism, but has rather been used for centuries by many religious groups (Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, and the many sects now known under the over-broad moniker “Hinduism,” such as Shaivite and Vaishnava groups). It can be a sign of white supremacy or cultural appropriation if a teacher believes they have “improved” upon yoga history using modern medical terminology and approaches. Terms such as “post-lineage” can be a sign that a teacher has no functioning lineage and is instead making something up themselves, a classic western cultural arrogance.
A strong focus on the breath. If the breath they are teaching you doesn’t feel deeper and more focused than your usual breathing, or if they don’t talk about the breath at all, then the essential element that makes yoga yoga is not there. It’s a stretching or movement class, which is fine, but you’re missing out on the treasures that come with the breath, like increased interoception (feeling yourself from the inside as a whole body), activation of the ‘rest and digest’ nervous system, and release of old trauma.
Healthy boundaries. A teacher should not sit on you, stand on you, lie on you, or make gross adjustments of any kind. They should never push you deeper into poses, even if it feels nice at the time. This is a strange western phenomena that would be seen as totally inappropriate in the Indian tradition. Donna Farhi has been an outspoken pioneer against this kind of abuse in yoga, after being injured by Iyengar.
They encourage you to do a home practice. A good teacher will make themselves redundant, by equipping you to do a simple practice at home by yourself. Yoga class is like a music lesson: you go to learn things and see your teacher, but it’s not a replacement for actual practice. Beware any teacher who thinks that yoga can only happen when they’re around.
Humility. The great yoga teacher Tirumalai Krishnamacharya said “If I call myself a yogi, I am not a yogi.” Similarly, his son Desikachar would not speak about his own home practice in interviews, not wishing to speak about himself. His student Mark Whitwell is notoriously difficult to get to speak about himself. A good teacher is focused on the students, not themselves.
Independence of vision. Are they teaching according to their own experience? Or are they just pulling on current trends to create a product that they think people will like. A good teacher has overcome their own people pleasing and is giving something that they know is true in their own body. Watch how they react when someone walks out or says something negative. Do they take it personally? Or are they solid in their knowledge that what they are sharing has value.
Confidence. Related to the previous point, a good teacher is not looking for your approval or validation; they’re not putting that pressure on the students. They should not look like they’re about to cry if someone leaves the class. This is not to say that yoga teachers should fake confidence; its saying that we should do our own personal yoga until we can feel that urge for approval from others ebbing away, and then become a teacher, as we will actually have something to teach. If a teacher’s yoga hasn’t helped them stop taking everything so personally, then what is it doing, and why would it be seen as worth sharing? A confident teacher such as Byron de Marsé is relaxing to be around because they are not trying to source their confidence from your reactions.
Equality. Are they working hard to take themselves off any imaginary pedestals students might be putting them on? Are they approachable, available to speak with, and you feel you can speak normally with them? Do people appear afraid or intimidated around them? A good yoga teacher should absolutely not be posturing as a superior person. It’s normal in the yoga tradition to express gratitude and love for your teacher, but never in the assumption that they are superior to you. Look out for anyone believing in the illusion of their own superiority, such as was obviously the case with Iyengar, who would shout “I AM THE GURU.” There is obviously not any actual difference between people, and so if they think they are intrinsically superior, they are living in a fantasy land. Don’t move in to la-la-land with them.
No particular look. A good teacher can be female or male, old or young, from any background, any race, large or small, able-bodied or disabled. Teachers Jessamyn Stanley and Accessible yoga founder Jivana Heyman are just two of the many teachers breaking down stereotypes and discrimination in yoga. Their primary job is to give the experience of the power of your own presence and body. It takes a special person to do that, and they could look like anything at all. It’s important that the teacher themselves welcomes all. After all, the great relief of yoga is feeling ourselves at a deeper level than physical characteristics.
About the author: Rosalind is a writer, yoga teacher, and co-author of God and Sex: Now We Get Both with her yoga teacher and partner Mark Whitwell, and the founder of independent publishing house Silver Snake Press and online magazine thedirt.media.
Mark Whitwell is one of the most celebrated Yoga Teachers of the modern era with a unique ability to make the sublime tradition of Yoga available to people as a normal part of everyday life. Mark Whitwell is the author of four books including the beloved Yoga of Heart (2004) and most recently God and Sex: now we get both (2019). Mark Whitwell was also the editor and contributor to his teacher T.K.V. Desikachar’s classic Yoga text, The Heart of Yoga (1995).
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