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Recognizing your yoga students’ needs

This is an excerpt from Instructing Hatha Yoga 3rd Edition With HKPropel Access by Diane M. Ambrosini.

People come to yoga class for many different reasons. If your class includes 25 students, they probably have, at the very least, 25 different reasons for being there. To name but a few, these motivations may include stress reduction, increased flexibility, relaxation, improved fitness, and even weight loss. Whatever a given student’s initial goal is, it may change from one class session to the next.

Some people might have a hidden agenda for practicing yoga, which is not necessarily a bad thing; not all reasons need to be noble ones. For example, if a person is motivated to practice yoga simply to look better, doing so is far better than not practicing yoga at all. If another person hopes to meet like-minded people, what better place to make connections than a yoga class?

People who wouldn’t dare show up for a CrossFit, spin, or kickboxing session often come to yoga class. Your class might include, for example, an older woman with severe osteoporosis, a middle-aged man with a lower-back injury, a young pregnant student, or a stressed-out college professor. Your task is to make the class accessible and engaging for each person, which may mean offering only a few postures, with variations provided for all, and a breathing technique. If you do so with a soothing voice or an inspiring quote and create a communal space for all, your students can leave their mats feeling more centered, serene, and relaxed than before the class.

It is a teacher’s job to create a sense of community in their class settings. To accomplish this, let each student know they are cared for and seen. One way to help build communal trust is to invite students to express their intentions for coming to class. Some instructors allow time for students to share these goals openly, or they simply give students a bit of time for reflection before moving into asana practice. In addition, many instructors ask their students whether they have particular areas of their bodies they would like to address—for example, tight hips or stress in their shoulders. This information can then inform the structure of the class, which in turn gives students an acknowledgment that their input is heard and valued.

While people generally feel some degree of euphoria after a yoga class, emotions other than bliss occasionally surface during a class, especially during Shavasana (Corpse Pose)—the resting portion of a practice session. These seemingly negative reactions are both normal and healthy because yoga practice is meant to clear the path for truthful awareness. Many people, in their attempt to escape pain and discomfort, distract themselves by staying busy to avoid feeling distress. As a result, when their minds get a chance to truly relax, suppressed emotions may surface. Your job as their yoga teacher is to offer a safe and soothing space for all your students to process their emotions.

You can empathize with your students without even saying a word. Once students begin Shavasana, they should rarely be disturbed because this is their personal, private time. However, if a student needs your assistance, you need to be there when they ask. You can reassure the student that feeling emotional is not an abnormal response when practicing yoga because the purpose of yoga is to connect with what is real. Remind the student that sometimes, part of the mental and emotional balancing process must first release stored-up energy, such as sadness or even pain, before any healing can occur.

In terms of physical responses, reassure students that crying is a normal process by which the body relieves itself, just like passing gas or sneezing. If something needs to be released, it needs to be released! Suppression is unhealthy. If a student passes gas during class, you would not call attention to it. Recognize that tears, sighing, and even seemingly excessive yawning are other kinds of gentle physical releases that yoga practice can induce.

The only caveat regarding how to effectively support an emotional student is to remain mindful not to take on the role of counselor—you are simply there to hold space for them to process their emotions without interjecting advice. Boundaries are not only important but essential. If a student wants to ask you a quick question, then, if you are so inclined, spend a few minutes before or after class to answer it. But if the same student keeps asking you numerous questions about how they should be practicing at home, which poses are best for them based on their condition, or other concerns, inform the student of your hourly rate for private sessions, or refer them to someone else. And if a student asks for advice about personal concerns, direct them elsewhere because this is outside the scope of practice for most yoga teachers. If, however, you are a professional counselor, consider encouraging your student to contact you as such.

Learning Styles You Will Encounter

Just as each student has their own reasons for attending yoga class, each person also has an individual way of learning. A given person may use multiple learning styles in varying degrees. Your objective is to develop your “teaching intelligence” as much as possible while using your students’ learning styles for their edification.

There are three fundamental learning styles applicable in asana classes: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (Barbe and Swassing 1979). Visual learners learn best when they can see what they are being taught, auditory learners conceptualize learning through hearing, and kinesthetic learners absorb information best through touch and movement. However, few, if any, people learn solely through one approach. Fortunately, many cues you offer will overlap, making your instruction more universally helpful. You can use visual and verbal cues by explaining a pose while demonstrating for students, in addition to directing awareness to where they might generally feel a given posture in their bodies. When you engage with all three of these learning styles, you allow each student to receive instruction in ways that they can most easily understand at that moment.

Visual Learners

Students who are primarily visual learners prefer that the instructor demonstrate poses. They also respond well to verbal cues that create imagery in their minds. For example, an appropriate cue for a visual learner might be “Imagine that there is a wall behind you as you are standing in Triangle Pose and that your shoulder blades are becoming more flush with that wall with each breath.” This cue allows them to expand their chest and elongate their spine and is another way to direct them toward that alignment. Visual learners also appreciate photographs and illustrations of poses. One disadvantage for visual learners is that they may not have a deep awareness of their own bodies in the asana. Instead, they have an innate need to see how to arrange their bodies in the pose. As a result, these learners can sometimes experience a gap in feedback if a visual reference is not provided.

Mirrors are a great help for visual learners so that they can identify what it looks like when, for instance, their shoulders are lifted toward their ears. In instances where no mirror is available, for example, when cueing external rotation in Vrkshasana (Tree Pose), invite them to look down at their thighs to actually see the rotation of the leg and to match the visual with what they physically feel. If you teach without the aid of mirrors, another workaround is to duplicate the student’s body position and then move your body into the position you are cueing. Partner work can also help these students grasp the mechanics of many poses.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners pick up information by listening. For example, whereas visual learners read musical notes to play a song, people who can play a tune after simply hearing it are good auditory learners. These students are receptive to skillfully offered verbal cues. They learn by processing your words and generally can conceptualize imagery, and they may also be able to replicate their practice at home by “hearing” your words in their heads.

Invite auditory learners to close their eyes and figuratively listen to what their bodies say to them—sensory feedback—as you instruct them to move with ease into and out of an asana. As you direct students through class, tell them which specific areas of the body to bring their focus to and what types of sensations they might expect to feel. Throughout your cueing, use many different descriptive words to keep students engaged.

Kinesthetic Learners

As compared with visual and auditory learners, kinesthetic learners typically have a heightened sense of where their bodies are in space and can more easily feel changes in sensation that may not be observed from the outside. To reach these learners, indicate in which areas of their bodies they should expect to notice sensations, and invite them to regard specifically what they feel there. For example, in Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward-Facing Dog), direct students to note the weight of their head and how it feels to elongate their entire spine while they open space between the vertebrae.

Because kinesthetic learners benefit less from demonstration and verbal cues and more from experiencing a posture in their own bodies, they typically enjoy hands-on assists because they can more easily align themselves into their ideal positioning based on their sensations. For example, the verbal instruction “Breathe into your lower back” may not completely connect with their understanding, but if you lightly place your hand on their lower back and say, “Breathe into my hand,” they will usually relate to the cue. As a result, you will feel the student’s lower back relax and gently expand with the inhalation.

Ayurvedic Humors

Another factor in how a person learns has to do with basic disposition, or humor, as it is called in the ancient practice of Ayurveda [AAH-yoor-veh-duh]. This sister science to yoga is a holistic healing system that has been practiced in India for many centuries. It posits three basic humors, called doshas [DOH-shuhs], each of which emphasizes a particular way of learning, processing information, and existing in the world. The three doshas are vata [VAAH-tuh], pitta [PIT-tuh], and kapha [KUP-huh]. Everyone has a combination of the three doshas but in various proportions, although in most people, one dosha is predominant.

The doshas consist of a mix of the five elements: earth, water, fire, air, and ether (sometimes referred to as space). Vata individuals relate to the air and ether elements. These individuals tend to have an airy or spacy (sometimes frenetic) quality about them and may be described as having their heads in the clouds. A student with a mostly vata constitution may be easily distracted. For example, they may seem to immediately grasp a concept, such as softening the shoulders, but moments later seem to have forgotten all about it. You can help such students by repeating directions numerous times.

Pitta people have the fire energy or element in their humor. They tend to physically heat up faster than individuals with a vata or kapha constitution. Pitta students tend to remain present and focused on their tasks; therefore, whereas vata learners tend to ask questions just for the sake of exploring, pitta students gather facts with a particular goal in mind. They also appreciate direct and specific instructions. Occasionally, folks with a pitta constitution need to be reminded to back away from excessive force in their asana practice and to soften into the sensation rather than forcing themselves to go “deeper.”

The kapha dosha is made up of earth and water. Kapha students tend to take their time to grasp new information fully, but once they understand lessons, they generally remember them well. The earth element of the kapha dosha is practically the opposite of the air energy of the vata dosha. Whereas vata people can be seen fluttering around nonstop, perhaps socializing with other students before and after class, kapha students are content to settle onto their mats until the teacher begins class. Kapha students respond well to slow, descriptive cues that enable them to absorb the meaning and intention of an instruction completely. These students do, however, benefit from prompts to explore more novel ways to move their bodies rather than finding a position and staying with it class after class.

There is more to the doshas than these basic behaviors and learning styles, but this introduction is sufficient for the purpose of teaching yoga. While everyone has a combination of each dosha, most people’s primary dosha is readily apparent, as is also true of the three basic styles of learning. The main point is that people are made of combinations of many variables that affect their learning; therefore, you should employ teaching techniques that appeal to multiple styles of learning and to the various doshas. Use table 2.1 as a guide in matching learning styles with specific teaching methods.

More Excerpts From Instructing Hatha Yoga 3rd Edition With HKPropel Access

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