Most of us think too much. Bypass your intellect & act from your highest vision. — Debbie Ford
speaking confidently
Lets talk about the idea of speaking with confidence. Throughout my whole life I have had a weird feeling whenever someone urged me to just feel confident. Often it seems to be applied in a very superficial way, with little real help behind it. People will say: “just be confident” or “just act as if you are already who you want to be.” But the truth is that the theory to just “act as you are already” does not work for me. It makes me feel more down, more upset, and more not there – where I want to be.
For me, being a confident yoga instructor was more about being confident in who I was as a person, than pretending or affirming I was. For me it was a path of knowing who I was and not being shy about sharing that truth with everyone. It does not mean I was once introverted and turned into an extrovert, it means, I was not saying how I felt, I was scared of everyone’s reactions. Once I began to realize that I could trust myself and I could share myself with the world, I was not afraid anymore, of anyone.
This week, I want to hear about your unconfidence.
Are you still nervous for half of the class you teach?
Are passing up opportunities to teach – and missing out on delivering your purpose?
Would like more details on how to speak with greater confidence?
Tell me where you are and I promise to help you, specifically.
is your head arguing with your soul?
This Friday I am begging for YOUR feedback. What does your head say before you walk into the room to teach? Post publicly or post anonymously. Lets see where you are.
Feedback : I FORGOT TO TAKE THEM THROUGH THE LEFT SIDE!
Last week I wrote about a possible teaching scenario and taking feedback. Half way into writing it I realized I had so much more to say than I thought I did and decided I had more to share about feedback and how to respond to feedback when you begin teaching. From now on I will be writing at least twice a week. Always on Tuesdays and Fridays.
How you respond to feedback is KEY for your success and confidence in teaching. You can either let it ruin your day and career, or you can really take it for what it is, and let it build you up to be a better teacher.
I completely invite you to post on here, to write to me personally at jlynnedaniels@gmail.com, or to write on www.facebook.com/speakyourinspiration if you are coming up against something. I will respond.
Anyway, so today, lets go back to feedback and lets explore sequencing.
So what happens if your sequence was not understandable. Maybe you did not have enough voice que’s for a certain asana and nobody was in sequence. Maybe you forgot to take the class though the left side of a sequence or missed a part.
How many times have you been in a class where the teacher messed up something?
I know I have been in many classes where the teaching guru missed a side or the class didn’t understand the teaching instructions. But in many cases we just laughed it off. Sometimes, I just did the other side on my own. That does not mean it is “right,” but it does mean the teacher is human. And that means you’re human too!
As you teach more often you will become more confident in the room. As you get more confident your focus will be less on teaching and more on how you are teaching and who you are as a teacher.
I know that it is not enough just to know that making a mistake is common. Making a mistake while teaching is a confidence blow. So what can you do to prevent these mistakes from happening?
1. If you are teaching and you are no more than three poses away from the forgotten side (for example- you do warrior 1, 2, 3 on the right side and forget warrior 2 on the left, and now you are in side angle on the right) you can simply admit your mistake (your students will be glad you caught it) and creatively and effortlessly take them through warrior 2 (or whatever pose you missed). You can simply say “I just realized we didn’t do warrior 2 on this side, before down-dog we are going to come back to warrior 2 to let our bodies feel the equilibrium.”
It might be the case that one person in class did the other side even though you did not instruct it – so in that case, just thank the student (i usually say it out loud) and then take the class through the sequence.
2. If, time wise, it is too far away from the pose to go back to it, it is your job to just let it go, make a mental note, and move on.
3. Only teach what you practice. Only teach what you practice. Only teach what you practice. Only teach what you practice. Only teach what you practice.
I can, and probably will, write a whole blog on this topic.
Only teach what you practice. really. If you are teaching an asana you don’t practice you will have a much harder time connecting students to it than if you teach something you do practice. It is the same as practicing what you preach. I don’t teach headstand in the middle of the room. Why? because I can’t do a headstand in the middle of the room. I don’t know how it feels. I am afraid if someone falls I can’t catch them. I teach it at the wall because I can do it at the wall. And I am working to advance my own practice so I can do it in the middle of the room and teach it in the middle of the room.
4. Write out the class.
This is one of the best ways to remember all of the alignment pieces you need to know in order to get someone else in a pose. I used to write out full classes – from intro meditation to savasana. My focus would always be on the body alignment, but I couldn’t help the pieces of heart that jumped right in.
For example, for mountain pose, I could just write out: “stand tall with your feet together, arms down by your sides, shoulders relaxed” but instead, when I did write it this is how it came out: “stand tall at the front of your mat with your feet together. Allow your arms to be down by your sides, fingers reaching to the floor. Tuck your tailbone slightly so you feel your bellybutton move toward your spine. Lift your heart up to the sky while keeping your shoulders soft.”
The version you write is the version that will habitually stick with you. If you read it over and something does not make sense to you then there is a good chance it will not make sense to your students. Regardless, if you are going to take the time to write out what you want to say, put your whole self into it. Let yourself be surprised by the result.
5. Just remember to take a deep breath. You are going to do fine. 
And if you are still stuck make sure you reach out to me for help.
Try out some of these strategies this week and let me know if it works for you.
I would love to hear your feedback. I would love to hear if you tried out any of these strategies.
Feedback is only personal if YOU make it personal
Ever get really hard-to-digest feedback on an audition or just from students in your class?
They might of told you that you did not speak loud enough, or your sequence was not understandable, or maybe you did not have enough voice que’s for a certain asana. A student in your class might of looked angry, or frustrated, and after class stormed off. The next day, a text might of come through from a studio manager telling you your class needs advanced poses. And next week, when it comes time to teach, you’re terrified to even walk back in the room.
Half of the senarios I just listed happened to me in real life.
It took me a long time to realize that I had power in how I respond to feedback.
How you respond to feedback is KEY for your success and confidence in teaching. You can either let it ruin your day and career, or you can really take it for what it is, and let it build you up to be a better teacher.
To illustrate this, lets break down the above senario and see how you can get all of the juice out of each possible moment:
Speaking Loud Enough – This one is one of my personal nemesis’s. (although, if you asked my boyfriend today if I speak loud enough, he would have no problem saying yes!) When I was in teacher training this was the one piece of feedback that continuously came back to me: “Jess your not speaking loud enough, Jess we cant hear you, Jess start over and speak loud and proud.” At the time, I over-intellectualized and over-analyzed this so much, that I became so afraid of standing and even opening my mouth in front of class. “They are just going to tell me I suck,” I said to myself, “the actors in the class have had voice training – and now they will have yoga training.” I think I pondered the end to my yoga teaching career many times before I even became a certified teacher.
Looking back, I can see I WASNT LOUD BECAUSE I WAS NOT CONFIDENT IN ANYTHING I WAS SAYING. I wanted to get the words out, but I was always being paused after the third or fourth word. I wanted a chance to speak before I was told not to. So while the feedback is true, I needed to be louder so the class could hear me, but it was not a problem with me. I just needed the chance to begin before I was told to stop.
I actually got this chance on the last day of Teacher Training. We were doing our final group practice and set up in child’s pose. The lead teacher came over and patted me on the shoulder and said “Jess, your teaching this one.” TOTAL SHOCKER. I was literally shaking. But I just got up and began, this was an opportunity and an honor I could not pass up. The teachers left the room – and it was just us. I taught the hour long class and got the most amazing feedback from my fellow TT’s. So much love was in that room that no feedback could push me off the edge. And you know what, I DID GET NEGATIVE FEEDBACK THAT I WASNT LOUD ENOUGH from the teachers who WERE NOT IN THE ROOM. And I did not care, because I knew that I was loud enough and everything went perfect, they just needed something to say
More responses to feedback coming in the next few days. Post a comment about a moment where you felt stuck because of feedback and let me help you see it differently!
