What 5 Attributes Make An Excellent Yoga Teacher?

Being a yoga teacher takes a few months, but it takes years of practice, teaching and learning to become an excellent yoga teacher. Yes, that is true! From being a yogi to becoming a yoga teacher and to further transitioning into an excellent yoga teacher, is a serious journey that a yogi comes on. While it takes years to manifest, some reach it sooner while for others, it may take even more. The important factor is ‘intention’.

If your intentions are clean and focused, the entire universe syncs with you in this journey to become an excellent yoga teacher. It is observed that these five attributes play a major role in transforming an ordinary yoga teacher into an extraordinary one.   

Provides a Safe & Amicable Environment for Students

Knowing the craft is one thing, and the process of reaching out this craft to the people is another. As a yoga teacher who wants to excel in the field of yoga teaching, it is important that the basics are covered. Creating a safe and soothing practice environment for the students is definitely one of the most important attributes of being a yoga teacher.

By ‘safe’, we mean it should be a place where the students can let out even the harshest of their moments without being judged or without being subjected to unnecessary speculation.

They should be able to practice yoga freely without worrying about body shaming or even teasing of any kind. They should feel like themselves and not some portrayal of what they are supposed to be.

Other than offering a safe place, the best yoga teachers also focus on making the ambiance comfortable for the students where they can share and practice with ease. 

Does Not Stop Growing In Terms of Learning & Practices

We all know that learning is a part of growing and vice versa. A good leader and teacher is the one who knows it all and is hungry for more and more knowledge.

The reality is there is no limit to knowledge or learning as each subject or science is a well of endless wisdom that it takes several births to truly master it all.

Yogis, spiritual gurus spend their entire lives in preaching, and they also spend their lives in adding to the knowledge. Knowledge is not limited to age or group.

An excellent yoga teacher is open to learning to the point that they do not hold any bias towards learning from their students either even if it is a small thing. 

The same goes with self-practice routines as well. They are always on top of their practices which means coming to the studio an hour early or doing their home yoga practice first before preparing for taking the class. 

Has the Smile of an Angel and the Guiding Voice of a Mentor

We have come across several yoga teachers who are Yoga Alliance certified, have all the possible knowledge and form for teaching a class of yoga students, but are arrogant as teachers. This is an ill-appreciated quality and a yoga teacher who is excellent is more humble than arrogant. They teach their students with patience and a smile that lifts even the dampest of spirits. We are not implying cracking jokes or making fun. We simply imply that a good yoga teacher is approachable and it reflects in the way they communicate and smile. 

Conducts the Classes With the Sole Motive to Help People

The sole motive of a great yoga teacher is that their sole intention for the class is to help each student find their route and help them fulfill whichever outcomes they want to extract from practicing yoga. They make sure that each student performs the pose aptly. If they are unable to perform a pose, the teacher’s guiding voice leads them to it. It is not about the money, although setting a fair price for the classes is their right. But they are here for the purpose of helping out the community of people who can be helped through the magic touch of yoga. 

Follows What They Practice & Preach

Preach what you can follow and be true to each word, an excellent yoga teacher becomes great by following every yogic principle with diligence. Yoga is a science of the body and mind and spirit. It does not happen on its own. A yoga teacher who has traveled the path of yoga knows this and hence, to keep the body and spirit pure, they imbibe each principle, the sutras of Pantanjali with diligence. 

Apart from these attributes, features like how they are conducting the overall class, the mode of communication and to what lengths are they able to help an individual student reach their goal in yoga, matter a lot when classifying a yoga teacher as some of the best ones.

Most importantly, it is all about how you feel and the outcomes you are able to gain from the individual teacher. This is the most important attribute of all. 

If you are looking for a teacher who can guide you on the path of yoga then go for a 200 hour yoga teacher training in Rishikesh or a 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Kerala, Mysore, Goa in India. These places have some of the globe’s best yoga schools and some of the known yoga luminaries. Perhaps, you will find your ideal yoga mentor there too just like lakhs of students who travel here for the purpose of learning yoga under the esteemed guidance of an excellent yoga teacher. Go with a 300 Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Kerala for deeper immersions into Ayurveda along with Yoga.  Explore More…