Yoga is of course one of the most enlightening, life-changing and affirming activities one can regularly keep up. It binds meditation, exercise and stretching into one wonderful, historical and time-honored activity. We can leave sessions feeling tired, but also peaceful and comfortable in our skin. Over time, this practice can truly help people become their best selves, and you can’t say that about every single exercise out there. But despite all of its obvious benefits in the eyes of someone who keeps up a solid practice, newcomers might struggle. It’s important to know why this might happen if running a business like this, especially through the eyes of your customers.

Yoga is relatively friendly to newcomers. Relaxed and relatively easy poses to maintain are usually the hallmark of anyone’s new introduction to the process, and getting set up well is rather inexpensive no matter if you want the best of what Yoga can offer you. Of course someone can opt for more expensive teachers or higher quality clothing, but overall, the movement of the human body is free.

If your clients find themselves struggling with your yoga practice, they might have gotten off on the wrong foot. Let us try and find a solution to those woes below:

Too Much, Too Soon

Just like starting a new workout routine, sometimes practitioners can do too much and become burned out heavily in the early days. It’s not hard to see why this can also be the case with yoga. While yoga does have a range of wonderful mental and spiritual benefits, it’s hardly the easiest practice to perform, and it could be considered a full body workout also. For example, those who might be heavily training in other sports could find yoga difficult to adopt in the early stages, as it trains the architectural balance of the body in a whole new manner. Of course, yoga can be interpreted in many ways, and light sessions can often be built up to in order to help your guests become better and more adept at the poses.

If you feel like you’re trying to achieve too much, too soon with your clients, everyone can feel burned out by it. It might be that you simply wish to get on and teach the wonderful helpful insight you have, but an introductory session needs to be crafted first, perhaps lasting for a number of weeks. If you suspend your impatience for now and just see where it could lead your clients, you’ll start making progress much more quickly than you might have imagined. It’s this that can often help us feel the most confident and comfortable in ourselves when it comes to teaching this wonderful practice.

An Unsupported Environment

While yoga is an excellent practice to follow in life, just like anything, it can be spoiled by an environment much less ideal than that which should be. Try to make your space as welcoming as possible. Light safe candles in the corners of the room, play gentle music that refrains from distracting the focused mindset of those you are teaching, and ensure the room is well lit, ventilated, and the yoga mats are in excellent condition.

Ensure you are accredited or qualified correctly. Then, consider using some form of rental space rather than a home environment. For the best results, you should find form yoga community that is welcoming of all people, and accepts a range of people from all skill levels. It is in the most supported environment that yoga can blossom, because it can be a vulnerability-inducing practice. Just as your clients might wish to attend a dance class with those that could be trusted to catch them during a twirl, ensure your yoga studio surroundings feel reliable and there to guide in the weakest moments, as this will help spiritual health bloom.

Other Health Difficulties

As a yoga teacher, we will often encounter all different types of people with all different types of bodies. It’s important that we make our classes feel inviting to people of all sizes, colors, and abilities, and people may often feel challenged or limited in yoga classes because of these things. As the teacher, it’s your job to make your students feel comfortable and welcome. Providing classes with modifications, and good sequencing that is accessible to everyone will help all your students feel welcome.

Also, sometimes the challenges your clients might be experiencing are not in the body, but in the mind. Yoga can be hard to adapt to, but once you get the ball rolling, they are likely to be surprised as to what you can achieve. Keep it fresh, and compliment progress, but do not push it. Stay patient, listen to your clients, and practice as recommended. Give them more than enough time to relax between sessions, and advice to help them with sore muscles (such as massages,) but do not offer them any actual direct health advice. Be the good friend by their side, and you’ll likely enjoy this teaching process more than you thought you were going to.

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