Ep 109: Teaching: Shift from Authority to Curiosity-Based

When you first start teaching yoga, you’re told to "own the room!" To have a plan, know your sequence, and be the authority at the front of the room. But what happens when your sense of authority starts to feel restrictive? When your carefully crafted sequence doesn’t match the energy or needs of the students in class that day?

In this episode, we explore what it means to shift from teaching with authority to teaching with curiosity. You’ll learn how curiosity will allow you to stay flexible, responsive, and deeply connected to your students’ experience. 

I’ll talk about what it really looks like to “read the room,” how to adjust your sequence in real time without wavering in your confidence, and why this ability to adapt is one of the most valuable (and learnable) skills you can develop. 

You’ll also learn how curiosity fosters empathy, supports nervous system regulation, and builds trust between you and your students, and with yourself as a teacher.

This conversation is for you if you've ever felt torn between sticking to your sequence and responding to students' needs in the moment. 

Teaching with curiosity doesn’t mean you know less; it means you’re paying attention to your students more. It’s what turns good instruction into an authentic connection and response.

Ep 107: Why Warrior 2 Looks and Feels Different for Every Student

Transcript

Monica: 3:59

Your awareness should be a central factor of your teaching awareness of the physical environment your students' needs versus their wants and your ability to pivot when necessary, when you shift from the need to control every single moment. And approach your classes with curiosity. You become more attuned to those needs, more compassionate for your students, and more adaptable when it's necessary. This doesn't make you less skilled, it makes you more of a human. Your curiosity and class is what will transform your classes and relationships with students into more meaningful experiences. So let's talk about it. Welcome to the Essential Conversations for Yoga Teachers Podcast with me. I'm Monica Bright and I've been teaching yoga and running my yoga business for over a decade. This is the podcast for you. If you are a yoga teacher, you're looking for support. You love to be in conversation, and you're a lifelong student. In this podcast, I'll share with you. My life as a yoga teacher, the lessons I've learned, my process for building my business and helpful ideas, tools, strategies and systems I use and you can use so that your business thrives. We'll cover a diverse range of topics that will help you, whether you're just starting out or you've got years under your belt and you wanna dive deep and set yourself up for success. I am so glad you're here. Listen, I don't take myself too seriously, so expect to hear some laughs along the way. Now let's do this together. Oh, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here we talk about the anatomy, the injuries, the nervous system insights, plus all the real life knowledge you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. One of the things I was taught in my YTT was to own the room to lead from a place of certainty, And that makes perfect sense. Theoretically, we memorized sequences, we studied alignment cues, and we learned to teach a group class and be confident while we're doing it. The unspoken message was that a good teacher is one who knows exactly what to say, when to say it, and how to make the room flow seamlessly from start to finish. Yeah, but over time a lot of teachers start to notice something. it's that. That sense of authority doesn't always feel like real life. Sometimes it can make you feel disconnected from your students' experience and what's actually happening with them in class Today, I wanna talk about what happens when we shift our teaching from authority based to curiosity based, because curiosity changes everything. it's the difference between teaching at your students and teaching with or for them. It's the difference between sticking to your plan sequence no matter what, and being open to what is needed in the present moment. So let's start with what it means to teach from authority. When you teach from authority, you lead from a place of, I know, I know the sequence, I know the alignment. I know what's best for this class. There's a sense of control in that approach, and it can feel comforting, especially when you're newer to teaching, but when authority becomes rigid. It creates distance between you and your students. It makes your role in leading the class about performing what you've planned instead of responding to the students in front of you. Teaching from Curiosity, on the other hand, begins with, Hmm, I wonder, I wonder how my students are feeling today. I wonder what they need more of or less of. I wonder how this movement might feel in their bodies, not just mine. When you approach class with curiosity, you're no longer relying on certainty, you're listening, observing, and willing to respond in real time. It's a completely different kind of presence. This shift can feel intimidating. At first, you might worry that curiosity means not knowing enough or that it might make you appear uncertain or unprepared. But curiosity is not the absence of knowledge. It's actually the expansion of. It's the humility to admit that even though you know anatomy, sequencing, and movement principles, you don't know exactly what your students are experiencing in the moment, and that's okay. In fact, that's where teaching really begins. Think about this. Every class you teach is different, even if you're teaching a set sequence, the energy in the room changes. You have students with different body structures, different emotions, and different nervous system states. When you clinging on for dear life to what you've planned, you miss the opportunity to meet them where they are. But when you stay open and curious, you. Allow your class to become something co-created, something that feels alive. Of course this takes practice. Learning to read the room is a skill, and like any skill, it takes time to develop. When you first start teaching, it's natural to focus on your sequence. Like a big thing is remembering your sequence, right? Remembering your words, or how you plan to cue something. And your pacing. You're working hard to remember a lot, but as you grow, it's important to start looking at your students and noticing what's. Actually happening. Are students breathing freely? Do they look calm or frustrated? Are they holding tension in their faces or shoulders? These subtle cues give you information about how your teaching is landing. When you notice that something isn't resonating, maybe your sequence feels too fast or students are looking fatigued, this curiosity will give you permission to make adjustments. It might mean offering a longer pause, changing the order of postures, or switching to a simpler movement pattern that can help all students regulate. It might mean scrapping your peak pose entirely and focusing on stability instead. And these decisions can feel scary in the moment, especially if you're attached to your sequence, but they often lead to the most meaningful teaching moments. Curiosity also invites. Empathy. When you're curious about what your students are experiencing, you start to see their practice through their perspective, not your own. You stop judging alignment as right or wrong and start asking what might this pose feel like for them? This awareness builds safety and trust. I just recorded an episode on Warrior two and why it feels different for every student. I'll link it below so you can easily just listen to it after this episode. in that episode I discuss why the student's nervous system might make Warrior Two feel different for them. This awareness that you're building will build safety and trust, and this is what we weren't taught in yoga teacher training to pay attention to the subtleties expressed in class. Students sense when you're paying attention, They can feel this, and that's what keeps them coming back. Not a perfect sequence, but a teacher who actually sees them. Teaching from curiosity also changes how you view your own role in the room. Instead of feeling like you have to have all the answers, you become a guide, a facilitator, someone who helps students explore their own bodies with confidence. That's a powerful shift, especially when working with students who have pain injuries and feel uncertain about movement because of that. Curiosity opens the door to collaboration. Instead of saying, this is how it should look, you can say, let's explore how this feels for you. It's more conversational, more human, and ultimately more regulating for their nervous system. There's another layer to this conversation, and it's your nervous system as a teacher. When you lead from authority, you often operate in a heightened state of control. You are focused on getting it right, which can trigger stress or anxiety if things don't go as planned. I remember when I used to teach fast paced power yoga classes. I really started despising those classes because one, I didn't feel like I could really teach. Two, I didn't feel like I could keep up with my own sequence. Students wanted to fly through the poses, and three, I felt dysregulated and honestly overstimulated by the fast pace, the heat in the room, the humidity, all of that. It was. A lot to deal with. When you teach from a place of curiosity, though, it helps to keep you in a more grounded and resilient state. This allows you to stay connected to yourself while staying curious about your students. You're less reactive and more adaptive, Which means your students feel safer as well. Remember your regulation helps to co-regulate the room. So how do you start practicing curiosity in your teaching? Well, that's a great question. Start small. Pick one class this week and make it your goal to notice, not to fix. Just look around the room and observe your students without judgment. Where are your students struggling? Where do they seem at ease? Then, based on what you see, make one small adjustment. Maybe you add a transition, slow the pacing down, or give students space to explore. Reflect afterward on what you noticed and how it felt to deviate from your plan. The more you practice, the easier it becomes, I promise. Eventually, curiosity stops feeling like uncertainty and starts feeling like confidence. It's a deeper, more intuitive kind of confidence that comes from paying attention and responding authentically. You'll begin to see that teaching isn't about being the most knowledgeable person in the room. It's about being the most present, the most aware, the most able to pivot when necessary. And as you practice this shift, you'll also notice something else. Your students will start mirroring that same curiosity in themselves. When they see you exploring, they feel permission to explore too. When they see you adjusting, they realize they can adjust as well. You create an environment where learning is ongoing, not performative, that's where trust begins. Not because you have all the answers, but because you're willing to ask the right questions. Teaching yoga isn't about perfection or control. It's about building a relationship with your students, with yourself, and with the present moments. That are unfolding. When you shift from authority to curiosity, you open space for all of those relationships to deepen, and that's where your teaching blossoms. The heart of teaching doesn't lie in certainty, but instead it's in awareness. When you shift from the need to control every single moment, and it's. Instead, approach your classes with curiosity. You become more attuned, more compassionate, and more adaptable. This doesn't make you less skilled. It makes you more human. Your curiosity and classes, what will transform your classes and relationships with students into more meaningful experiences. Learning to read the room takes patience and practice, and I know it can feel uncomfortable at first to deviate from what you've planned, but over time this flexibility becomes a form of mastery. It's not about improvising for the. Creativity. It's about responding to what your students actually need. The more you stay curious, the safer students feel to explore their own movement, listen to their own bodies and evolve their practice. Your curiosity also supports nervous system regulation for both you and your students. It can help replace the feeling of pressure with the feeling of. Presence. The more you trust yourself to adapt, the more your students learn to trust their own feelings, experiences, and make their own movement decisions. In class. When you let go of solely being the authority and step into curiosity, your teaching elevates. You move from performance to connection, and that's where the most. Authentic, impactful yoga happens in the space between what you planned, what's unfolding right in front of you, and what you decide to do about it. You got this. Remember, start small. Maybe it's just an extra breath between poses or it's child's pose, or it's rearranging your sequence mid-class. Whatever you feel most comfortable with, start there. And remember, if you make a mistake, we've all been there. Just breathe. Maybe laugh it out and keep going. Understanding anatomy, biomechanics, and the effects yoga Asana have on the body helps you help your students. If you've been enjoying these episodes, I know that you're a yoga teacher who's ready to teach with more intention and less fear around injuries. Let's continue to raise the bar for how yoga supports real bodies in real life. It's so important for us to have this conversation so that you remember that students of all shapes. Sizes, alignment and abilities come to your classes and you can serve all of them. You know that my goal is for you to love the yoga teaching life. It is important to understand movement and the issues students come to your classes with. Subscribe to the podcast so you're always in the know when a new episode drops. And share with another yoga teacher who you think would love to be in on these conversations. And finally, thank you for helping to spread the word about this podcast. Alright. Thank you for listening. That's it for now. Bye.