Ep 138: Teaching Tip: Getting Curious About Your Language

As yoga teachers, we inherit most of our classroom language the same way we inherit our cueing language: from other teachers, from studio culture, from a vocabulary that has been circulating the yoga world for decades. Much of it is well-intentioned and lands exactly as we intend it to. However, some of it does not. 

This episode looks at how language we use around bodies, effort, and emotional release can affect students in ways we never planned, why yoga classes in particular amplify the impact of language, and what practical shifts any teacher can make starting immediately. We'll discuss how to evolve the language we use from a lens of curiosity.

Topics include:

• Why Language Is Received Differently in a Yoga Class
•  Your Language and Students' Body Image
•  Trauma-Informed Teaching in Practice
• How Students Receive the Practice
•  Three Practical Shifts to Use In Your Next Class

Related Episodes

Ep 137: Yoga Cues That Need Updating and Why
Ep 132: Savasana: Everything You Need to Know

Free Resources

10 Questions to Ask Injured Students
Sequencing for Students with Injuries

Transcript

Monica 3:59

Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Monica, and I'm so glad you're here. Here is where we talk about anatomy, injuries, the nervous system, and ponder the real-life questions you wish had been included in your yoga teacher training. If this is your first time listening, I'm a yoga teacher who specializes in helping teachers work confidently with students who have pain and injuries. I facilitate anatomy trainings for yoga teachers, and I mentor teachers inside my six-month mentorship program. In this episode, let's talk about language, specifically the language we use in class without thinking very much about it, and how it can come off in ways that we never intended. And right away, I wanna be clear on the spirit of this episode. This is not a call-out to any teacher. This is not a list of words that label you as a bad teacher if you have ever said them. So many teachers use this language, including myself, before becoming aware of it. We pick up this language the same way we pick up our cueing language from other teachers, from studio culture, from the general vocabulary of yoga that has been circulating for decades. What I wanna offer you today is curiosity, the kind of thoughtful, interested attention that makes you a better teacher, not because you're afraid of getting anything wrong, but because you care about how your words are actually received and processed in the bodies and the minds of the students in your classes Let's start with this. Yoga classes inherently create a particular kind of receptivity. Students are moving, breathing, often with their eyes closed, and over the course of a class, their nervous system typically settles and their analytical mind starts to quiet down. This is a wonderful state to be in, and it's a large part of what makes the yoga practice so meaningful. But it also means your students are more open to what you say than they would be if they were merely standing in line at the grocery store. Because your words are landing in a more receptive place, remember that this is a privilege, and it comes with a lot of responsibility. Students are also more connected to their bodies, often more aware of themselves, than they usually are. And for some students, being in their body is not a neutral experience. It can bring up a lot. So when you use particular language at this moment, it can very well attach to something the student is already feeling. But no worries. None of this is a reason to be nervous about speaking. It's a reason to be interested in what we're saying and why. Let's start with body image because this is where a lot of unintentional harm can slowly begin to happen. There's a whole category of language in yoga that borrows from fitness culture, Cues about toning, lengthening, leaning out, working off what you ate, Earning your Shavasana, burning calories, twisting to detoxify. You get my drift. Sometimes it's more subtle, like saying, Suck in your belly," or, "Tighten your core," or, just, "Pull it in." When a teacher says these things, they are almost always thinking about muscular engagement or about motivating the entire class. But that is not always what students hear. For a student who has a difficult relationship with their body, who is in recovery from an eating disorder, who has spent many years being told that their body is a problem to be fixed, this language does not read as a movement instruction. It reads as confirmation that even here in a space that promised to offer something different, their body is still being evaluated. And there is a related pattern, which is the way we sometimes talk about poses as achievements. Language like finally getting into a pose or working toward the full expression, or one day you will be able to do this. Yeah, the intention might be to encourage students, but the effect can be to communicate that where the student is right now is a lesser version of where they should be. This is a conflicting message to send to students in a practice that is supposed to be about being present with what is. The alternative is not to remove all encouraging words or never talk about physical effort. It is to shift the reference point. Instead of using language about how a student's body should look or what it should eventually achieve, we can use language about what the body is doing and how it feels. Using language such as, Notice the strength in your legs. Feel the engagement happening through your back. See what this pose offers you today." That kind of language is still motivating. It's just not measuring anyone against a particular standard Now let's talk about trauma-informed teaching, and I want to approach this in a more practical way for you. You do not need to know a student's history to teach in a trauma-informed way. That's actually the point. Trauma-informed teaching assumes that some percentage of your students has a history you know nothing about, and mindful language gives you structure in your classes so that those students can participate fully without needing to disclose anything they're not willing to to you. The core of this really is about autonomy. Trauma, broadly speaking, often involves an experience of not having choice or control. So the most useful thing your yoga class can offer to students is the consistent felt experience of choice. This shows up in language in a few specific ways. The first is by using invitational language over directive language. There's a big difference between saying, "Close your eyes," and saying, "You can close your eyes or soften your gaze, whatever feels right in this moment right now." The first option doesn't offer a choice, but the second clearly gives it. For most students, this might be a small difference, but for the student who feels unsafe with their eyes closed, it is the difference between being able to stay in the room feeling comfortable with their eyes open and either fidgeting around or needing to leave The second is the language around effort and pushing. Phrases like, "Push through it, do not give up, stay with the discomfort, one more," or, "You can do this." These are motivational in the intent, but they teach students to override their internal signals. And for students with trauma histories or students in pain, that is often the exact opposite of what serves them. The whole practice becomes another place where their own experience does not count. This is huge, and I want you to remember that. Okay, the third is language around student bodies and touch. If you offer hands-on adjustments, consent language matters enormously. But even without touch, describing students' bodies in specific ways in class or singling students out for how they're doing something can put someone in a state of being observed that is uncomfortable in ways that you may not fully notice. Are you asking students to demo poses? Do they feel comfortable doing it, or are they just trying to please you or find it difficult to say no? This takes more of a subtle body reading to really get to the answer. Look for the student's body language. Do they tense up when you ask them? Do their eyes dart around? Do they say yes and quickly walk away? Get used to looking for the signs of discomfort. And fourth, which I think is subtle but just as important, it's the language of spiritual bypassing, telling students to let it go, to surrender, to release what no longer serves them. These phrases are so common in yoga that we barely hear ourselves saying them. Sometimes they can just come out of our mouths before we even realize it. But for a student who is carrying maybe some heavy emotions, the suggestion that they should just be able to simply release it can feel dismissive of an experience that is not that simple to do. It can also imply that if they cannot let go, they are failing at the yoga practice. And of course, we never want students to feel this way. The alternative is incorporating language that is grounded and specific rather than sweeping and aloof. Saying things like, "You can be exactly as you are right now. There is nothing you need to fix in this moment," or, Notice what is here without feeling the need to change it." This type of language still creates spaciousness. It just doesn't ask your students to perform an emotional release when you dictate it. Let's zoom out a bit and focus on the message students take away about what yoga is and what the practice is for. If the language in your class is oriented around achievement, around what their body should look like, around pushing past their limits, then students learn that yoga is another arena to perform in, and they will relate to the practice accordingly. They will compare themselves to other students. They will judge their progress. They will feel bad on the days they cannot do the poses or the transitions they did in previous classes. if your language is oriented around noticing, choosing, and exploring, students learn that yoga is a place where their own experience is the primary thing that matters, and that will change everything about their relationship with the practice. It becomes something they can bring their whole self to, including the parts of themselves that are tired, injured, distracted, or struggling. That second version is not a softer or more elementary version of yoga. it is arguably closer to what the practice was always meant to be, and it's something we build almost entirely through the language we choose to use. Now, you know that I would never leave you hanging, so let me give you three concrete things you can start doing in your very next class because I don't wanna leave you with just concepts. So jot these down either in a notepad or in your notes app on your phone. The first is to record yourself teaching, not your students, yourself. This may feel uncomfortable, but it's the single most useful thing you can do to hone in on and identify the specific language you're using in class. Record one class on your phone. Listen back to it a week later and just notice. Don't judge, just notice. You will hear things you had no idea you were saying. Almost every teacher I have worked with who does this comes back surprised by at least one phrase they use constantly and had never even realized it. The second is to build choice into the structure of how you cue, not as an occasional, like, add-on, but as the default way that you speak. Instead of saying, "Do this one thing," try incorporating options like, "You can do this or this." For example, instead of saying, "Everyone come to child's pose," suggest, "Child's pose is available here, or you can take crocodile pose if it feels easier on your hips, knees, and ankles." when you build in choices into the structure of your cuing, you don't have to be on alert to remember to offer choices all the time. It just becomes an evolution in how you speak in class. Finally, ask yourself before you say anything, think, "What am I actually trying to communicate here?" Most of the time when we use harmful language, it is not because we intend to harm students. I know for sure you are not doing that. But it is language that we picked up somewhere and repeated without truly examining it. Get familiar with checking the intention underneath some of the things you say in class, and you will often find that there is a clearer, more accurate, maybe less harmful way to say what you actually mean. When you say suck in your belly, you probably mean for students to create some stability through their midsection, or saying push through it when you probably mean that this is a place where you want students to explore increasing their effort. So say the things you mean in the least harmful ways possible. I wanna circle back to where we started because I do not want you to finish this episode feeling anxious about what you say in your next class. Your students are not fragile, and the language you use is not a minefield that you have to tiptoe through, and you are probably not going to ruin someone's day by saying the wrong thing one time. What I am inviting you into is curiosity, paying attention to your own words with the same interest you bring to your students' movement. Notice what you say, wondering where it came from, asking whether it communicates what you want it to. That kind of attention will make you a more mindful teacher over time. I know you already care about the students who come to your classes. This is just one more layer of offering even more care. Again, thank you so much for being here and joining the conversations we deserve to have to help continue your education and evolve your teaching. All right, bye.