Lessons Learnt, Reflections from a Yoga Teacher’s Journey

And I do not mean Sanskrit. I mean the everyday cues that guide someone’s body into a shape. “Step your right foot between your hands” sounds simple until you realise half the room has just done something completely different. Add to that the fact I do not teach in my mother tongue, but in my second language, English, and suddenly yoga becomes not just a practice of movement but of constant learning, adapting, and refining how I communicate.

In those first months, I had moments that could have crushed my confidence. Like the day, in my third week of teaching, when three people walked out of my class, one after the other. I could have spiralled into “I am not good enough” or “Maybe I should not be teaching.” Instead, I remember thinking, “ Well, at least that box is ticked, I know how it feels when someone leaves and I can handle it.”

Later I found out the real reasons. One had a headache, one had a wrist injury, and the third was pregnant and felt nauseous so she needed to leave. All three came back to my class. That experience taught me one of my favourite lessons so far. It is rarely about you. People are on their own path, with their own needs and problems, so the fact that someone leaves the class is not a reflection of you being bad at teaching. It is also helpful to remember that not everyone is on your fractal, in other words not everyone is meant to align with your path. We all have different preferences, and understanding this can feel freeing. Instead of feeling condemned when someone leaves your class, you can see it for what it is, simply a choice that belongs to them.

What I have discovered is that teaching yoga is not just about what happens on the mat. The real connections often begin in those few minutes before class. Asking people how they are feeling today, sharing a quick laugh, or simply making eye contact can mean as much as the poses themselves. The same is true after class, when we spend a couple of minutes chatting before everyone heads off into the world again.

Remembering names is part of that connection. When you teach around a hundred people a week, and many of them change from class to class, it is not always easy to remember every name. But the regulars who keep coming back, whose names I know instantly, hold a special place in my heart. Those are the connections that feel like friendship, trust, and community all rolled into one.

I teach Vinyasa, Hatha, and Yin Yoga, and one of the things I love most is changing my classes. I enjoy bringing in different poses, exploring new ways to sequence, and weaving in pranayama and meditation. Yoga has so many shapes, so many layers, and I find it exciting to share as much of that variety as possible.

In the beginning, creating a Vinyasa flow could take me up to two hours. Hatha always felt easier, but Vinyasa needed more time, especially to create smooth transitions that felt natural in the body. I wanted the class to flow in a way that felt really good for the students, and that meant experimenting and adjusting. Sometimes I would teach a sequence and realise that something did not quite land the way I wanted it to, so I would ask myself how I could improve it. Over time, this process helped me create classes that I could build on, refine, and make even better.

I spent a year diving deep into arm balance training, and that year taught me so much. It confirmed my belief that as a yoga teacher you have to keep learning in order to grow. You cannot simply finish your yoga teacher training and think you know it all. The beauty of this work is that we get to evolve constantly, and part of that evolution is finding your own style. I have even heard some of my students call my classes “Aga Yoga,” which makes me smile. Whether it is Vinyasa or Hatha, my classes carry my own way of teaching.