Conciseness

No one wants admit they talk too much, but a lot of yoga teachers find the need to over-explain poses, or needlessly fill the air with talk. This episode reminds that when yoga instructors talk too much, we take away from our students’ experience.

To find out more about Becca's work, visit bluemoon.yoga for more information.

This podcast was recorded and produced at WPRK Studios in Winter Park, Florida.

Creators & Guests

Host

Rebecca Schmidt

Producer

Dassika Gilkey

Producer

David Palacios

Podcasting Producer at WPRK Studios in Winter Park, Florida.

What is The Language of Yoga?

Welcome to "The Language of Yoga" podcast, hosted by Becca Schmidt, E-RYT500/YACEP, a 20-year veteran yoga instructor. Prepare to take your yoga teaching skills from average to extraordinary as Becca shares her wisdom, experiences, and practical tips for helping your students find a transformative journey of self-discovery.

In this podcast, we'll delve into the art of using language to cue and connect. Discover the power of vocal tone, volume, repetition, and even the beauty of silence and stillness. But that's not all – we'll also explore the impact of incorporating class themes such as the Chakras, the Yamas and Nyamas, the elements of fire, water, and air and many more.

By embracing these themes, both you and your students can tap into the magic of metaphor and visualization. Imagine guiding your students to embody the grounding energy of the root chakra or incorporating the principles of the Yamas and Nyamas for ethical decision-making on and off the mat. Themes add depth and richness to your classes, allowing your students to connect with the natural forces within themselves.

Throughout the podcast, Becca will share invaluable insights, personal experiences, and practical tips on seamlessly integrating words, vocal qualities and themes into your instruction. Whether you're an experienced teacher seeking to revitalize your classes or a curious beginner diving into the depth of yoga, "The Language of Yoga" is here to empower and inspire you.

Conciseness
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[00:00:00]

Becca Schmidt: Welcome to the language of yoga. I'm your host, Becca. Well, today's episode is about efficiency, economy of words, concise language, and minimalism. Getting to the point. Today's episode, I promise you will be a little shorter than all the other episodes . , we'll discuss using fewer words when you teach, fine tuning your message, and using the power of silence. Well, how do you know if you talk too much whenever you teach a class? For me, and I know a lot of my, comrades, this can be a really harsh lesson in, self reflection.

We don't want to admit we talk too much, but a lot of us do. But over talking is a bad habit. And even the most experienced yoga teachers, even the ones on the national level, [00:01:00] fall into this trap. Why does talking too much even matter? Well, it matters for three reasons. when we talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, we lose the effectiveness of our message.

Your students can only process so much information during their practice, and at some point, your voice begins to sound like, remember Charlie Brown's teacher, that wah, wah. Well, when your voice starts sounding like that to them, you know, you've lost them and you've lost them not only for the moment, but might even, have lost them for the rest of the class uh, why this matters. know. I don't know. matters. You might actually be breaking one of the ethical practices of yoga called Astea, and Astea is stealing. So when you are talk, talk, talk, talk, talking, it's actually stealing some of their energetic space.

It's the space that they need to process their practice, even to process some of the information [00:02:00] that you're giving them. as far as cueing, you have to stop sometimes and allow your students to reflect on their own practice and just kind of go within and just put you on pause for a minute.

So, third reason why over talking matters. is that you're smothering out that two way conversation. Granted your students aren't talking to you while you're teaching the class, but they are talking to you non verbally. They are expressing, are, uncomfortable and opposed, maybe their breath rate increases, maybe they, start looking around the room and they're just not kind of checked in.

But if you're busy talking and you're in your own head and if you're not even looking at your students because you're too focused on what you are saying, that becomes only a one way conversation. All right, so how do we make some changes? The first one is something you can do the minute [00:03:00] you get to class . So before anybody comes to the studio, just decide to set the tone of the yoga space.

You might even go ahead and bring some of your props out so you, don't have to do a lot of talking on, you know, what everybody needs. Make them handy. start with the very first students that come into the room. Speak to them in a calm, slow, and friendly voice . Give them very succinct information about which props are required for class today.

And you as the teacher can set the tone for this sort of calm essence. No need to, raise the vibration of this, you know, communication throughout the room. And then as you settle everybody in, maybe you have everyone in seated pose or child's pose, then you take five breaths of your own and be prepared for class.

certainly with me, sometimes [00:04:00] when I felt like I was over talking, I was trying to fill that space. You know, when you're at a cocktail party and you're with two people that are pretty cool, and you want to have a good conversation, and all of a sudden the conversation stops.

Somebody in that, pair, that group of three or four is going to just start babbling about the weather or anything to fill that space. And I think we as teachers are really guilty of that. We're kind of afraid of that silence. We feel like we have to take the stage and be in control, but it doesn't have to be with our voice.

We can do some of that in a good nonverbal way. if you're comfortable, number two. Is to start your practice with an ohm chant. I like doing this because it brings the awareness to that throat energy for you. And throughout class, you might have this extra awareness about your voice.

I also like to end with an um chant for the same reason. It [00:05:00] just kind of closes the practice in a really beautiful way. Number three, Choose just one message. One message that is essential for the day's practice. And this is for you and the students. It's for you because you're not going to have a lot of, conversations in your own head about, Oh, what should I say next?

what can I think of that might be interesting right now? But if you have just one main message, you could even say it aloud to your students. this is one of the reasons themes can be so important for class, so you don't have to feel like you have to come up with things on the fly. You have this theme and you may say it in a few different ways, or give metaphors or analogies that relate back to your theme.

So it keeps you on this one long track, if you will. All right, so number four, be aware of the poses where we tend to over cue our students. and [00:06:00] again, I'm guilty of this. We sometimes just keep talking. when we really don't need to.

So plank pose, I think is one of the poses we as teachers offer way too much direction. and not enough discretion with our words. So listen to an example of how some of us might be guilty of over cueing plank pose. All right, here we go. Students from tabletop pose, lift your two knees, straighten your legs, push your heels toward the back of your mat, open your hands wide, rotate your inner elbows, pull your ears back, lengthen your arms, stack your shoulders, lengthen the muscles of your neck.

Suck in your belly Energetically, rise your posterior ribcage, lengthen your side ribcage, fire up your front ribcage, fire up the muscles of your quadriceps, lift your shins, press your toes into the earth, and now breathe. [00:07:00] Okay, here's an alternative. Because that was exhausting. Your students started losing focus probably at lift your two knees and straighten your legs.

Here's the alternative. Come to plank pose. And feel your fire. That's it. People know how to do Plank. They don't need a lot of instruction, right? Unless somebody is in handstand or downward dog, then maybe you throw something, a little tidbit in there to help them get into Plank.

But it doesn't need so much explanation. Alright, the next one is to fine tune your message. I call it edit the message. let's say you're teaching Warrior I pose to a group of regulars. Everybody knows how to do the pose. Essentially, there might be some tweaks here and there, but again, you don't necessarily have to use your voice, what's coming out of your [00:08:00] mouth.

You might just energetically place your hand on, someone's back knee and just give it a tiny little push up and they're going to know to lengthen their leg a little bit. you might put your hand just supportively on their upper back. And, they'll know to kind of lengthen that, all right?

And that's something that you, you know, eventually get really good at these, touch cues or hands on assists, okay? if you know that your theme is. Throat Chakra. this is where you edit out all those other cues, ~like we had an example in Plank Pose if you're in, uh, Warrior One, but really your, your whole message is to find your Throat Chakra.~

You don't need to tell them what to do with their legs, right, or their hands. It's not part of your message. you might cue them to lengthen the space in their neck or become more aware of the breath as it passes through your throat. Or even close your eyes and just become aware of that energy, what's circling around the neck area, right?

Or release the arms a little bit You've edited it [00:09:00] down, to, Throat. we often acquiesce to all those same old physical cues, where to ground, where to open, where to lift, where to balance.

You want to focus on or edit down the information that you're giving them, those cues, so they don't contradict each other, they, support each other. So this is one of my favorite ones. The final one. Use the power of silence . Go quiet. Allow your students to practice their poses without all of your jibber jabber.

Again, this goes back to Astea, this non stealing of your students energy. And, you know, as teachers, we're there really just to their own strong practice.

And that's, And, in addition to that, say you are wanting to tell some stories or some other, pieces of information that aren't directly related to their pose. I've been here. Believe [00:10:00] me. You have your students in a pose like warrior two, and then you want to tell the story of Krishna and Arjuna. And they're interested for about five seconds.

And then after they start feeling their legs burn, they're like, . I just want to get out of this pose. So just be aware of some of these. Nonverbal feedbacks that might be happening. if you want to tell stories like that, let's say Warrior 2 might be your pose of the day or your theme, then you can often tell those stories while they're in seated pose or, child's pose, or one of the other poses where there's a natural longer hold.

And finally, I want to give you some advice that I give all the teachers who take my coaching sessions. Record your classes.~ want you to record yourself. ~Of course, you'll need permission from your students. You want to let them know how this tape is being used. you're not using it to Instagram. This is just for you, for your own self coaching.

You want to record three different ways, camera on you. Camera [00:11:00] on your students to see how your words are landing. And this one is really important. The camera off, but the audio on. And this is going to help you with what we've been discussing today. Your words. You'll be able to really pay attention to, everything.

Your use of, vocal, Intonation, use of silence, use of words, and, your pacing, So in addition to recording the audio you might even listen to it two or three, four times, and get really familiar with your delivery. And then, my teachers, who I'm coaching. I ask them to get a transcript, an audio transcript of your class and a red pen and a glass of wine or tea, whatever you want.

And edit out some of the parts that you recognize as not necessary or didn't make sense or maybe even parts that took away from your students

Be critical of yourself. Notice how many times [00:12:00] did I stutter? How many times did I say something that didn't make sense? resonate or didn't, seem clear. Did I repeat myself? And one thing that usually shows up for teachers who do a lot of, vinyasa flow class and they do this beautiful, huge, wonderful sequence on the right side, and then they.

Try to teach it on the left side from memory. out of ten, something is forgotten or left out of that side. So, is a way to kind of just tighten up your classes Alright, I think you'll find that really useful and I'd love some feedback on that.

If any of you are going to try this and you found it effective, I'd love to hear from you. so, with that, I am now editing this episode down. It's time for me to stop talking. Thanks for listening. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti Om.

[00:13:00]