Something I didn't tell you about becoming a Yoga teacher....
- Claire
- Jul 9
- 5 min read
Hi there! Can I let you in on a little secret? For years, I had been thinking about doing a Yoga Teacher training…but I didn't think I was good enough to be a Yoga Teacher. Which probably sounds a little strange coming from someone who now spends so much of her time teaching and training teachers in Yoga! But it's true. Even though I was already teaching fitness classes, there was a part of me that believed I didn't fit the picture of what a Yoga Teacher (or even a fitness instructor for that matter!) was supposed to be like. I often compared and doubted myself, even though you may not have noticed it since there I was up on the stage leading a room full of people every day, multiple times a day. From the outside, I probably looked confident. But on the inside...I definitely wasn’t feeling that way! And as for Yoga... well, I wasn't flexible enough or skinny enough. I had injuries. I didn't look like the Yogis on Instagram, and there were plenty of poses I couldn't do in classes. Every time that happened I'd think to myself..."How could I ever teach Yoga if I can't even do all of the poses?" The thing is, I was feeling every single one of those things that I now hear from people all the time - "I'm not flexible, strong or good enough", “Yoga scares me”, “I can’t do yoga", and “Yoga stresses me out!” The worst one is “I’m not good enough to do Yoga” - that one makes me sad, because believe me - I totally felt that way...and now I know, no-one should feel that they’re not good enough for Yoga 😢 Maybe you have felt some of these things as well? Not necessarily about Yoga only but maybe it's work, maybe it's the gym or becoming a parent, starting something new or maybe you’ve just been living life feeling like you can’t just be yourself and have to fake it til you make it, so to speak. It's actually quite exhausting, isn't it? Always feeling like you need to become someone else before you're "enough." But it’s a feeling I know a lot of people have experienced. One of the greatest gifts Chair Yoga gave me wasn't only a new way to teach. It gave me permission to be ME. Just as I was at any given moment. For the very first time, I realised that yoga could adapt to the person and that Yoga could be practiced in a way that felt healthy and healing rather than competitive and sometimes overwhelming. Learning Chair Yoga made me feel like I didn’t even have to try to fit in or change myself to belong, it was already a given! And like I mentioned in my last email THAT was like a big sigh of relief for my body, mind AND soul! When I came home from New York, I couldn't wait to share it. There was just one little problem...hardly anyone in Australia knew what Chair Yoga was. When I had a stall at the Mind Body Spirit Festival, people would walk up and ask: "How much is the chair?" They genuinely thought I was selling yoga chairs (I used to tell them they could have it for $100... even though I'd bought it from Officeworks for $7.90! - always was a good laugh 😂). Back then, Chair Yoga wasn't something people really knew about. There weren't Chair Yoga teacher trainings here, there wasn't really a community of Chair Yoga teachers, and I definitely didn’t know of anyone else teaching it at the time! I was really lacking community and support. When I had to travel (to NYC of course), there wasn't another Chair Yoga teacher to cover my classes. So, I'd rope one of my kind-hearted Yoga Teacher friends into covering for me, hand them my training manual and say, "think you can do this?" They'd do their absolute best (actually pretty darn amazing!), but of course, reading a manual and taking a training in something are 2 very different things! But this showed me something important. If I wanted more people to experience Chair Yoga, I couldn't do it on my own. We needed more teachers. So that’s why I started running Chair Yoga Teacher Trainings. Oh, the self doubt at that first training was REAL! But I did it anyway….because something inside me knew that it was important and that was more powerful than my fear. And..of course, it ended up being an amazing experience! At first, my reason for doing trainings was quite simple. I wanted more trained teachers around Australia so more people could experience Chair Yoga in their own communities. And if I'm completely honest...I also wanted to be able to go on holidays without worrying about who was going to teach my classes! ;) But over the years, something very important became clear. The only challenge wasn't that people didn't know what Chair Yoga was. It was that so many beautiful, heart-led teachers desperately wanted to help people…but they didn't always know how. They worried about adapting and saying the wrong thing or making a mistake. They cared deeply but just didn’t feel confident and they simply hadn't been shown how to adapt Yoga for the real humans sitting in front of them. And I totally understood that feeling completely. Because I'd lived it myself. After a while, I realised I wasn't here simply to teach Chair Yoga. I was here to help people feel that they were good enough, that they belonged. Students, teachers, everyBODY. Our role as a teacher isn’t just to instruct poses or ask people to fit into the ‘perfect’ Yoga mould, but our role is to help Yoga fit into the person’s unique and already perfect individual mould. It's about recognising that every body is different, every story is different, and every person deserves to feel welcome, just as they are! I have seen time and time again that when people feel seen, when they feel safe, when they feel like they belong - little miracles begin to happen! Looking back now, I don't think my self-doubt was something to be ashamed of. As I say to my students in our training - the things that we go through are the things that can help us to help others the most. They give us perspective, understanding and empathy. I think that self-doubt became one of my greatest teachers because it helped me understand the people I was here to serve. Maybe the people who have questioned themselves, doubted if they’re good enough or whether they belong...could actually be the people who care the most. And perhaps they're exactly the kind of people who help others feel like they belong too. Love Claire xx P.S. This is exactly why I created the Inclusive Chair Yoga Teacher Training. Not simply to teach Chair Yoga, but to help compassionate, kind, caring people become confident teachers who know how to create spaces where everyBODY feels welcome. If you are curious about it, I'd love to tell you more - just reply to this email. (And if you've been thinking about joining us in Sydney this September, our earlybird pricing finishes in 2 weeks!)
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