Yoga Teachers, You Need These 4 Unexpected Ways to Work Through Imposter Syndrome 

As yoga teachers, we sometimes doubt our ability to adequately share the practice. We worry that we’re not strong enough, flexible enough, spiritual enough, articulate enough, wise enough, popular enough, creative enough, or [fill in the blank] enough to share what we know. Yet for some of us, these doubts are significant enough to constitute imposter syndrome.

Imposter syndrome is the belief that we aren’t capable or worthy of the role. It’s a persistent and overwhelming fear typically accompanied by a lingering and debilitating suspicion that we hold the title illegitimately and lack the requisite qualifications.

I’ve known teachers who spend hours agonizing over each detail of class. I’ve witnessed students with years of experience and training not consider themselves “good enough” to lead class. I’ve heard teachers talk about feeling so overwhelmed by anxiety before and during class that they’re barely present to their own experience, let alone that of their students.

Imposter syndrome can make someone so obsessed with pleasing or being perfect, yet so unsure of their capacity to do so, that they become stuck in procrastination or self-recrimination or both. Obviously that’s not a desirable or sustainable state in which to exist, let alone teach from. And there is a need to explore and understand why we’re experiencing these thoughts that fall beyond the scope of an article.

But before any of us decide to give up on teaching or reconcile ourselves to leading class with heart palpitations and cold sweats, consider whether there are aspects of imposter syndrome that could be reframed as a super power.

How to Reframe Imposter Syndrome

If there’s a secret upside to imposter syndrome, it’s the realization that your capacity to teach yoga does not depend on your confidence in yourself or your abilities. Yoga doesn’t care if you’re strong enough, flexible enough, spiritual enough, articulate enough, wise enough, or popular enough. It only cares that you continue to show up for others with knowledge, appropriate training, and an open heart and mind.

If you can reframe your fears, there might be specific ways that understanding feelings of self doubt could potentially prompt you to become a more respectful, more prepared, more authentic, and more compassionate teacher.

Here’s how you can potentially rethink the uncomfortable feeling of not being enough that goes with imposter syndrome.

1. It can remind you of how much you value the practice

Imposter syndrome essentially boils down to the question, “What makes me think I’m good enough to share this incredible thing with others?”

Instead of getting stuck on the first part (“Am I good enough?”), what if you shift your focus to the second part (“I get to share this incredible thing!”).

When you keep your attention on the practice itself, you can remind yourself what inspired you to want to teach in the first place. This practice likely changed your life by shifting the way you think, feel, and move through your day. Of course you want to share that with others so they can benefit!

The very fact that you doubt your ability to do so is likely evidence of the profound effect your practice has had on you and the respect you hold for it. So let that respectfulness be your guide. Focus on the tools and techniques you have found to be the most helpful, and consider sharing the what, why, and how with your students. In other words, place the practice, not yourself, at the center of your thoughts.

2. It can encourage you to learn more

Yes, you need to read, study, practice, and prepare for class. Yet despite your hours of study and practice, imposter syndrome whispers that you are inadequate—that your knowledge, skills, and experiences are insufficient for the role of teacher and that you must come up with entirely unique and perfect experiences for students.

What if you listened to that whisper but used it to prompt action instead of anxiety?

Instead of letting uncertainty hold you back, use it to fuel ongoing reading and research. Use it to continue to learn from your own practice as a student, whether from other teachers or ongoing training. Make note of what you respond to, what challenges and inspires you, and share that with your students. Create simple sequences that you know in your bones and teach that to your friends, your dog, or your coffee table to gain practice holding the space of the teacher. There is power in clarity of intention and simplicity in execution.

There’s a reason the best teachers are also lifelong students.

3. It can remind you and your students that it’s okay to be human

Some students respond to confidence. They might gravitate toward teachers who own the room and issue instructions without hesitation. If your experience of imposter syndrome means that’s not you, that’s okay. There are plenty of students who are drawn to teachers who might show up quietly, who pause to consider before speaking, who acknowledge their own flaws and, in so doing, create an example for students to do the same.

Sharing that you find a pose or practice to be difficult or that you’re struggling with your balance might be exactly what students need to hear to feel seen, safe, and accepted in your class.

But anything can be taken too far. Just as an over-confident teacher can be a turn-off, so can an under-confident one. Taking 10 minutes of class to apologize for saying “elbow” instead of “wrist” won’t help anyone and will only distract students from their own experience. Yet acknowledging your limitations, within reason, can be a game-changer—and not just for you.

4. It can prompt you to center your students’ experience over your own

Let’s circle back to the idea that imposter syndrome screams at you over and over in your mind that you’re not good enough to share this incredible practice with others. Just as centering yoga, instead of yourself, in your thoughts might help you create the perspective you need to teach without overwhelming anxiety, so can focusing on your students’ experience over your own.

Imposter syndrome tells you that you are no one. What if you playfully flip the script? If you are not the central figure in your students’ practice, then who cares if your hands are shaking or your mouth feels dry?

Turn your awareness instead to your students. Do they have the props they need? Are you speaking loudly enough so they can hear you or are they looking around the room confused?

When it no longer matters whether or not you are perceived as a “good’ teacher, the class experience becomes entirely about you being present for your students and attentive to their needs. And isn’t that, at the end of the day, the kind of teacher your students deserve?

RELATED: Explore and educate yourself on all aspects of teaching yoga through our collection of Teach articles.